VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,145 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2018

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WASHINGTON — Shortly af-ter the journalist JamalKhashoggi was assassinated lastmonth, a member of the kill teaminstructed a superior over thephone to “tell your boss,” believedto be Crown Prince Mohammedbin Salman of Saudi Arabia, thatthe operatives had carried outtheir mission, according to threepeople familiar with a recording ofMr. Khashoggi’s killing collectedby Turkish intelligence.

The recording, shared lastmonth with the C.I.A. director,Gina Haspel, is seen by intelli-gence officials as some of thestrongest evidence linking PrinceMohammed to the killing of Mr.Khashoggi, a Virginia residentand Washington Post columnistwhose death prompted an inter-national outcry.

While the prince was not men-tioned by name, American intelli-gence officials believe “your boss”was a reference to Prince Moham-med. Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb,one of 15 Saudis dispatched to Is-tanbul to confront Mr. Khashoggiat the Saudi Consulate there,made the phone call and spoke inArabic, the people said.

Turkish intelligence officershave told American officials theybelieve that Mr. Mutreb, a securi-ty officer who frequently traveledwith Prince Mohammed, wasspeaking to one of the prince’saides. While translations of theArabic may differ, the peoplebriefed on the call said Mr. Mutrebalso said to the aide words to theeffect of “the deed was done.”

“A phone call like that is aboutas close to a smoking gun as youare going to get,” said Bruce O.Riedel, a former C.I.A. officer nowat the Brookings Institution. “It ispretty incriminating evidence.”

Turkish officials have said thatthe audio does not conclusively

‘TELL YOUR BOSS’:LINK TO TOP SAUDI IS SEEN IN KILLING

TURKS SHARE RECORDING

A Call Was InterceptedFrom the Team Sent

After Khashoggi

This article is by Julian E. Barnes,Eric Schmitt and David D. Kirk-patrick.

Continued on Page A9

LOS ANGELES — As emer-gency workers picked throughfire-ravaged communities inNorthern California on Monday,they recovered 13 more bodies,turning the largest wildfire in thestate’s history into its deadliest aswell.

Forty-four people have diedsince three wildfires broke out latelast week. And countless otherresidents narrowly escaped withtheir lives, their close calls neverto be forgotten.

Allyn Pierce was trapped by awall of fire as he tried to flee theflames coming closer and closer tohis truck. Chris Gonzalez countedthe ever-narrowing escape routesfrom his home as the highlandsaround him erupted into flames.Rebecca Hackett was engulfed bya red-orange hellscape as shesped toward safety in her car.

“I was like, ‘I think I’m done,’”said Mr. Pierce, a registered nursewho was trapped in traffic in Para-dise, Calif., where most of the com-munity was burned. “I just keptthinking, ‘I’m going to die in melt-ing plastic.’”

The Camp Fire, which eruptedin Northern California on Thurs-day, has killed at least 42 peopleand burned through 117,000 acresof land. Already the most destruc-tive fire in the state’s history, it re-mained just 30 percent containedas of Monday night.

The Woolsey Fire outside LosAngeles, which started Thursdayand doubled in size overnight, haskilled two people and burnednearly 100,000 acres. Both firesprompted the evacuation of hun-dreds of thousands of people,some not realizing how dangerousthe fires had become until flamesarrived at their doorsteps.

The Hill Fire, which destroyed4,500 acres in Ventura County,was 85 percent contained on Mon-day, the result of aggressive fire-fighting and favorable weatherconditions.

Amid AccountsOf Close Calls,Fires’ Toll Rises

One Blaze Is Deadliestin California History

By JOSE A. DEL REALand JACK NICAS

The Camp Fire destroyed most of Paradise in Northern California. The fire is the most destructive in the state’s history.JIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A21

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Theconcerted effort by Republicansin Washington and Florida todiscredit the state’s recount asillegitimate and potentially rife

with fraud reflects acold political calcu-lation: Treat therecount as the nextphase of a cam-

paign to secure the party’s ma-jority and agenda in the Senate.

That imperative — describedby Republican lawyers, strat-egists and advisers involved inthe effort — reflects the party’sdetermination to tighten its holdon power in the narrowly dividedSenate. The outcome of the Flor-ida race will decide whether theparty controls as many as 53seats and has a freer hand toconfirm Republican-backedjudges with the vote of the man

at the center of the recount, Gov.Rick Scott, who is trying to oust athree-term Democrat, Bill Nel-son.

With the Democrats capturinga Republican-held Senate seat inArizona on Monday night, therecount fight in Florida becomeseven more consequential.

Beyond the Senate majority,there is also the matter of mor-

G.O.P. Fears Over Senate EdgeDrive Push to Discredit Recount

By JEREMY W. PETERSand MAGGIE HABERMAN

Protesters outside the electionsoffice in Broward County, Fla.

SCOTT McINTYRE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

NEWSANALYSIS

Continued on Page A11

WASHINGTON — There is aformer N.F.L. linebacker, a cli-mate scientist, and a rapper with aHarvard Law degree. There is oneimmigrant from Somalia and an-other from Ecuador. There are twoformer C.I.A. officials, an AirForce veteran, a former Navy hel-icopter pilot, and a retired Marinecommander — all of them women.Not to mention a pediatrician anda human rights advocate.

When these and other newlyelected House Democrats arrivein Washington for their orienta-tion this week, they will reflect themost diverse, most female fresh-man class in history — a group ofpolitical neophytes, savvy veter-ans of the Obama and Clinton ad-ministrations, as well as the firstMuslim women and Native Amer-ican women ever elected to Con-gress.

The class is ideologically di-

verse as well, spanning the philo-sophical spectrum from Alexan-dria Ocasio-Cortez, a self-de-scribed democratic socialist fromNew York, to Joe Cunningham, aSouth Carolina lawyer who won astunning upset victory in theCharleston suburbs, on thestrength of his promises to put“country over party” and workwith President Trump. That couldprove a management headachefor Democratic leaders.

“The new Democratic leader-ship and the entire Democraticcaucus will really have to pull to-gether to ensure a unified legisla-tive agenda that appeals to con-stituents in Brooklyn, New York,while appealing to constituents inBrooklyn, Iowa,” said Steve Israel,a former congressman from NewYork and one-time chairman ofthe Democratic Congressional

House Democrats Are Diverse,And Unlikely to Toe Party Line

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Continued on Page A12

SANG-E-MASHA, Afghani-stan — One pickup truck after an-other arrived at the governmentcompound in a district capital inAfghanistan on Sunday, pullingaround to the back of the gover-nor’s office to unload the dead, outof sight of panicked residents.

Soldiers and police officers,many in tears, heaved bodies oftheir comrades from the trucksand laid them on sheets on theground, side by side on theirbacks, until there were 20 of them.

The dead all wore the desert-brown boots of Afghanistan’sfinest troops, the Special Forcescommandos trained by the UnitedStates. Four days earlier, the sol-diers had been airlifted in to res-cue what is widely considered Af-ghanistan’s safest rural district,Jaghori, from a determined as-sault by Taliban insurgents.

Early on Sunday, their companyof 50 soldiers was almost entirelydestroyed on the front line. Andsuddenly, Jaghori — a haven foran ethnic Hazara Shiite minoritythat has been persecuted by ex-tremists — appeared at risk of be-ing completely overrun by the Tal-iban.

A small team of journalists fromThe New York Times went intoJaghori’s capital, Sang-e-Masha,on Sunday morning to report on

the symbolic importance of whateveryone expected to be a fiercestand against the insurgents.

Instead, we found bandagedcommandos wandering thestreets in apparent despair, andofficials discussing how theycould flee an area almost entirelysurrounded by the Taliban. By theend of the day, we were on the run,too.

Officials told us that more than30 of the commandos had beenkilled, and we could see, on the

streets and in the hospitals, 10other wounded commandos. Anadditional 50 police officers andmilitiamen were also killed in theprevious 24 hours, according tothe militia’s commander, NazerHussein, who arrived from thefront line with his wounded toplead for reinforcements.

“This is genocide,” CommanderHussein said. “If they don’t dosomething soon, the whole districtwill be in the Taliban’s hands.”

Bodies Pile Up as Taliban Overrun Afghan HavenBy ROD NORDLAND

The bodies of 20 commandos in Sang-e-Masha, Afghanistan.Their company was almost entirely lost fighting on the front line.

JIM HUYLEBROEK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A8

THE MISSING Hundreds are unac-counted for days after a wildfiredestroyed Paradise, Calif. PAGE A20

A St. Petersburg museum filled withcenturies-old specimens is a time cap-sule for scientists, courtesy of Peter theGreat. Below, an Amur tiger. PAGE D2

SCIENCE TIMES D1-8

Russians With Good Genes

This year’s Rockefeller Center Christ-mas tree is getting an upgrade. Above,Marcus Poisson polishing up. PAGE C1

Star Bright, and Even BrighterIs it stimulus or a political giveaway? A plan for more welfare and tax cutsheads for an E.U. clash. PAGE A4

Italy’s Bank-Breaking Budget

Nearly a year after President Trump’stax cut, economic growth has acceler-ated, wage growth has not and businessinvestment is a mixed bag. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

The Tax Cut, 10 Months LaterKyrsten Sinema scored a groundbreak-ing victory, winning a Senate seat in astate that has been a Republican bas-tion for decades. PAGE A12

NATIONAL A10-21

Democrat Wins in Arizona

Mark Sanford PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

A plan by U.S. Catholic bishops to voteon measures to curb sexual abuse washalted by the Vatican. PAGE A21

Bishops Delay Plan on Abuse

Amazon promises tens of thousands ofnew jobs, with ripple effects. ShouldNew York expect more? PAGE A25

NEW YORK A24-25

Amazon, What’s in It for Us?

If Stan Lee revolutionized thecomic book world in the 1960s,which he did, he left as big a stamp— maybe bigger — on the evenwider pop culture landscape of to-day.

Think of “Spider-Man,” theblockbuster movie franchise andBroadway spectacle. Think of“Iron Man,” another Hollywoodgold-mine series personified byits star, Robert Downey Jr. Thinkof “Black Panther,” the box-officesuperhero smash that shatteredbig screen racial barriers in theprocess.

And that is to say nothing of theHulk, the X-Men, Thor and otherfilm and television juggernautsthat have stirred the popularimagination and made many peo-ple very rich.

If all that entertainment prod-uct can be traced to one person, itwould be Stan Lee, who died inLos Angeles on Monday at 95.From a cluttered office on Madi-son Avenue in Manhattan in the

He Spun TalesOf Great PowerInto Pop Culture

By JONATHAN KANDELLand ANDY WEBSTER

Continued on Page A22

STAN LEE, 1922-2018

The quintessential Stan Lee hero, Spider-Man, debuted in 1962.MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT

The Canadian city is set to vote onwhether to bid for the 2026 WinterGames. Norway, Austria and Switzer-land have already passed. PAGE B8

SPORTSTUESDAY B8-11

If It Doesn’t Play in Calgary . . .

After a botched raid, Gaza militantslaunched a sustained attack on Israel,and Israeli aircraft struck back. PAGE A9

INTERNATIONAL A4-9

Israelis and Militants Trade FireThe archive of Ruby Dee and OssieDavis traces their years in the theater,in the movies and as activists. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Portrait of a Marriage

Late EditionToday, rain tapering off, mostlycloudy, high 54. Tonight, clouds,breaking, breezy, colder, low 33. To-morrow, partly sunny, breezy, cold-er, high 40. Weather map, Page A16.

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