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WASHINGTON — Defense De-partment officials said on Satur-day that American-led strikesagainst Syria had taken out the“heart” of President Bashar al-As-sad’s chemical weapons program,but acknowledged that the Syriangovernment most likely retainedsome ability to again attack itsown people with chemical agents.

Warplanes and ships from theUnited States, Britain and Francelaunched more than 100 missilesat three chemical weapons stor-age and research facilities nearDamascus and Homs, the officialstold reporters, in an operation thatPresident Trump and Pentagonleaders hailed as a success.

“A perfectly executed strike lastnight,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twit-ter. “Thank you to France and theUnited Kingdom for their wisdomand the power of their fine Mili-tary. Could not have had a betterresult. Mission Accomplished!”

The president, in declaring themission accomplished, invoked aphrase made infamous by Presi-dent George W. Bush in 2003,when he declared success in anIraq conflict that would end upcontinuing for more than eightyears before American troops fi-nally withdrew.

The strikes before dawn Satur-day in Syria — which came in re-taliation for a suspected chemicalattack on civilians a week ago —were the second time in just over ayear that Mr. Trump had sent mis-siles crashing into Syrian militarytargets, adding American fire-power to a civil war that is one ofthe most complex and multisidedconflicts in a generation.

Beyond the immediate questionof whether the new strikes actu-

U.S. SAYS STRIKESTOOK OUT ‘HEART’OF ASSAD THREAT

CHEMICAL PROGRAM HIT

Allies Risk BecomingEven More Entangled

in Syria’s Conflict

By HELENE COOPERand BEN HUBBARD

Continued on Page 8

The Syrian Scientific Research Center in Barzeh, near Damascus, was hit by American, British and French airstrikes on Saturday.HASSAN AMMAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jerri Plummer was at home inArkansas, watching televisionwith her three children, when astranger called to warn that herlife was in danger.

The caller identified herselfonly as Yolanda. She told Ms.Plummer that the vaginal meshimplant supporting her bladderwas defective and needed to be re-moved. If Ms. Plummer didn’t actquickly, the caller urged, shemight die.

Ms. Plummer, 49, didn’t askmany questions. Her implant wascausing her discomfort, and shewas impressed by how muchYolanda knew about her medicalhistory. She was scared. “It waslike I had a ticking time bomb in-side of me,” she said. Yolanda as-sured Ms. Plummer that all herexpenses would be covered andthat she would be set up with alawyer to help her sue the meshmanufacturer, Boston Scientific.

Days later, court records show,Ms. Plummer was lying on an op-erating table in a medical office ina shopping mall in Orlando, Fla.

Just like that, she had stumbledinto a burgeoning industry thatmakes money by coaxing womeninto having surgery — sometimesunnecessarily — so that they aremore lucrative plaintiffs in law-suits against medical device man-ufacturers.

Lawyers building such casessometimes turn to marketingfirms to drum up clients. The mar-keters turn to finance companiesto provide high-interest loans tothe clients that have to be repaidonly if the clients receive moneyfrom the case. Those loans arethen used to pay for surgery per-formed by doctors who are oftenlined up by the marketers.

Interviews with dozens of wom-en, lawyers, finance executivesand marketers, as well as a reviewof court records and confidentialdocuments, indicate that hun-dreds, perhaps thousands, ofwomen have been sucked into thisassembly-line-like system. It is fu-eled by banks, private equityfirms and hedge funds, which pro-vide financial backing.

How ProfiteersCoax Women

Into Surgery

Bolstering Effort to SueMedical Companies

By MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN and JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

Continued on Page 22

WASHINGTON — On themorning after, President Trumpdeclared success. The surgicalstrike against chemical weapons

facilities in Syriahad been executedperfectly, he saidon Saturday. “Mis-sion Accom-

plished!” he wrote on Twitter.That’s a phrase presidents and

politicians have studiouslyavoided since President GeorgeW. Bush’s ill-fated aircraft carriervisit prematurely declaringsuccess in the Iraq war. But asidefrom the curious choice of words,it raised the essential question

regarding Syria going beyondthe one-time strike: What ex-actly is the mission?

For most of Mr. Trump’s presi-dency, it has been to defeat theIslamic State and then get out.But what Mr. Trump outlined inhis televised speech to the nationon Friday night was somethingmore complicated. He promiseda sustained campaign to stopSyria’s government from againusing chemical weapons on itsown people, while also emphasiz-ing the limits of America’s abilityor willingness to do more to stopthe broader bloodletting that has

Talk of ‘Mission Accomplished!’But Mission in Syria Is Unclear.

By PETER BAKER

NEWSANALYSIS

Continued on Page 12

The Harry Potter economy isfilled with jaw-dropping numbers,including 500 million books soldand $7.7 billion in worldwide filmgrosses.

Here’s another one: “HarryPotter and the Cursed Child,” atwo-part drama now in previewsand opening April 22, cost about$68.5 million to bring to Broad-way, including not only $35.5 mil-lion to capitalize the show — morethan for any other nonmusicalplay in history — but also another$33 million to clear out and redothe theater.

It’s a huge bet in a flop-prone in-dustry, but also a seemingly safeone, predicated on the expectationthat “Cursed Child” will become abig hit on Broadway, a long-run-ning production that can spin offprofits for years.

“That’s a ton of money, no ques-tion about it, in terms of whatthings cost around here, but it’sHarry Potter, one of the most pop-ular brands in the history ofbrands,” said Tom Viertel, the ex-ecutive director of the Commer-

cial Theater Institute. “It has a ti-tle the likes of which we wouldrarely, if ever, get to see on Broad-way.”

Even in previews, as the castfinds its footing and the creative

team makes adjustments, theshow is setting box-office records.Potter fans have been filling upthe Lyric, one of Broadway’s larg-est theaters, and the $2.1 millionthe play took in during the first

week of April was more than anyplay had previously grossed in asingle week.

The record-setting $35.5 millioncapitalization — the amountraised from producers and invest-ors to pay an unusually large castand crew, rehearse an unusuallylong show and build an unusuallyelaborate production — was dis-closed in a filing with the Securi-ties and Exchange Commission.By comparison, most nonmusicalplays on Broadway are between$3 million and $5 million, and eventhe splashiest musicals rarely topmore than $25 million.

But the capitalization is only aportion of what it took to pave theway for “Cursed Child” to get toBroadway.

The Ambassador TheaterGroup, the British theater giantthat operates the Lyric, spentabout $23 million to persuade itsprevious occupant, Cirque duSoleil, to shutter its “Paramour”musical and make way for“Cursed Child,” according to twopeople with knowledge of thetransaction.

Ambassador, which competed

It cost $33 million to clear out and redo the theater for the HarryPotter show, the most expensive Broadway nonmusical ever.

DOROTHY HONG

Continued on Page 18

Harry Potter Feathers His Nest for $68 Million Broadway DramaBy MICHAEL PAULSON

Joseph Robertson gives newmeaning to the idea of a pensioner.

An eye surgeon who retired aspresident of the Oregon Health &Science University last fall, Dr.Robertson receives the state’slargest government pension.

It is $76,111.Per month.That is considerably more than

the average Oregon family earnsin a year.

Oregon — like many otherstates and cities, including NewJersey, Kentucky and Connecticut— is caught in a fiscal squeeze ofits own making. Its economy isgrowing, but the cost of its state-run pension system is growingfaster. More government workersare retiring, including more than2,000, like Dr. Robertson, who getpensions exceeding $100,000 ayear.

The state is not the most profli-gate pension payer in America,but its spiraling costs are notable

in part because Oregon enjoys areputation for fiscal discipline. Itsexperience shows how faulty fi-nancial decisions by states caneventually swamp local communi-ties.

Oregon’s costs are inflated by

Strange Pension Math LeavesStates in Pinch of Own Making

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

Nathan Cherpeski, the man-ager of Klamath Falls, Ore. Itspension bills have jumped.

LEAH NASH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page 24

RUSSIA Condemnation from Pres-ident Vladimir V. Putin, but asense of relief in Moscow. PAGE 10

In Indonesia, followers of ancient tradi-tional beliefs are hoping a court rulingwill finally end decades of unofficialdiscrimination. PAGE 6

INTERNATIONAL 4-15

A Fight for Indigenous RightsBill Gates once made it clear to Con-gress that he wouldn’t change his waysfor Washington. Mark Zuckerberg tooka different tack last week. PAGE 3

SUNDAY BUSINESS

Two Tech Titans. Two Tacks.Six months after being fitted for a metalhalo to heal a broken vertebra, an elitetriathlete plans to run the Boston Mara-thon in 2 hours 50 minutes. PAGE 1

SPORTSSUNDAY

His Therapy: A ‘Torture Device’

U(D5E71D)x+=!,!/!=!:

Frank Bruni PAGE 1

SUNDAY REVIEW

WASHINGTON — When Syriashipped what it claimed was thelast of its chemical weapons out ofthe country in 2014, John Kerry,the secretary of state at the time,declared that it showed that skill-ful diplomacy could achieve farmore than attacks on a few facili-ties.

“We struck a deal where we got100 percent of the chemical weap-ons out,” he said a few weeks later,as an American ship destroyed600 metric tons of poisonousagents.

A year ago, after PresidentTrump rejected the Obama-eraapproach as naïve, he bombed an

airfield where a new chemical at-tack by the Syrian president, Ba-shar al-Assad, had originated. Mr.Trump’s newly appointed nationalsecurity adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R.McMaster, predicted “a big shifton Assad’s calculus,” because itwas “the first time the UnitedStates has taken direct militaryaction.”

Years of bitter experience inSyria have shown that Mr. Kerry’sassessment was wrong, and Gen-eral McMaster’s was far too opti-mistic. Those lessons may now beinescapable: After Saturday’spredawn strike in Syria on three

Lesson Learned the Hard Way:Assad Can Still Gas His People

By DAVID E. SANGER and BEN HUBBARD

Continued on Page 10

News reports have implied that the95-year-old co-creator of Spider-Manand Black Panther is a victim of elderabuse. He says that’s not so. PAGE 1

SUNDAY STYLES

Is Stan Lee a Prisoner?

Late Edition

VOL. CLXVII . . No. 57,933 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, APRIL 15, 2018

Today, rain and drizzle, breezy,much colder, high 42. Tonight, rainand drizzle, low 41. Tomorrow,heavy rain, thunderstorms, high 60.Details in SportsSunday, Page 10.

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