Poll finds Bush, Dole lead GOP in 2000 presidential race
By Mark Z. Barabak,
Los Angeles Times
Two potential presidential candi
dates, George W. Bush and Elizabeth
Hanford Dole, lead a pack of GOP
hopefuls bidding for the Republican
nomination in 2000, according to a
new Los Angeles Times poll. Even
as they ponder whether to run, both
lead Vice President A 1 Gore, the
overwhelming Democratic favorite,
in potential trial heats that found
broad crossover support for Bush and
Dole among Democrats and indepen
dents.
With the impeachment trial of
President Clinton in full swing, the
survey also offered mixed news for
Republicans who might fear a back
lash from efforts to oust the popular
incumbent. A majority of Americans
said a vote on impeachment would
have no impact on whom they sup
port for Congress in 2000. At the
same time, most Americans said
Clinton’s impeachment should not be
an issue in the presidential campaign,
either.
However, by nearly 2 to 1, those
who do wish to send a message to
Scientists say AIDS virus came from chimps
By David Brown ,
The Washington Post
CHICAGO _ A team of scientists
believes it has traced the origin of the
AIDS virus to a subspecies of chim
panzees in equatorial West Africa
that has been harboring an ancestral
version of the microbe for several
hundred thousand years.
For more than 15 years, evidence
has pointed to Africa as the birthplace
of the virus. For nearly as long, vi
rologists have believed human be
ings acquired it from primates. The
new research narrows the microbe’s
place of origin to the region near the
countries of Gabon, Equatorial
Guinea and Cameroon, on the Atlan
tic Coast. The research sheds no light
Probe places blame in Diana death on driver
By John-Thor Dahlburg
Los Angeles Times
PARIS _ Nearly 17 months after
Princess Diana’s death, two French
magistrates completed a painstaking
investigation Friday that is believed
to lay the bulk of blame on the drunk,
speeding driver of her Mercedes.
The probe, the most meticulous
ever of an auto accident in France,
turned up no trace of a white Fiat Uno
that apparently brushed against
Diana’s limousine right before the
accident, according to numerous
press leaks. Nor was any proof found
to support repeated claims by the bil
lionaire father of Diana’s boyfriend,
Dodi Fayed, who also died in the ac
cident, that the crash in a tunnel by
the Seine River was the result of a
plot against the British princess and
her Muslim companion.
Nine media photographers and a
media agency motorcyclist who had
Secret Courts’ ‘roving wiretaps’ used to hunt terrorism
suspects
By Vernon Loeb,
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON _ As President
Clinton proposes massive funding
increases for counterterrorism, fed
eral law enforcement agencies al
ready have received substantial new
legal authority to fight suspected ter
rorists with “roving” wiretaps and
secret court orders for tracing tele
phone calls and obtaining business
records.
The expanded powers, high on the
FBl’s legislative wish list for years,
were passed by Congress last fall as
part of the intelligence authorization
act. Michael Woods, chief of the
FBl’s national security law unit, said
this week that “any one of these ex
tremely valuable tools could be the
keystone of a successful operation”
against sophisticated foreign terror
ists and intelligence operatives.
But the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) and other privacy
Congress said they were less likely to
re-elect a House member who voted
to impeach Clinton from office, which
could be significant, since Republi
cans cling to a mere six-seat majority
in the House. With the first votes of
the 2000 primary season more than a
year off, and the November election a
full 21 months away, the national sur
vey of presidential preferences tended
to reward name recognition above any
other candidate quality.
Bush, governor of Texas and son of
former President Bush, led the Repub
lican pack with 39 percent support.
Dole, the retired head of the national
Red Cross and wife of 1996 GOP
nominee Boh Dole, had 25 percent
support. The only other candidate with
double-digit backing, 17 percent, was
former Vice President Dan Quayle,
who formally entered the race earlier
this month.
On the Democratic side, Gore had
52 percent support to 17 percent for
the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a two-time
presidential candidate; 11 percent for
House Minority Leader Richard A.
Gephardt of Missouri; 7 percent for
former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley;
and 4 percent for Massachusetts Sen.
on the mystery of when or how the
virus leaped the “species barrier,” al
though genetic analysis suggests such
an event occurred at least three times.
It may, however, shed light on more
practical and clinically relevant ques
tions.
That is because preliminary evi
dence suggests the subspecies of
chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, does
not become ill from the ancestral vi
rus. If further study proves that is the
case, the animals might help illumi
nate why the microbe is so deadly to
their human cousins, who are 98 per
cent identical to them. “We want to
focus on the naturally infected animals
... and study them side-by-side with
humans looking at a number of im
munological parameters,” said
been pursuing the princess are still
under investigation on possible crimi
nal charges of manslaughter and fail
ing to aid the victims of an accident.
They were questioned by Investigat
ing Magistrate Herve Stephan for a
final time Friday.
Initial suppositions were that the
paparazzi might have caused or con
tributed to the accident by crowding
limousine driver Henri Paul, the third
person killed in the Aug. 31, 1997,
crash. Yet autopsies showed that Paul,
a security guard at the Ritz Hotel, had
been drinking heavily and taking an
tidepressant drugs. It was recently dis
covered that one of the photographers,
Fabrice Chassery, had made three calls
on the day of the accident to the owner
of the car rental firm that had fur
nished the Mercedes. According to in
vestigators, Stephan wanted to deter
mine if the photographers had been
tipped off in advance about the prin
cess’ route.
rights activists oppose the expanded
law enforcement powers as unwar
ranted attacks on the Fourth Amend
ment, which bars unreasonable
searches and seizures, and say the
changes were enacted by an intelli
gence conference committee without
public hearings and almost no debate.
Neil J. Gallagher, the FBl’s assis
tant director for national security, said
the expanded powers can only be ex
ercised with court approval. “We have
to go to court and present the facts,”
Gallagher said. “It is not as though the
FBI is using intrusive techniques” on
its own authority.
“Roving wiretaps” enable the gov
ernment to eavesdrop on calls made
by a suspect from multiple phones. Al
though legal authority for the wiretaps
has existed since 1986, the courts have
allowed few such intercepts because
a standard requires the government to
prove a suspect is intentionally thwart
ing a conventional wiretap by fre
quently changing phones. The new
World and Nation
John F. Kerry. Of the Democrats, only
Gore and Bradley are officially en
tered. In 2000 trial heats among reg
istered voters, Bush led Gore 57 per
cent to 39 percent, and Dole beat the
vice president 50 percent to 42 per
cent.
Not surprisingly, Gore was by far
the best known of the trio, all of whom
enjoyed overall positive ratings. By
49 percent to 39 percent, a plurality
of voters has a good impression of the
vice president, who has doggedly de
fended Clinton in the Monica S.
Lewinsky matter. Only 12 percent had
no opinion of Gore, who has lately
stepped up his public profile on policy
issues in preparation for a full-blown
run for president. At the same time,
however, Gore has emerged as a
deeply polarizing figure, not with
standing his rather drab and stodgy
public image.
Although 80 percent of Democratic
voters and 44 percent of independents
view Gore favorably, 73 percent of
Republicans have an unfavorable im
pression of the vice president. He
draws only 10 percent Republican
support in a trial heat against Bush and
a mere 6 percent GOP backing against
Beatrice H. Hahn of the University of
Alabama at Birmingham. “That might
give us a clue as to why we get sick.”
Hahn, who did the research with her
colleague Feng Gao and 10 other re
searchers, presented the findings at
the Sixth Conference on Retroviruses
and Opportunistic Infections that
opened here Saturday and runs
through Thursday. The conference is
a smaller, more focused version of the
international AIDS meetings, held
every two years. It was started when
it became evident the international
meeting would never again be held in
the United States because of possible
restrictions on admission of HIV-posi
tive foreign visitors to the country.
In tracing the origin of the AIDS
virus, Hahn’s team compared the ge-
All parties in the case, including the
families of the victims and the crash's
sole survivor, bodyguard Trevor
Rees-Jones, now have 20 days to ask
Stephan and the second investigating
magistrate, Marie-Christine Devidal,
to make additional inquiries.
Any potential trials are still months
away, the Paris prosecutor’s office
said in a media release Friday. The
prosecutors will have three months to
study the magistrates’ report, which
runs to 5,000 pages with legal an
nexes, before asking that charges be
brought. Whatever their request, it
will be up to Stephan and Devidal to
decide whether to send any of the pho
tographers before a court.
Officials at the Ritz, which is
owned by Fayed’s father,
Mohammed, assigned Paul to chauf
feur Diana and Fayed although he did
not have the special driver’s license
required for the Mercedes limousine.
According to extensive leaks on the
“roving wiretap” provision, appli
cable in all criminal investigations and
not limited for use against terrorist
suspects, removes “intent” from the
legal standard and requires the gov
ernment to show only that a target’s
use of multiple phones has the "ef
fect” of preventing interception.
Other new provisions for obtaining
business records and tracing tele
phone calls amend a little-known stat
ute called the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA). The law,
passed 21 years ago, established a
secret federal court to approve wire
tap requests made by the Justice De
partment against suspected foreign
terrorists and intelligence agents with
out probable cause that a crime has
been committed. Secret FISA wire
taps, search warrants and orders can
be used against U.S. citizens only in
cases where the government can show
there is a reason to believe that an
American is engaged in espionage or
terrorism on behalf of a foreign power.
Sixty percent of voters had a favor
able impression of Bush and only 8
percent unfavorable, with about a
third having no opinion of the Texas
governor. Fifty-two percent had a fa
vorable impression of Dole and 13
percent unfavorable, with 35 percent
either unaware of the former Red
Cross chief or expressing no opinion.
Although a potentially rough cam
paign lies ahead, both Bush and Dole
showed potential strength as general
election candidates. In contrast to
Gore’s meager cross-over support,
Bush managed to draw 68 percent
backing from among independent
voters and 23 percent from Demo
crats in a trial matchup with the vice
president, replicating his success in
Texas at building a broad coalition
across party lines. Even 36 percent
of self-described liberals backed
Bush against Gore.
For her part. Dole managed to draw
53 percent of independents and 20
percent of Democrats in a matchup
with Gore, along with 33 percent ol
liberals. There was no distinct gen
der advantage, however, for the only
woman candidate known as a poten
netic sequence of human immunode
ficiency virus 1 (HIV-1), which
causes AIDS in humans, and simian
immunodeficiency virus (SIV),
which often, but not always, causes a
similar disease in primates. The SIV
strain the researchers studied was
SlVcpz, the last three letters denot
ing chimpanzee. Other strains infect
other primates, such as African green
monkeys.
Only four samples of SlVcpz have
ever been examined. The scientists
determined that three were closely re
lated. differing from each other by 9
to 13 percent of their genetic base se
quence, or fingerprint. The fourth had
about twice as many differences.
This suggested there were two SIV
“lines of descent” in chimpanzees.
investigation that have appeared in
the British media, Stephan believes
that one or two of the paparazzi trav
eling on speeding motorbikes may
have indirectly contributed to the ac
cident by pulling alongside the
Mercedes as Paul neared or entered
the tunnel.
The mysterious Fiat, which never
turned up despite an extensive search
by French police, is also believed to
have been a factor in the wreck, but
to what degree may never be known.
Stephan reportedly recommended
that manslaughter charges be dropped
against the photographers but that
three of them be prosecuted for the
less-serious offense of failing to come
to the aid of Diana and the other oc
cupants of the car. One of the
paparazzi, Romuald Rat, has admit
ted opening the door of the car and
taking Diana’s pulse as she lay dy
ing.
With the rise of international ter
rorism, the FISA framework has be
come a major source of information
for intelligence-gathering and evi
dence for law enforcement. A secret
FISA search warrant was granted in
March 1995 to search a New York
apartment building inhabited by
members of Aum Shinrikyo, the Japa
nese religious cult that unleashed a
sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway
system, even though its followers
were not suspected of any crime in
the United States. Critical evidence
in both the World Trade Center bomb
ing case and the Aldrich H. Ames spy
case also came from warrants and
wiretaps granted under FISA.
Today, the secret FISA court grants
more wiretaps than all other federal
courts nationwide in criminal cases.
In 1997, the FISA court approved 749
wiretaps; all other federal courts ap
proved 569 wiretaps, federal records
show. FISA wiretaps have doubled
since the last year of the Bush admin-
Thursday, February 4, 1999 - The Behrend College Beacon - page 5
tial 2000 candidate. In fact, Bush ac
tually ran stronger among women, 57
percent to 37 percent for Gore, than
Dole did, 47 percent to 43 percent for
the vice president.
As for the impeachment issue, al
though the political world seems ob
sessed with Clinton’s fate, most
Americans seem to give it far less
weight. Only 5 percent of voters said
it should be the most important issue
in the 2000 presidential race. Twenty
nine percent said it should be an is
sue, but not the most important one,
and 64 percent said it should not be
an issue at all.
Opinions differed somewhat among
partisans, however, similar to the
larger division over Clinton and his
fitness to remain in office. Seventy
eight percent of Democratic voters
said impeachment should have no
place in the 2000 campaign, along
with 61 percent of independents. But
half of Republicans said impeachment
should be an issue, with 12 percent
calling it the most important issue.
As for congressional contests. 52
percent of voters said a vote to con
vict Clinton and remove him from of
fice would have no effect on who they
Each line had a common ancestor, but
over time had drifted apart through
evolution. The researchers then looked
at the animals’ genetic relationship to
each other.
Using mitochondrial DNA, a sub
stance passed exclusively from mother
to offspring, scientists determined that
the three animals with the closely re
lated viruses were also closely related
to each other. They were all members
of the P. troglodytes subspecies. The
one with the more different virus was
of the P. troglodytes schweinfurthii,
which is genetically distinct and geo
graphically separate from P. troglo
dytes. The researchers then looked at
HIV-1, which occurs in three groups,
denoted M, O and N.
Group M accounts for the vast ma-
Shop managers at pet superstore cited for
animal cruelty
By Tom Jackman,
The Washington Post
Four managers of a suburban
Virginia Petco store have been
charged with animal cruelty after local
animal wardens repeatedly found dirty
conditions and dehydrated animals,
including some dead lizards, inside the
store, authorities said.
Fairfax County Animal Control
Department officials visited the store
in the Baileys Crossroads
neighborhood after receiving a
complaint in December. “They had
some animals that were extremely
dehydrated,” said Connie Harrington,
an Animal Control spokeswoman.
"Some lizards were dead, the birds
were overcrowded, and the work areas
were filthy.”
An officer instructed employees to
clean the store and provide better care
for the animals, but she didn’t issue
any summonses. But several days
istration, records show.
One of the new FISA provisions
passed by Congress last year would
enable the Justice Department to ob
tain from the secret court an order that
would allow agents to obtain the tele
phone numbers of all incoming and
outgoing calls on any lines used or
called by suspected foreign agents or
terrorists. The other new FISA provi
sion enables the Justice Department
to obtain records from airlines, bus
companies, rental car outlets, storage
facilities, hotels and motels used by
any suspected foreign agent or terror
ist.
Kate Martin, director of the Center
for National Security Studies, said ex
panding the government’s power un
der FISA to fight foreign terrorist
threats in the United States danger
ously blurs the line between intelli
gence-gathering and law enforcement,
especially when individuals charged
as spies and terrorists have no way to
challenge the underlying issuance of
back for the U.S. Sen: ■ next year.
Twenty-six percent said they would
be less likely to support a senator who
votes to convict the president and 17
percent said more likely. Fifty-four
percent said a vote against Clinton's
removal would have no effect.
Twenty-two percent said they would
be more likely to support a senator
who votes against impeachment and
20 percent were less likely.
In House races. 49 percent of the
electorate said a \ote to impeach
Clinton would have no effect on how
they vote next y ear. But nearly a third.
31 percent, said they would be less
likely to re-elect a House member
who voted to impeach and lb percent
said more likely.
The Times Poll interviewed 9b()
adults nationwide, including S 1 7 reg
istered voters. Wednesday through
Friday. Among registered voters, 203
were self-described Republicans and
298 were self-described Democrats.
For registered voters the margin of
sampling error is plus or minus 3.5
percentage points; lor Democrats and
Republicans it is 6 points.
jority of the world’s AIDS infections.
O is a rare type, found so far only in
Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and
Cameroon. Group N is a type discov
ered last year in Cameroon. All three
groups bear closest resemblance, ge
netically speaking, to the strain
SlVcp/, found in the P. troglodytes.
Hahn and her colleagues concluded
that all human AIDS viruses must
have come from that subspecies of
chimpanzee, and the transmission
must have occurred at least three
times, once each for M, () and N vi-
Despite their endangered status,
chimpanzees are hunted for food in
west and central Africa. Hahn said the
next task is to find a wav to determine
the prevalence of SlVcpz among w ild
populations.
later, the situation hadn't improved, so
the olTicer charged three store
managers and the district manager for
the pet superstore with failing to
adequately care for the creatures.
Several days later, Harrington said,
another person complained about the
same store. Another officer visited and
cited the store managers again for
failing to properly care lor a canary
and a parakeet. "It is highly unusual"
for a pet store to he cited once, much
less twice. Harrington said.
Officials at Pelco headquarters in
San Diego noted that only the
employees, not the company, had been
charged. "To the best ot our
knowledge we have never been cited
in a case like this," said Don Cowan,
a Pelco spokesman. "We believe the
charges against the employees are
unfounded. . . . Our concern lias been
and continues to be with animals in
our care and for our employees."
FISA warrants and wiretaps used to
gather evidence against them.
"They're vastly expanding the tra
ditional nature of what is a toreign
intelligence investigation, and that
threatens civil liberties in my v iew."
she said. "They're trying to put under
foreign intelligence matters that
should be handled under the criminal
code. We've already been down that
road with disastrous consequences."
The ACLU. in its analy sis. opposed
all three provisions, but the "roving"
wiretap amendment topped its list.
The provision "would not only lower
the evidentiary standard for a roving
wiretap order, it would also allow the
tapping of any phone near the subject
at any time the order is in effect. This
includes the telephones in the private
residences of a subject's friends,
neighbors and business associates."