fr The Behrend Be aeon
\ February 7,2003 81 q 14 Pages
Vo' L *'.4 '/Vnh Sf.fr-.- ■■ : "" No. 11
Powell unveils eviden
Drawing on a high-tech collection of spy satellite
imagery and intercepted conversations, Secretary of State
Colin L. Powell charged Wednesday that Saddam
Hussein has devised elaborate schemes to conceal
weapons of mass destruction and warned that the time
for international action to disarm Iraq is drawing closer.
“Clearly, Saddam will stop at nothing until something
stops him,” Powell said.
The Secretary of State’s methodical and measured
presentation nudges the 12-year saga of disarming Iraq
closer to a denouement, with new urgency attached to
the weekend visit to Baghdad of the top two weapons
inspectors and their next report to the Security Council
on Feb. 14. Powell’s presentation included purported
evidence showing that Iraq still has active programs in
all four categories of proscribed weapons of mass
destruction: nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
and long-range ballistic missiles. Most of the case is
based on intelligence garnered shortly before or since
the return of weapons inspectors Nov. 27, with other
PHOTO BY ERIN McCARTY / BEHREND BEACON
Students watch a memorial slide show in Bruno’s Tuesday featuring photographs from the Challenger and Co
lumbia missions and music from the film ‘Titanic.”
by Erin McCarty
news editor
On Jan. 28, 1986, millions watched
in horror as the Challenger went up
in smoke just minutes after launch,
killing its seven occupants. On
Saturday, shock and sadness swept
the world once more as the Columbia
exploded just minutes from landing,
again with seven astronauts aboard,
including one from Israel and one
from India.
As the public recovers from this
tragedy, NASA must try to find out
what went wrong on the shuttle, an
investigation that is likely to last
more than a year. Although initial
speculation has pointed to damaged
tiles on the outside of the Columbia,
many possibilities exist.
‘There are a lot of things that could
have happened,” said Gary Walker,
computer science lecturer at Behrend
and former supervisor and manager
CEO and Dean candidates
BEACON
CEO candidate Dr. Allan Hoffman
speaks at an open forum Monday.
NEWS 1-3 HUMOR 6
NATL CAMPUS NEWS 4 FEATURES 7
EDITORIAL 5 CALENDAR 8
by Robin Wright
Los Angeles Times
aster may lead to changes in
ogra Behrend ofessors
The search for a new CEO and Dean
is nearing its conclusion. Two of the
three final candidates visited Behrend
this week, speaking with administrators,
faculty, staff, and students. Both
addressed the general Behrend
community during open forums on
Monday and Thursday.
Dr. Allan Michael Hoffman, the first
candidate, currently serves as Dean of
the College of Health Sciences at Des
Moines University. His background is
predominantly in the area of health care,
and he has worked in this field as an
material from the late 19905, when the previous U.N.
teams were forced to leave Baghdad.
The accumulated effect, Powell said, provides strong
proof that Saddam is engaged in an “active and
systematic” scheme to prevent U.N. teams from finding
key material and specialists in direct violation of
Resolution 1441, which calls false statements, omissions
and failure to cooperate with inspectors a material
breach. By this standard, he said, Iraq is now undeniably
in further material breach, a possible trigger for military
action.
“Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons
of mass destruction; he’s determined to make more,”
Powell told the Security Council. “Indeed, by its failure
to seize on its one last opportunity to come clean and
disarm, Iraq has put itself in deeper material breach and
closer to the day when it will face serious consequences
for its continued defiance of the council.”
During the presentation, Iraq’s U.N. ambassador,
Mohammed Douri, smiled as he listened to one of the
at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“The sensors probably picked up on a
problem one to two minutes before the
breakup. That’s valuable data.”
“The detective work is probably
proceeding a little faster than in 1986,”
said Dr. Darren Williams, assistant
professor of astronomy and physics at
Behrend. “The risks were similar. The
only way to make it safer is to abandon
the shuttle fleet and develop new
shuttles.” This is an option many
people hope NASA will consider as it
contemplates what might have gone
wrong.
“This will force people to re
evaluate how we transport people and
supplies,” said Dr. Roger Knacke,
astronomy and physics professor and
director of Behrend’s School of
Science. “These are old aircraft now.
Is everything being done to fix them?”
When Williams prepared the slide
show of photographs from the shuttle
missions that was presented in Bruno’s
by Erin McCarty
news editor
POWELI
Secretary of State Colin Powell makes the case for war against Iraq during a U.N. meet
continued on page 3 ing Wednesday.
on Tuesday, he found the soundtrack
of “Titanic” especially fitting to
accompany it,
“If you compare the Titanic to the
Columbia, we haven’t learned a whole
lot,” Williams said. “The Titanic was
a disaster because there weren’t
enough lifeboats. We launch a shuttle
with enormous risk with no ‘lifeboats.’
Having escape pods, like what you see
on ‘Star Wars,’ is expensive, but it is
not impossible.”
“I would hope they would say we
need to redesign the shuttles with new
equipment,” said Walker. He recalled
going in a shuttle simulator once and
being “amazed at how Spartan the
inside was,” with very little room to
move around. He said that the inside
of a car seemed safer.
In addition to causing a change in
the shuttles used for manned flight, this
disaster may also change the way some
COLUMBIA
visit Behrend
administrator and educator at several
different institutions, including
California State University, University
ofLa Verne, and State University of New
York at Buffalo.
Hoffman conducted his forum
primarily as a dialogue with a brief
introduction and conclusion. During the
question and answer portion of the
forum, he discussed his views on topics
ranging from curriculum
internationalization and college child
care to the balances between
preservation and growth and between
CEO
inued on page 3
A&E 9-10
HEALTHY LIVING 11
SPORTS 12-14
continued on page 3
NEWSROOM: 898-6488
FAX: 898-6019
Former Beaconian in
Afghanistan ponders
uture
by Rebecca Weindorf
managing editor
Although developing tensions
between the United States and Iraq have
spurred the military to call up several
Behrend students to military duty, one
student already has been overseas - and
might be asked to stay.
Last semester the Beacon ran a story
about Jeffrey Miller, a Behrend student
and former managing editor of the
Beacon, who has been completing
military duty overseas at the Bagram
camp in Afghanistan for nearly six
months.
In light of the new developments in
both Iraq and North Korea, the Beacon
had a chance to catch up with Miller via
email correspondence.
Before the New Year, Miller’s time on
the Internet was limited at the Bagram
camp. A couple changes enabled the
Beacon to conduct an interview with
Miller himself.
“We got the Internet on our work
computers so we don’t have a time limit
on those,” Miller said in an email dated
January 29. “...Just our company
[shares the computers], which is about
50 people.”
Call it luck or call it destiny, Miller’s
platoon (the first of three within his
company) still has a chance of coming
back to the States on March l.
“I’m looking forward to coming
home," Miller said. “[Our] platoon is
here in Bagram, another is in Uzbekistan,
Behrend student Jeff Miller has been stationed in Afghanistan for the past
six months.
E-MAIL:
behrcolls@aol.com
inst Hussei
and the third is still at Fort Lewis,
Washington. They have just been told
that they are going to Kuwait or
somewhere in the Middle East...[but]
we started packing up our stuff and our
plane is scheduled to leave March I.”
Miller was careful to point out that
these “planned” events are never set in
stone.
“All things change,” Miller said. "I
have my doubts about coming home.
[Our platoon) might be stuck at Fort
Lewis for a year or go to Kuwait after
three months. Nothing is for sure yet
but I hope I’ll be back in Erie by May.”
Miller did admit there’s a chance of
being sent to Kuwait or elsewhere in the
Middle East.
“We do talk about Iraq a lot since most
of us haven’t seen home in six months
and we worry about being sent
somewhere else,” he said in a Jan. 30
email.
Since last semester, Miller had to find
a way to enjoy the holidays away from
family and friends in the States.
“Our holidays were kind of sad and
lonely,” he said. “We had no friends or
family, just each other. We had the day
off from work and just sat in our tents
on our cots and opened the presents that
were sent to us. Myself and a few of
my buddies played Uno and joked
around with each other [and] made the
best of our time.”
MILLER
continued on page 2
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