state/nation / world Soviets prepared for 'sad news' By MONA ZIADE Associated Press Writer BEIRUT, Lebanon The Soviet Union’s senior diplomat in Beirut said yesterday he expects “sad news" about three colleagues held by kidnappers who already have killed one embassy employee. The kidnappers seized the Soviets on Monday and threaten to kill them all unless Moscow forces Syr ia, its main Middle East ally, to stop an offensive by Syrian-backed left ist militias against Moslem funda mentalists in the northern port of Tripoli. An anonymous caller claimed the kidnappers were members of the Islamic Liberation Organization. Anonymous callers also have said suicide bombers will blow up the Soviet Embassy in the Corniche Maazra district of west Beirut, the capital’s Moslem sector. Yuri Souslikov, the embassy charge d’affaires and Moscow’s ranking diplomat, said his govern ment had asked Syria “to exert pressure on the concerned Leb anese parties to secure their re lease.” The battle for Tripoli still raged Thursday, with Syrian gunners bringing heavy artillery fire to bear in support of their allies, but there were no reports of other captives being killed. Gunmen abducted three Soviet diplomats and the embassy doctor. The body of cultural attache Arka dy Katkov, 32, was found in a west Beirut garbage dump Wednesday, shot through the head. The Soviets have strengthened security at their embassy complex. Scores of heavily armed men of Walid Jumblatt’s Druse Moslem militia and the Moscow-oriented Lebanese Communist Party ringed the walled, tree-shaded compound Thursday. Druse fighters in combat fatigues manned anti-aircraft machine guns mounted on trucks stationed at the main gate. The kidnappers’ silence coincided with Iranian efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in Tripoli, Lebanon’s sec ond-largest city, where more than ’ 500 people have been killed and 1,- 100 wounded in the 19-day-old war Atlantis blasts off into space By HARRY F. ROSENTHAL Associated Press Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Atlan tis joined America’s space shuttle fleet yesterday with a dazzling liftoff on a mission of mystery, carrying five astronauts and a pair of military satellites built to withstand nuclear radiation. Except for the launch, which could be seen from much of central Florida, the flight had as much secrecy as the Air Force could muster. “The crew is doing well and all systems on board the orbiter are performing satisfactorily,” said NA SA’s Billie Deason after the shuttle had been in orbit nearly five hours. That was one of two announce ments promised for the hush-hush flight. The other is to be a 24-hour notice that the shuttle will land at Edwards Air Force Base in Califor nia. There was no word when the satel lites would be deployed, but it has been NASA’s policy to get payloads out of the cargo bay at the earliest opportunity, usually on the first day aloft. Atlantis’ maiden flight, the 21st of the shuttle program, was the second all-Pentagon mission. A spy satellite was delivered to orbit on the first and it was deployed 16 hours after liftoff. Despite the news blackout, there was reliable information that the astronauts will deploy two Defense Satellite Communications System sa tellites, an advanced model known as DSCS-3. The $lOO million satellites are designed to prevent an enemy from jamming their communications and for use by the president to send emergency instructions to nuclear forces around the globe. The satellites also have been shielded against the radiation and electromagnetic pulse effects of nu clear explosions, which could short out or overload unshielded electronic components. The DSCS-3 satellites are not classi- fied as secret, but the Defense De ' partment has decided to black out information about most military flights of the space shuttle to “protect the identity, mission and operation of DOD cargo” and “protect informa tion concerning vulnerabilities of the shuttle and facilities.” i t i l \ A Druse militiaman with a U.S. built automatic rifle stands guard beside a sandbaged post outside the Soviet Embassy in Beirut. for supremacy. Iran has close links with both Syria and the Palestinian-support ed Sunni Moslem fundamentalists who are fighting for their lives in the port city. Souslikov appeared resigned to the deaths of his kidnapped col leagues. He told reporters after an hour U.S. government about to go broke once again By TOM RAUM AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON, D.C. The government of the richest nation in the world is again on the verge of running out of cash. It’s become an annual ritual, one that dictates that Congress come to the rescue protesting and barely in the nick of time with the needed new borrow ing authority. True to the script, jittery administration officials already have begun issuing warnings of dire consequences if Congress fails to raise the national debt limit a deadline officials long meeting with Amin Gemayel, Lebanon’s Christian president, and security commanders that he antic ipated “sad news any minute” about commercial attache Valery Mirikov, press attache Oleg Spirin and Dr. Nikolai Sversky. Sources in Gemayel’s office said the discussions focused on ways to save the three Soviets and protect say will conn- sometime on Monday. The Treasury would be left with insufficient funds to operate the government, they warn. Federal workers wouldn’t get paid. Benefit checks would bounce, defense contractors be left in the lurch, agencies start to close. The wheels of government would grind to a halt. But while Congress frequently marches to the brink in its annual debt-limit debate, each year fiscal chaos somehow manages to be averted. The government lumbers on. The two times the government actually did start to shut down in November 1981 and October 1984 it was because Congress failed the embassy, its staff and their dependents. No details were dis closed. The Soviet charge d’affaires also delivered a letter to Gemayel from the Soviet government. The state radio said it called the kidnapping “an aggression against the Soviet Union which cannot be accepted.” Katkov’s corpse was recovered after after ah anonymous caller, claiming to speak for the Islamic Liberation Organization, told West ern news agencies one diplomat has been executed because the fighting continued in Tripoli, which is 50 miles north of Beirut. Anonymous callers telephoned news organizations Thursday to re peat the statement that the embas sy would be-blown up at 9 a.m. Friday, the deadline set in the ear lier calls. They said that if it was not evac uated by then, “We shall mount suicide bombing attacks to level the whole compound upon your heads.” Soviet citizens in Lebanon, esti mated to totaj about 150, had been urged to move into the embassy complex for safety. Diplomats de clined comment on reports that Moscow might evacuate the re maining Soviets in Lebanon. The Soviets now face the same problems that caused the U.S. Em bassy to move to Christian east Beirut last year. Washington moved its facility af ter suicide bomb attacks on U.S. facilities in the Moslem sector of the city that blew up the seafront embassy, an annex and a U.S. Ma rine base, killing more than 250 Americans. Only the Soviet Union and a few of its East European allies main tained their embassies in west Bei rut after it was taken over by Moslem militias in February 1984. The area has been plagued since by kidnappings, armed robberies and assassinations. AP Lasorphoto Fourteen Westerners, including six Americans, still are held by kidnappers who seized them in west Beirut beginning in January 1984. The four embassy employees were the first kidnap victims from the Soviet bloc. TMI Unit 1 reactor triggered on after 6 years of dormancy May 29, but it was delayed pending court appeals by the anti-nuclear group Three Mile Island Alert. MIDDLETOWN Technicians Final NRC approval came Thurs triggered a nuclear chain reaction day morning after Wednesday’s fa yesterday to restart the undamaged vorable ruling by the U.S. Supreme Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island, Court. dormant since its sister reactor “The democratic process worked, caused the nation’s worst commer- There have been hearings. Every cial nuclear accident years ago. body’s had a chance to be heard, “The process went very smoothly, said Clark, part of the new manage- There weren’t any problems,” Lisa ment team installed since the acci- Robinson, spokeswoman for the dent. , .... plant’s operato'rrGPU Nuclear Corp., However, Three Mile Island Alert said after the self-sustaining chain continued its legal fight, asking the reaction started shortly before 2 p.m; 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Over the protests of demonstrators Philadelphia for a stay of TMI °P er f* but with the U.S. Supreme Court’s tions. The group said the NRC should approval, operators began lifting lift GPU. Nuclear’s license because of some of the 69 control rods out of the management integrity questions, reactor at 4:30 a.m. to allow the The restart of Unit 1, built in 1974 at radioactive uranium fuel to build up a cost of $4OO million, will mean a to the chain reaction. savings of $72 million a year by GPU Technicians also removed boron ratepayers in Pennsylvania and New from the core’s cooling water. That Jersey. element is often called a nuclear The plant will stay at less than 1 poison because it soaks up neutrons, percent of maximurn power for seve the subatomic particles fired out by ral days, officials said. The reactor s dividing uranium atoms that other- 100 tons of uranium fuel could pro wise would make more atoms split. diice enough steam to generate some “The plant is performing very well, electricity by next week, and it could We’re very pleased,” said Philip R. at 100 percent of its 800-megawatt Clark, president of GPU, which oper- capacity in three months, ates the plant for General Public “The job we have now is to operate Utilities Corp. “The instructions to it safely and effectively, Clark said, the crew are to proceed deliberately “Only after we have shown that over and safely with emphasis on safety.” a period of time can we return to “I feel excited. I feel confident,” normal and say things are behind Clark added. He described the mood us.” By 808 DVORCHAK Associated Press Writer in the control room as “pleased, “it's a big day, "said Earl Showalt confident and satisified. It’s a good CT) a -j>MI simulator instructor, mood, a very positive mood." “We’re going to be in a fishbowl. TMI Unit 1 was shut down for W e’re going to be watched more than routine refueling during the March any odier plant in the world.” 28 1979 , accident that damaged the s , xteen people were arr e St ed adjacent Unit 2. Wednesday night when 45 anti-nucle- A combination of human and me- ar 6 rotested at the main chamcal errors a lowed cooling wa er gate Qf plant> located on a sand to drain out of Unit 2. The reactor bar - n Susque hanna River 10 •'ssssfs, sinrts cost/ of the accident, the Nuclear Regulatory * /d - ou - Commission ordered it shut down Paula Kinney, a mother of four and pending hearings on whether it could a resident of Middletown for 17 years, be operated safely. planned to uproot her family and The NRC approved the restart on leave the area because of the restart. to pass emergency stopgap funding measures, not because of a debt-limit impasse. And those shutdowns lasted only a half-day each. The Reagan administration hds asked Con gress to increase the debt limit to $2,078 trillion, breaking the symbolic mark of $2 trillion. The new level would be more than twice the limit when Reagan took office in 1981. While the House has already approved the debt limit increase, the measure is currently bogged down in the Senate, where several amendments have been talked about, including one by Sens. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and War ren Rudman, R-N.H., to force the president and The Daily Collegian Friday, Oct. 4, 1985 Congress to have a balanced budget by 1991. Any Senate amendment would send the issue back to the Democratic-run House, with the prospect of touching off further prolonged debate. The current limit on U.S. borrowing is $1,824 trillion and it is this level that' the Treasury says it expects to bump against on Monday. In the last accounting, the Treasury was within about $25 million of that level. As long as the governent spends more than it takes in, it must continue to borrow to operate. Outlays recently have been running at about $2O billion a month above receipts. state news briefs Thornburgh speaks on divestment HARRISBURG (AP) Gov. Dick Thornburgh says the state has to be careful about insisting that state-related universities, public pensions and banks divest themselves of investments in companies that do business with South Africa. “The commonwealth of Pennsylvania, under our constitutional system, does not have an independent foreign policy,” Thorn burgh said Wednesday in response to a reporter’s question. “Our foreign policy is set by the national government.” Calling himself “an implacable foe of apartheid,” Thornburgh said he applauds President Reagan’s economic sanctions, such as halting the sale of South African gold coins in this country. But Thornburgh said this country must be careful not to take actions that would deny jobs to South Africans who are victims of apartheid or hurt businesses in this country. The situation must be watched closely, the governor said. “But I think for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to take steps independently of what is being done in matters of foreign policy of the government would be risky,” he added. Electric rates going up slightly HARRISBURG (AP) The Public Utility Commission indi cated yesterday that it will likely reduce rate increases proposed by Metropolitan Edison Co. and Pennsylvania Electric Co. The PUC, in a non-binding poll, indicated that it will reduce Met Ed’s proposed $47.3 million annual increase to approximately $l9 million, according to preliminary calculations by the state consumer advocate. Pennsylvania Electric Co. may end up with about $42 milion of its requested $55.3 million boost in annual revenues, according to the calculations which could vary by the time a final vote is taken. The indications came from informal voting in which commis sioners announced their stands on various issues involved in the Met Ed and Penelec rate cases. nation news briefs Natural gas marketing changing WASHINGTON, D.C. A plan by federal energy regulators to take as much as $5 billion a year from natural gas producers and turn it over to consumers in lower bills is stirring a bitter regional fight in the Senate. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced yes terday it intends to vote final approval next Wednesday.on a long awaited set of rules reversing the way natural gas a fuel that provides one-fourth the nation’s energy is marketed. The current arrangement has been in place for nearly a half century. The proposed rules, aimed at breaking up pipeline monopolies and revising their purchasing practices, were approved unani mously by the agency in draft form last May in what one then commissioner, Oliver Richard, called the “Magna Charta of the natural feas industry.” Most of the nation’s 10,000 gas producers and some Wall Street analysts counter that the estimated $4 billion to $5 billion in consumer savings will stymie drilling for new gas supplies. Reagan wins farm bill debate WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) Handing President Reagan his first victory in the current farm bill debate, the House yesterday bucked its Democratic leaders and killed a proposal'to let grain farmers vote on the future shape of their own subsidy programs. The chamber voted 251-174 to strike from the bill a farmer referendum on whether to accept the price- and income-support programs laid out in the new law, or to instead substitute sharply higher supports coupled with strict marketing and production curbs. The issue was the focus of sharp philosophical division between grassroots farm groups seeking to shrink production and force farm prices higher, and the administration and more traditional farm groups fearing that to do so would ruin American farm export markets. Meteorite may have killed dinosaurs WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) A giant meteorite striking the Earth 65 million years ago may have started worldwide fires that killed the dinosaurs by plunging the planet into a dark period similiar to the “nuclear winter” some suspect might be started by a nuclear war, scientists say. University of Chicago researchers say they found surprisingly high amounts of soot and charcoal in clay samples from that time, an indication that worldwide wildfires may have contributed to the global extinction of dinosaurs and half the species then alive on the Earth. In a report to be published Friday in the journal Science, chemists say smoky soot from the fires would have added to the dust thrown up by the meteorite impact to block out sunlight. This would have plunged the Earth into a cold, dark period lasting for months that soon killed some plants and animals, and eventually others that depended upon this life for food or shelter. Dr. Edward Anders, Wendy S. Wolbach and Roy S. Lewis said the findings indicate soot yield from widespread vegetation fires is higher and more uniformly distributed than previously as sumed. world news briefs Peres calls on Hussein for peace JERUSALEM (AP) Prime Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday that Israel will forge ahead with efforts to start Mideast peace talks and that the Israeli raid on PLO headquar ters in Tunisia would not disrupt peace efforts. Peres also called on King Hussein of Jordan to say “publicly and clearly” that he favors eliminating a state of war between the two countries. Peres, replying to foreign reporters’ questions in Jerusalem, rejected European and Arab statements saying that Tuesday’s bombing raid would harm prospects for peace. He accused the Palestine Liberation Organization of sabotaging peace by killing three Israelis in Larnaca, Cyprus, on Sept. 25. Israel said the air strike was in retaliation for the slayings of the Israelis, which Peres called “part of a policy of the PLO to torpedo the mission of other Arab leaders that may seek peace.” El Salvador rebels released SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) Four or more prisoners have been released to the Red Cross and taken to a rebel-held area, apparently as part of an exchange for the president’s kidnapped daughter, sources said yestrday. At least 37 people were killed on both sides in fighting between soldiers and leftist guerrillas in eastern El Salvador, and leftist guerrillas announced their ninth ban on highway traffic this year in a continuing campaign to wreck the economy. Government and Red Cross spokesmen did not answer or return telephone calls about the reports that the prisoners were taken to rebel territory in Chalatenango Province. The reports came from unofficial but knowledgeable sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Rebels who claimed responsibility for the kidnapping have demanded the release of 34 prisoners in exchange for Ines Guadalupe Duarte Duran, 35-year-old daughter of President Jose Napoleon Duarte, and Ana Cecilia Villeda Sosa, 23. They were seized Sept. 10 as they arrived for classes at a private college in San Salvador, by gunmen who killed one bodyguard and wounded another. c °e-^ oU \YJJQ PERSIAN The sometimes “forgotten” and sometimes “bloody” war be tween Iran and Iraq still continues. It is now five years old. There is a lot of speculation on how the war will end, when it will end, and who will win. There are those who blindly condemn any war, even a defensive struggle. There are those who question why the war should continue while one side is offering peace, and finally there are those who condemn this particular war since “Muslim” blood is being shed. Furthermore, the aims and goals of each party involved in the conflict may now seem vague, and the role of other countries may not be crystal clear. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the fall of the Shah, the staunchist ally of the U.S. in the Middle East and, besides Israel, the only “policeman” in the region, the U.S. contemplated ways'to compensate the loss of control in Iran and reviewed candidates to fill the available position of the policeman. Efforts to influence the transitional government of Mehdi Bazargan and various espionage schemes and destabilizing tactics to pressure the leaders for a change in the course of the revolution led to a protest by university students in the form of a takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. That, being the second big blow to U.S foreign policy, prompted the idea of punishing the Islamic Republic, as was recently revealed by Jody Powell:' “The one most clear and visible consequence of the taking of those hostages is the lran-Iraq war. Without the taking of the hostages, that war would not have resulted...” 1 Saddam Hussein, the leader of the Baa’thist regime in Iraq, definitely had big ambitions. On the one hand, he had ambitions to be the “hero” of the “Arab Nation” as Jamal Abdo’Naser was once considered. On the other hand he seemed fit to become the policeman of the region, which would obtain support from the West and safeguard their interest. Saddam was chosen as the man to do the job. Immediately before the start of the war a series of meetings took place between Saddam Hussein, Henry Kissinger, 2 Brezeinski and other high level U.S. officials. 1 Although Saddam claimed to be against Israel and U.S. Imperialism, and although the U.S. had Iraq on the list of countries supporting terrorism, his apparent foes realized the saying that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Everything seemed just right. Saddam had a strong and well trained army with lots of reserves, a vast amont of ammunition, advanced equipment, and huge foreign reserves. Moreover, the ambition of repeating history by conquering the “Persian” land added to the eagerness of his army to carryout the mission. On the other hand, after the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian armed forces were in disarray and lacked the necessary preparedness to defend the country. After Saddam Hussein unilaterally abrogated the 1975 Algiers Agreement and stated claims over the Shatt-al-Arab water way and three small islands in the Persian Gulf, the war started on Sept. 22, 1980 when Iraq invaded Iran and occupied several provinces. The news of the invasion spread almost instantly throughout the West and speculations were centered on the number of days it would take the Iraqi army to topple the government of the Islamic Republic. It was soon realized that there were some miscalculations and the establishment in Tehran was much stronger that what was thought. In the meanwhile Iraq was preparing revised maps of the region, as Saddam Hussein had declared on Dec. 23, 1980 at a session of his cabinet that “... the occupied provinces would continue to remain under the domination of Iraq and that they would be annexed to the map of Iraq.” 2 The plan was later verified from the maps found in the bunkers of the destroyed Iraqi units. It did not take the Muslim people of Iran much over a year to recuperate, organize the weak army and establish a strong Revolu tionary Guards Corps. Soon, with great sacrifices, they lifted the siege of Abadan and liberated Khorramshahr and forced the Iraqi army to desert most of the occupied territories and retreat to its borders. The sweet dream turned into a nightmare as the collabora tors realized that the Islamic Revolution cannot be defeated. Soon “peace loving” groups popped up like mushrooms and spread the words of peace between the two countries. Apparently Footnotes 1. Jody Powell, the Press Secretary duing the Carter Administra- 4. An AP dispatch at the time, tion. Interview in ABC’s “Night Line” program on Nov. 1, 1984. 5. Nation, Oct. 25, 1980. 2. Wall Street Journal, Feb. 8, 1980. 6 - New York Times, May 27, 1982. 3. Pacifica News Service, Aug. 1980. In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful WILL WIN THE GULF CONFLICT? Iranian Muslim Student Association these groups had not realized that the victim had been suffering from the atrocities of the aggressor for about twenty months. Only after it was sensed that the hero of the ‘‘Arab Nation” could not defeat the Islamic Revolution, they discovered why war and not peace. One wonders where those “concerned Muslims” that condemn the victim for not accepting an imposed peace and continuing the bloodshed were when the Iranian Muslims were being massacred in the occupied provinces. Where were they when the civilian men and youth of Iran were being transferred to Iraq as prisoners of war, their towns and villages being destroyed, their mosques and schools being leveled, their brothers and sisters of Iranian origin being driven away from their homes in Iraq. Iraq's failure to achieve the planned objectives resulted in closer ties between the U.S. and Iraq for more direct aids. This change of policy was later announced when ambassadors were exchanged. Although the U.S., like the Soviets and the French, has publicly maintained the status of neutrality, her complicity in the conflict has surfaced in the form of electronic surveillance protection given to Iraqi warplanes by U.S. Air Force AW AC’s operating out of Saudi Arabia,* by the transport of American made war material from Egypt to Iraq, 6 and by the engagement of the State Department in a vast worldwide campaign to prevent most arm-suppliers from selling any military related equipment to Iran. Of course other U.S. allies in the region, such as Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, have corroborated the aggression by supplying manpower and equipment. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have actually subsidized the aggression with petrodol lars. Racing to take part in the crime, the “neutral” French and the Soviets, lured by the petrodollars and agreeing in principle on this issue with the U.S., supply advanced fighter planes and sophisticated tanks to Iraq. Unable to win in the battlefields, Saddam Hussein resorted to using chemical weapons, attacking merchant vessels, threatening international civil aviation, and finally escalating the bombing of large Iranian cities in recent months. All of these hopeless efforts are aimed at weakening the morale of the Islamic forces and breaking the resistance of the brave Muslims and undermining their loyalty to the revolution. These latest attempts were foiled by the massive and unique participation of the people on June 14, 1985 in a demonstra tion in support of the continuation of the defensive struggle against the aggressors. The leaders of the Islamic Republic deplore war and bloodshed and welcome any effort to safeguard the observance of the accepted norms of international law. They believe that if justice is not brought about by world public opinion, there is no alternative but to resort to force and, as always, seek support and guidance from God Almighty, the Exalted. In order to end the imposed war and to ensure a lasting peace in the region and remove the threat to international peace and security, there is no alternative but to implement justice, punish the aggressor and compensate the victim. Those that say the victim must be forced to accept an imposed peace should ask themselves do they know of any just power on the face of the earth to deter another attack by Saddam once he has recovered and gained strength? The strategy of imposing a ceasefire without due attention to the structural issues in the conflict will create an unstable border between Iran and Iraq worse than the borders of Occupied Palestine and will provide an opportunity for hegemonic powers to blackmail and spread their influence. Let there be no doubt about the future. Islam is on the rise, and the Islamic Republic, having proved that it is able to stand up and struggle for justice and the implementation of the Islamic laws, despite attacks from evil forces, grows stronger day by day. The heroic Muslims of Iran, more resolute than ever before, continue to defend Islam and the rights of the oppressed. The wave of the Islamic movement can be felt in Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and elsewhere. The future belongs to the Muslim masses and their beloved leaders. It is those kings and puppet rulers, installed by overnight coups and lacking any mass support, that have no place in the future. It is hoped that justice loving people are keen and alert enough to avoid siding with evil forces. October 2, 1985
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