Daily Nebraskan
Tuesday, December 2, 1986
News Digest
By The Associated Press
Page 2
Arms controversy continues
Reagan: NSC operations will halt during review
WASHINGTON President Reagan ordered his Nat ional
Security Council staff Monday not to conduct diplomatic,
military or intelligence operations while a review board
investigates the agency's role in the secret sale of arms to
Iran and the diversion of profits to Nicaraguan rebels.
Asserting that "I want all the facts to come out," the
president also said he would welcome appointment of a
special prosecutor if recommended by the Justice Depart
ment to investigate possible wrongdoing.
As he reiterated that he had known nothing about the
secret transfer of up to $30 million to the Nicaraguan rebels,
known-as Contras. In a statement to his press spokesman in
response to questions from reporters, Reagan said: "You can
tell them flat out that I had no konwledge whatsoever of it
until (Attorney General) Ed Meese briefed me on it Monday
afternoon" Nov. 24.
Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee went
behind closed doors to begin its own investigation of the
Iran-Contra affair.
White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the admin
istration "has raised no objection" to key figures in the case
testifying before Congress. However, he said information
the constitues advice to the president "could come under
the claim of executive privilege" and might be withheld.
White House and congressional leaders debated a
proposal from Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of
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Kansas for the president to call Congress back to town to
form a Watergate-style investigative committee.
Reagan said the idea was "under discussion and there's
been no decision yet. But we want to work with the
Congress."
Democrats, who will take control of the Senate in
January, appeared cool to the idea
Senate Democratic Leader Robert Byrd of West Virginia,
the incoming majority leader, said a special session "would
be an overreaction." House Majority Leader Jim Wright,
D-Texas, in line to become speaker in the new Congress,
said any congressional probe should be undertaken "in an
orderly manner, carefully and deliberatively by the regular
session of Congress."
In Brief
Soviets test space shuttle
CAPE CANAVERAL, Flu. The Soviet I'nion has completed the first
tests of its space shuttle on a launch pad and plans to begin manned
flights in early 1988, the same time U.S. shuttle flights are to resume, an
aerospace industry magazine reported Monday.
Aviation Week & Space Technology said pict ures taken by U.S. recon
naissance satellites showed the shuttle mounted piggy-back on its boos
ter rocket for a series of fit checks. It said the vehicle was removed from
the pad following the tests.
The magazine said U.S. intelligence officials believe the Soviets will
attempt the first launch of the booster, unmanned, in 1987, and the first
manned launch of the shuttle in 1988, about the time the American
shuttle returns to flight for the first time since the Challenger disaster
that killed seven crew members.
Spy's property to be sold at auction
NORFOLK, Va, Convicted spy John A. Walker Jr.'s house, two boats, a
car and other property will be sold at public auction Dec. 1 0, the Internal
Revenue Service announced Monday.
The IRS seized Walker's property in J une 1 985 for non-payment of taxes.
Walker lived in the two-story brick and frame house until he was
arrested on espionage charges in May 1985.
The retired Navy chief warrant officer recruited his brother, son and
former Navy buddy to sell secrets to the Soviet Union in what Navy officials
said was the most damaging spy ring in U.S. history.
Other items to be auctioned include an 18-foot sailboat and trailer, a
34-foot houseboat, a 1980 Chrysler sedan, tools, a coin collection, elec
tronic equipment, silver bars and household items.
Witness changes testimony
in 'Twilight Zone' case
LOS ANGELES A key witness
in the "Twilight Zone" manslaugh
ter trial reversed himself Monday
and supported a prosecution theory
that a last-minute change in a
helicopter's course preceded the
crash that killed actor Vic Morrow
and two children.
The reversal came early in after
noon testimony by James Camomile,
a special-effects technician whom
the defense blames for the crash.
The prosecution claims the heli
copter's course was changed to
bring it closer to the explosives for
increased dramatic effect.
Attorneys for director John Landis
and four other defendants maintain
that Camomile was not paying
attention to the Vietnam War scene
being shot and fired his bombs
before Morrow and the children
were out of the line of fire.
Several other witnesses have said
the helicopter was lower and closer
to a cliff than it had been during
previous flights.
Morrow. 53, Myca Kern 7, and
Renee Chen, (j, were killed when the
chopper crashed atop them. Landis,
associate producer George Folsey,
production manager Dan Allingham,
special effects coordinator Paul
Stewart and pilot Dorcey Wingo are
charged with involuntary man
slaughter. Prosecutors say they
behaved recklessly, failing to con
sider safety.
Camomile has admitted he fired
a series of explosions which engulfed
the helicopter before it went into a
spin.
National Archives plans to release
Nixon documents, tape recordings
WASHINGTON Former President
Richard M. Nixon was counseled by a
top aide in 1969 to avoid a visit to Mrs.
Martin Luther King on the first anniver
sary of her husband's assassination
because "it would outrage many, many
people."
The aide, Patrick Buchanan, was a
speechwriter in the Nixon White House.
He is the director of communications
for President Reagan.
Buchanan's memo was among 1.5
million documents from the Nixon
administration made public Monday by
the National Archives. It was the first
release of textual mater il from Llie
more than 40 million documents Nixon
left behind when he resigned Aug. 9,
1974.
Missing from the newly released
documents are the most sensitive of
the Nixon files those relating to the
Watergate scandal that drove him from
Court to decide future of South Dakota's
federal highway funds, drinking age issue
WASHINGTON The Supreme
Court said Monday it will decide
whether states may be denied some
federal highway money if they fail to
adopt a minimum drinking age of
21.
At issue in the drinking-age case
is the constitutionality of a 1984
federal law aimed at reducing
drunken driving by teen-agers, a
major cause of death among tha
age group.
The law requires the secretary of
transportation to withhold part of
the federal money otherwise availa
ble to a state for highway consturc
tion if the state permits "the pur
chase or public possession ... of
any alcoholic beverage" by someone
under 21.
Under the law, those states with a
minimum drinking age under 21
lose 5 percent of the highway funds
otherwise due for fiscal year 1987
and 1 0 percent of such funds during
fiscal year 1988.
South Dakota, which permits
people 19 and 20 years old to pur
c' se and publicly possess beer
containing a low percentage of
alcohol, sued Secretary of Transpor
tation Elizabeth H. Dole shortly
after the law was passed by Con
gress and signed by President
Reagan.
Lower courts ruled against South
Dakota, discounting its argument
that the 1984 law infringes consti
tutionally endowed state power to
set drinking ages. The lower courts
said states remain free to set those
ages at the risk of losing federal
highway money.
Hindus riot over Sikh killings;
Gandhi pledges to deter terrorism
NEW DELHI, India Hindus rioted
and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
pledged "tough and strong action"
against Sikh terrorists Monday, the day
after four gunmen pulled Hindus off a
bus in Punjab and killed 24 of them.
Police said Sikh militants killed
eight more people in Punjab state
Monday.
Sikh extremists, who want inde
pendence for Punjab, killed 14 Hindus
in a similar bus hijacking July 25.
Paramilitary troops were ordered to
patrol New Delhi during a general
strike called for Tuesday by an opposi
tion Hindu political party. Strikes also
were scheduled in the Hindu-dominated
states of Haryana and Kashmir next to
Punjab, which has a Sikh majority.
Shops were closed Monday by gen
eral strikes in towns and cities through
out Punjab. Clashes between Sikh and
Hindu youths were reported in Jal
lundhar, but police said no serious
injuries resulted.
About 3,000 Hindus rioted and threw
stones on the edge of New Delhi. Police
fired shots and tear gas into the air to
scatter the crowds.
Officers said they arrested 100 peo
ple for trying to block traffic on the
main ring road around the capital.
Gandhi appealed in Parliament for
all Indians to "be careful and hold
tempers down." He said "a concrete
plan" of strong action had been devised
to combat Sikh extremism, but did not
elaborate. -
The political turmoil is the greatest
faced by the 42-year-old prime minister
since he assumed power in 1984 during
anti-Sikh rioting caused by the assas
sination of his mother, Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi, by Sikh members of her
personal bodyguard.
office. The National Archives once
before tried to release those but was
stopped by 29 lawsuits filed by former
Nixon associates.
The Archives, which has custody of
the Nixon materials, is expecting to try
again next month to open the papers to
public scrutiny. The law requires that a
notice of such release be published in
the Federal Register and that any
persons who object have 60 days to do
so.
Buchanan's memo, written on April
1, 1969, said Nixon should observe the
first anniversary of the civil rights
leader's death by doing no more than
issuing a statement.
On July 20, 1 97 l,Jeb Stuart Magruder,
then with the Committee to Re-elect
the President, suggested that the
president make plans to attend the
baseball game when Oakland A's pitcher
Storm socks
western plains;
strands travelers
Wind-whipped snow drifted across
the western Plains on Monday in the
wake of a storm that dumped 2 feet of
snow on the Rockies, closed more than
360 miles of interstate highway and
stranded thousands of travelers.
"Roads are treacherous," said Tripp
County, S.D., highway superintendent
Marty Anderson.
Several thousand homes in rural
northwestern Kansas were without
electricity after ice accumulations
snapped power lines, said Bill Ohle
meier of the Kansas Electric Coopera
tive in Topeka.
The National Weather Sen ice posted
advisories warning of blowing and
drifting snow from northern New Mex
ico across eastern Colorado into parts
of Kansas, and rain, some of it freezing,
fell to the east across the Plains.
Snow blown by wind gusting to 48
mph cut visibility to near zero over
much of western Kansas on Monday,
the weat her service said, and snow had
piled up in drifts 4 to 6 feet high in
parts of southeastern Colorado.
Colorado's Winter Park ski area
reported two feet of snow in two days,
said meteorologist Keith Williams, and
the Denver suburb of Littleton got 14
inches.
A 360-mile section of Interstate 70
between Denver and Hays, Kan., was
reopened Monday after being closed for
up to 20 hours, and many other high
ways in western Kansas also had been
closed.
Icy weather also sidetracked travel
ers along Interstate 80 in western
Nebraska.
Vida Blue would go for his 30th victory.
In February of 1970 V. L. Nicholson,
director of information for the Presi
dent's Council on Physical Fitness in
Sports, advised strongly against Nixon
sending a message of commendation to
the Harlem Globetgrotters. "Many black
people, particularly the young, are
strongly resentful of the Globetrotters
and feel they help perpetuate the
image of the Negro which is highly
unfavorable and even insulting," Nich
olson said in a memo.
The documents also revealed that
Nixon astonished some aides by meeting
with Elvis Presley on Dec. 21, 1970.
Presley had written to Nixon saying he
wanted to be named a federal drug
agent. According to a memo, "an
arrangement was worked out where
Presley would receive a specially
prepared badge . . . with his name on
it."
Correction
In Monday's Letter to the Editor
"Drunk Native American Image
is Unfair" (Daily Nebraskan, Dec.
1), the writer's name was mis
spelled. Her name is Lakota
Harden. The Daily Nebraskan
regrets the error.
Nebraskan
Editor
Managing Editor
Assoc. News Editors
Editorial
Page Editor
Wire Editor
Copy Desk Chief
Sports Editor
Arts & Entertain
ment Editor
Photo Chief
Night News Editors
Art Director
Diversions Editor
General Manager
Production Manager
Advertising
Manager
Student Advertising
Manager
Creative Director
Publications Board
Chairman
Jeff Korbelik
472-1766
Gene Gentrup
Tammy Kaup
Linda Hartmann
James Rogers
Scott Thien
Joan Rezac
Chuck Green
Scott Harrah
Andrea Hoy
Geoff Goodwin
Jeanne Bourne
Tom Lauder
Charles Lieurance
Daniel Shattil
Katherine Policky
Lesley Larson
Bryan Peterson
Kelly Wirges
Harrison Schultz.
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