Tuesday, January 20, 1987
Daily Nebraskan
By The Associated Press
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Officials wanted against trade
Letters reveal true Mencken
Hostage swap may inspire more terrorism
BONN, West Germany Prominent politicians cauti
oned officials Monday against swapping a Lebanese suspect
in the 1985 TWA hijacking for a West German abducted in
Beirut. They said a trade would inspire more terrorist
attacks.
Government spokesmen in Bonn played down reports
that the kidnapping in Beirut of businessman Rudolf Cordes
was aimed at forcing the release of Mohammed Ali Hamadi,
accused of being one of the terrorists who seized the jetliner
in June 1985.
A U.S. Navy diver on the plane was shot to death at Beirut
airport after the jet was commandeered during a flight from
Rome to Athens.
Hans Stercken, chairman of Parliament's foreign affairs
committee, said in a radio interview: "Those who are aware
of the tendency toward terrorist acts in the Middle East
know that the acceptance of blackmail increases the chan
ces of new acts."
The Justice Ministry, said Hamadi's extradition to the
United States would be accomplished quickly. It had been
delayed pending a pledge from the Americans not to apply
the death penalty if Hamadi is convicted. West Germany
does not have a death penalty.
Hamadi, 22, was arrested last Tuesday at the Frankfurt
airport after arriving from Beirut. U.S. officials have asked
that he be extradited to stand trial in an American Court.
Authorities said he was identified by fingerprints as one
of those who seized the TWA aircraft June 14, 1985, shot
Navy diver Robert Stethem to death and held 39 American
passengers hostage for 17 days.
Gunmen seized Cordes, 53-year-old Beirut manager of
West Germany's Hoechst chemical company, after he
arrived in the Lebanese capital Saturday from Frankfurt.
NEW YORK ILL. Mencken, "The
Bad Boy from Baltimore" who was
known for his cynical style and wit,
revealed joy and despair in letters he
exchanged with the woman he eventu
ally married, a new book shows.
The collection of love letters, titled
"Mencken & Sara," will be published
Feb. 14 by the McGraw-Hill Book Co.
"The letters reveal a tender and soft
side," said the collection's editor, Mar
ion Elizabeth Rodgers. "We tend to
think of Mencken as an old curmud
geon who hated everything, but it is not
so."
The book contains about 450 letters
Mencken exchanged with writer Sara
Haardt, whom he married in 1930. They
wrote from 1923 until her death of
tuberculosis in 1935.
Rodgers found the letters in 1981 in
the rare book room of the Goucher Col
lege library in Baltimore. Mencken,
who died in 1956, had donated them in
1936 but ordered that they not be
opened for 45 years.
The Baltimore-born writer's best
known works included, "The American
Language," "Prejudices: A Selection,"
and an autobiographical trilogy, "The
Days of ILL. Mencken."
Mencken met Haardt in 1923 at
Goucher College in Baltimore, when
she attended a lecture he was giving
called "How to Catch a Husband." At
the time, Mencken, a bachelor, was 43
and Haardt 25.
"He and Sara were very traditional in
their way, but he was just as confused
as men are today it took him seven
years to propose to Sara," Rodgers
noted.
Haardt started the correspondence
on May 20, 1923. Referring to Mencken's
critique of her short stories, she wrote:
"These suggestions of yours would
make a villain laugh."
Many other letters also centered on
the couple's craft. But their tone grew
fonder and more whimsical after Oct. 7,
1923, when Haardt wrote: "I know one
thing: that for a mortal with a sense of
humor you are the most perfect gen
tleman I have ever seen or heard tell
of."
Anarchist group 'cracked', but attorney: 'It's out there'
SOMERVILLE, N.J. Law officers say they
have cracked the most active unit in the domes
tic armed underground with convictions in a
New York bombing case, a mixed verdict from a
New Jersey trooper slaying trial and a pending
sedition case in Boston.
. But a lawyer for one of the avowed revolution
aries in the New Jersey case says of the United
Freedom Front: "It's out there. I'm sure you'll
hear from them."
"Where there is repression, there will always
be resistance," said the lawyer, Lynne Stewart.
A mistrial was declared Sunday for her client, recognized Manning as a fugitive and conns
Richard C.Williams, when a jury failed to reach a cated a gun before being shot by Williams, a
verdict
Co-defendant Thomas W. Manning was con
victed of felony murder, which is committing
homicide while committing another felony,
robbery and escape. But he was acquitted on the
separate charge of murder, leaving in question
passenger in the car.
Manning contended he shot the trooper in
self-defense. Williams denied he was even at the
murder scene. The state is considering whether
to retry Williams.
Despite the mistrial, which the defendants
who fired nine shots that killed Trooper Philip hailed as a victory for "anti-imperialist freedom
Lamonaco in December 1981. fighters," law enforcement agents say the United
The state alleged that Manning was driving a Freedom Front is essentially destroyed,
car Lamonaco stopped, and that the trooper "I think they're pretty well wiped out," said
New Jersey Detective Sgt. Richard Ryan, who
worked on the case for four years.
Manning and Williams face lengthy prison
terms for their March 1986 conviction with five
other United Freedom Front members in the
bombing of New York-area corporate and mil
itary offices from 1982 to 1984. The seven also
face trial in Boston on charges of plotting to
overthrow the federal government.
It has taken law officers more than a decade
to get this far in efforts to break the United
Freedom Front.
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Communists expel liberal educator
PEKING Fang Lizhi, an astrophysicist who gained
national prominence by standing up for student demonstra
tors, was expelled from the Communist Party for preaching
Western liberal ideas, the official media reported Monday.
Fang, 50, was fired last week from his position as vice
president of China Science and Technology University in
Hefei.
Fang's expulsion from the party came as Zhao Ziyang, the
premier and acting party chief, issued assurances that
intellectuals would not be victimized by another ideologi
cal purge.
The Xinhua News Agency said the local party branch
decided to expel Fang on Saturday because he "attempted
to incite intellectuals against the party and students to
make trouble, causing grave consequences."
The official said Fang denied Marxism, vilified China's
socialist system as "modern feudalism" and called for
independence of universities from party leadership.
He was accused of "advocating bourgeois democracy and
freedom and instigating students to make trouble."
Fang, a graduate of Peking University who became one of
China's pioneer researchers in laser theory, gained a
nationwide reputation for speaking out for greater demo
cracy and pointing out anomalies in the socialist system.
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Correction
Monday's story about the
Nebraska State Student Associa
tion's 12th Legislative Assembly
incorrectly said, "Students from
Chadron State College and UNO
were in favor of videotape in
struction because learning from
a television is far less educa
tional than learning from a human
being."
The story should have said
those students were in favor of
videotape instruction because it
is the only way they can take
some classes. UNL delegates,
however, were not in favor of
videotape instruction because
learning from a television is far
less educational than learning
from a human being.
The Daily Nebraskan regrets
the error.
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Editor
Managing Editor
Assoc. Newsbditors
Jelf Korbelik
472-1763
Gene Gentrup
Tammy Kaup
Linda Kallmann
Use Oisen
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In Brief
Sid resorts try to recover
LOS ANGELES California's ski season finally is in full swing, but
resorts face an uphill battle to recoup millions of dollars lost when a snow
shortage left most slopes barren through the Christmas holidays.
"If we have a good January, February and March we could certainly
recoup some business and make (the losses) up, but it will not be our best
year," said Bob Roberts, executive director of the Sierra Ski Areas
Association in San Francisco.
When the storms that normally dump up to several feet of snow at
resorts by late December held off until around New Year's, about one-fifth
of the $350 million taken in annually by ski resorts in California and
Nevada was lost, Roberts said.
Wheelchair contestant is inspirational
FAIRFIELD, Calif. Maria Serrao, the first wheelchair contestant in a
beauty pageant leading to the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, says
that even though she lost she hopes she was an inspiration to others.
The 23-year-old actress, who was paralyzed in a car accident at age 5,
received enthusiastic applause during evening gown and swimsuit
competitions Sunday. She also was well-received in the opening produc
tion, as she swung her arms and spun her wheelchair in a dance number
that featured the contestants in a Las Vegas-style chorus line, with feather
headdresses and sequined costumes.
. "If somebody looks to me as an inspiration, that's great," she said.
"People can do a lot of things they think they can't. If I could be a role
model for someone to help overcome their obstacles, then I'd feel good."
Woman tries to sell her baby
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. A pregnant woman who allegedly offered to
sell her baby for $15,000 so she could buy a car and pay off debts has been
charged with child selling, authorities said.
Joi E. Silverthorne, 27, of Tampa, was arrested Saturday after the
Jacksonville couple, whom authorities would not identify, met her at
Jacksonville International Airport.
They were to give $3,500 to Silverthorne as a first payment for her baby,
authorities said. Instead, they turned her over to investigators who were
nearby and recording the conversation, according to a police report.
Child selling is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, said
Assistant State Attorney E. McRae Mathis. Silverthorne was released
Sunday on 15,000 bond and is to appear in court Jan. 28, ajail official said.
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