Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 1987)
News Digest— By The Associated Press U.S., Soviet Union suggest arms plans Leader suggests development plan from arms layoff UNITED NATIONS — Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev Tuesday proposed that leaders of the 15 nations on the U.N. Security Council meet to discuss how money saved from disarmament could be spent on economic develop ment. The Kremlin chief made the sugges tion in a message read by Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir F. Petrovsky to the 140-nation International Confer ence on the Relationship between Dis armament and Development. “It would be useful to discuss in ' principle the problems of disarmament and development at a special meeting of top leaders of member states of the U.N. Security Council,” Gorbachev said in the message. The Soviet leader also proposed that the United Nations create an interna tional fund into which member states would place money saved through dis armament. The money would be given to developing countries. The United States has expressed opposition to a linkage between the issues of disarmament and develop ment, and refused to send any repre sentatives to the current conference, which began Monday and runs through Sept. 11. Gorbachev referred to the U.S. action, saying: “Obstacles erected by the oppo nents of disarmament on the road towards the conference have confirmed once again the interdependence of dis armament and development and the urgency of the task.” Negotiators for the United States Brian Barber/Daily Nebraskan and Soviet Union have worked through the summer trying to resolve the prob lems before the scheduled meeting Sept. 15-17 in Washington of Secretary of State George P. Shultz and the Soviet foreign minister, Eduard A. Shev ardnadze. Arms verification simplified under new U.S. proposal GENEVA — The United States pres ented new proposals on Tuesday that it said would simplify verification proce dures under a U.S.-Soviet agreement to do away with all intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Members of the American delega tion submitted the proposals in a meet ing of the negotiating teams dealing with Intermediate Nuclear Forces medium- and shorter range weapons with ranges from 300 to 3,000 miles. U.S. spokesman Terry Shroeder said that Soviet acceptance in July of elimi nating all intermediate weapons, called the double-zero option, had enabled the United States to change its verifi cation requirements. Before the Soviet announcement, the plan had been for each superpower to keep 100 medium-range weapons on its own territory. ‘‘Today we are laying out how this simplification could be achieved,’’ Schroeder said, adding that the U.S. proposals, “although simplified, will still be the most stringent ever pro posed in any U.S.-Soviet negotiations and will include on site inspection.” In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley was asked whether the new U.S. position drops some intrusive measures, including inspection of factories and intelligence monitoring sites. She replied: “There are two msyor changes in this. One is we have changed our ‘suspect site’ inspection proposal because the opportunity for illegal missile activities are significantly re duced when an entire class of missiles and its infrastructure has been elim inated. "Also, we have dropped our require ment for perimeter-portal monitoring. This was done because the perimeter portal monitoring system was designed to monitor the flow of missiles from product ion and final assembly facilities. “With the production ban and the elimination of all INF (Intermediate Nuclear Forces) missiles within three years this would be unnecessary.’’ Shroeder would not give details of the proposals, cit;ng the confidential ity rule the two sides have adopted in the talks. He said the U.S. delegation "sharply rejected suggestions in U.S. media reports that we are backing off or sof tening our proposals.” On Monday in Washington, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the new American proposals would scale back demands for on-site inspection of nuclear missile facilities. 1 nreat empties AIDS brothers’ grade school ARCADIA, Fla. — A bomb threat forced temporary evacuation of an ele- ' mentary school Tuesday when three brothers exposed to the AIDS virus arrived for their second day of class under court orders. Later, a caller to the school adminis trative offices simply said "boom" and hung up, said DeSoto County Sheriff Joe Varnadore. After the first call, the school was searched, nothing was found and routines were resumed, said Larry Browning, school superintendent. "We’ll get to the bottom of this, par ticularly if they call again, and I’ll press charges,” Browning said, calling the incideuts “hurtful to the school dis trict, the children and the taxpayers." He said tracers were being put on school telephone lines. Elsewhere, a school board 50 miles away has voted to bar another child who tested positive for the AIDS virus, and parents in a Tennessee community are threatening a boycott of a school if a young AIDS carrier is admitted. Arcadia’s Memorial Elementary School has been the subject of protest rallies and parents’ calls for a student boycott since a federal judge ruled that the Ray brothers — Ricky, 10, Robert, 9, and Randy, 8 — have the right to attend classes with other children. Nebraskan Editor Managing Editor Assoc News Editors Editorial Page Editor Wire Editor Copy Desk Chief Sports Editor Arts 4 Entertain ment Editor Asst Arts & Entertainment Edapr Graphics Editor Asst Graphics Editor Photo Chief Publications Board Chairman Professional Adviser Miki Reilley 472 1766 Jan Oeealmi Jann Nyflaler Mika Hooper Joanna Bourne Linda Hartmann Joan Rezac Jeff Apal Bill Allan Charloe Liaurance Mark Davli Tom Laudar Paul Vonderlage Don Johnaon. <72 3811 Don Walton. 473 7301 <iinr»f' 4 4 4 AUMl 1C ino uaiiy mcuidbRdn iujrj v)r' a published dv the UNL Publications Board Monday through Friday in the fall and spring semesters ana Tuesdays and Fridays in tne summer sessions, except during vacations Subscription once is $35 tor one year Postmaster Send address changes to tne Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34.1400 H St Lincoln. Neb 68588-0448 Second-class postage paid at Lincoln. NE ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1987 0AILY NEBRASKAN Official says he aided contras, kept silent WASHINGTON — A senior CIA offi cial lias told Congress he "got a little ^ too rambunctious" in aiding Nicara gua’s contra rebels last year, then sat silently while superiors gave “cute" answers to Congress to nice U.S. invol vement in supplying the contras. Alan Fiers, chief of the CIA’s Central American Task Force, said in declassi fied testimony released Tuesday that he reluctantly decided against speak ing up when his bosses told the House Intelligence Committee last Oct. 14 that they knew nothing about the crash of a resupply plane in Nicaragua a week earlier. "I am troubled by it then; I am troubled by it now," Fiers told the Iran contra committees on Aug. 5. "I am not very happy about it. Probably it was the most difficult decision I have made in my Ufe.” But he told the committees that as part of the Keagan administration, he did not want to break ranks with "the teem” and be the first to tell the story. He acknowledged that he himself had directed that lethal supplies be dropped to the contras fighting along Nicaragua's southern front. In other testimony, released by the committees after sensitive portions were blacked out, Fiers said: • That fired National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Oliver North had a close relationship with CIA Director William Casey, but that he did not know what the two men discussed. • North, after an interagency meeting on the Contras, began passing around photographs of a clandestine resupply airstrip being built in Costa Rica. To do so was "dumb,” Fiers said, because "it clearly indicated an invol vement that was something more than a facilitator at that point in time,” late 1985 or early 1986. • Fiers had been questioned by the grand jury investigating the Iran contra affair about matters including the Costa Rican airstrip. • A $20,000 performance bonus he received from the CIA for 1986 did not constitute a bribe from Casey, but he kept the check in a drawer for three months, waiting to see how the con troversy would turn out. • CIA personnel in Central Amer ica should have put a "buffer” between themselves and private citizens or oth ers aiding the contras to get around prohibitions on providing intelligence assistance for deliveries of lethal sup plies. Fiers said that at one point in his direction of the agency’s Central Amer iean efforts, “I let the reins out, I got a little too rambunctious, like a colt that got out of the barn to play, and 1 pulled myself back in.” In his testimony he did not specifi cally refer to possible legal problems from Congress’ proscription on contra aid, but said of his backing off, "I didn’t do it by myself. My task force lawyer was whispering like Jiminj Cricket in my ear. I probably got us a little too far forward leaning at a point in time and then pulled us back." In Brief Plane crew may have disconnected alarm DETROIT — The crew of Northwest Flight 255 had disconnected an alarm meant to indicate problems with the airplane’s takeoff gear, a Detroit television station reported. The plane’s cockpit voice recorder has shown no evidence that the alarm sounded before Flight 255 took off Aug. 16 from Detroit Metropoli tan Airport. The plane crashed just after takeoff in the second-worst airplane disaster in the nation’s history. The alarm would normally go off when the airplane's wing flaps are not in proper position. A preliminary check of the plane’s flight data recorder indicated that the wing flaps were not extended before takeoff. Customs officials seize tons of cocaine SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Customs officials searching shipping con tainers of toilet paper in San Juan and Florida found an estimated 4,700 pounds of cocaine, one of the largest seizures in U.S. history, officials said. The cocaine was packed in two-pound cardboard boxes sealed inside the hollow rectangular metal beams that frame the containers. “This was a highly sophisticated group of smugglers we were dealing with here," said Miami customs spokesman Michael Sheehan. CDC reports first decline in abortions ATLANTA — A new report from the nationa Centers for Disease Control says 1,268,987 legal abotions were performed in the United States in 1983, the latest year for which figures were available. That was down 2.7 percent from the 1,303,980 reported in 1982. It was the first reported decrease since national abortion record keeping began in 1969. The CDC, in its latest Surveillance Summaries report, drew no conclusions about the decrease. Up to 7 inches of rain soak county Storms dumped up to 7 inches of rain on eastern Nebraska Tuesday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a flood warning for seven counties, including Lancaster. Rainfall totaled 7.3 inches at Waverly and 7.16 inches at Ceresco, both near Lincoln. Numerous streams were reported overflowing and some people in low-lying areas were evacuated. "In the deepest part, water is up to the headlights on a Subaru," said Lancaster County Sheriffs Sgt. Joe Splichal. *-----4 Titanic artifacts will belong to everyone NEW YORK — The more than 300 objects recovered this summer from the wreck of the Titanic will be neither sold nor held privately, but displayed around the world, organizers of an international expedition said Tuesday. "We have a lot of respect for the people who die»:” on the luxury line, said Robert Chappaz of France, an expedition organizer. "Titanic was a kind of link between Europe and the United States, and it’s part of our common history. It belongs to the peo ple of the world.” Artifacts also will be shown on a television special this fall, expedition officials said at a news conference. Under the terms of the expedition's covenant, objects recovered ‘‘may never be sold," said Robert Slavitt, the expe dition’s lawyer. ‘‘No way, no time, no place, no now.” The expedition’s investors will receive proceeds from the television program and sales of tickets to view the collec tion. Ticket prices would be such that "a family of six will be able to afford it,” said George Tulloch, another organ izer. Following a world tour, the Titanic collection will be placed in a museum or other institution for long term dis play, they said. Despite criticism that the expedi tion was desecrat ing the resting place of the 1,613 people who died when the Titanic sank in 1912, a statement released by the expedition said the memorial." Earlier this month the Senate passed a resolution barring the sale or display for profit of Titanic artifacts. Although Slavitt questioned the vote’s signifi cance. Tuloeh said the collection would be displayed in the United States on a non profit basis, if necessary. The Titanic was first located in 1985 by a U.S. French expedition led by Robert Ballard, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. He later used a small submarine, Alvin 11, and a small cam era-carrying robot sub, .Jason Jr., to explore the wreck, and his film became a National Geographic television spe cial on cable station WTBS.