The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, May 05, 1989, Page 2, Image 2
NelSra&kan Editor Curt Waanar Night Now* Editor* Victoria Ayotta 473.17M Chrla Carroll .. ,1' uiZ Publication* Board a!S “ WSS lSTmSSi cn»'™n j«ji «“» Editorial Pago Editor Amy ?*“.?« Prolossronal Advisor Dost Walton The Daily NobraskantUSPS 144 080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Ne braska Umon 34, 1400 R St.. Lincoln, NE, Monday through Friday during the academic year, weekly during summer sessions Readers are encouraged to submit story idons and commonts to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 4/2 1763 between 9 a m and op m Monday through Friday The public also has access to the Publications Board For information, contact Tom Macy, 475 9868. Subscription price is $45 for one year Postmaster Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St .1 mcoln NE 88588 0448 Second class postage paid at Lincoln, NE ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1989 DAILY NEBRASKAN At least once more before you graduate. 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We Offer: • Flexible, self-determined hours • Located two blocks from campus • Paid professional training • Experience in the communications field For a personal interview contact Mr. Adams Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. ■.* Its WASHINGTON (AF) ** Oliver L. North, the Marine at the center tof the Reagan administration s secret effort to arm the Nicaragua Contras, was convicted Thursday of shredding documents and two other charges in the Iran-Contra affair. He was acquitted on nine other counts. North said he would appeal the jury’s decision: “We’re abso lutely confident of the final out come. As a Marine I was taught to fight and fight hard for as long as it takes to prevail.” “We will continue this battle.. . and we will be fully vindicated,” he told reporters in a statement at his lawyer’s office. He did not take questions. 1 ne tormer Marine, wno iuu» up to 10 years in prison on the convictions, accepted the verdict without any show of emotion. But a congressional supporter de scribed him as ‘absolutely elated” at the jury’s decision. After judge and jury had left the room, North walked to a railing separating him from his wife, Betsy, and kissed her lightly on the cheek. Mrs. North had been sitting in the front row with a clergyman. It was the first trial bom of the scandal that marred the last two years of Ronald Reagan’s presi dency and raised questions about then Vice PresidentGeorgc Bush’s involvement in the administra tion’s clandestine effort to arm the Contras. Even as the jury was returning its verdict, Bush told reporters at the White House that he did not participate in any arrangement to expedite aid to other countries in exchange for their support for the Contras. The White House said Bush would have no comment on the verdict. In Los Angeles, former Prcsient Reagan also declined comment North's defense was that he had been a good soldier loyally carry ing out what he knew his com mander-in-chief, the president, wanted. “The principle that no man is above the law has been vindi cated,” said prosecutor John Keker, who refused to answer re porters’ questions. Keker, in a brief statement on the courthouse steps, told report ers, “Some said the system of jus tice could not deal effectively with this case. Some even said it could not be tried. Col. North has been convicted of three very serious charges. The jury has spoken. North, 45, was pale and smiling nervously as he entered the court room where his trial began with jury selection more than three months ago. fenders in the congressional Iran Contra hearings two years ago, was in the courtroom for the ver dict Afterward, he walked up to North at the defense table and shock his hand. NguIi smiled broadly. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R Calif., described North as “abso lutely elated.” “We gave each other thumbs up,” said Rohrabacher, a former White House aide for whom North campaigned last year. He said the jury found North guilty “of only cutting comers and not breaking the law.” Public disclosure of the affair in November 1986 began the worst crisis of President Reagan's eight year presidency, a public furor that did not subside until after televised congressional hearings that made North a national figure. The former Marine lieutenant colonel, twice wounded in the Vietnam war and decorated with the Silver Star for heroism, re mained seated while the judge read the verdict The nine women and three men on the jury did not look at North as they filed into their seats. The panel found North guilty of three criminal charges - shredding docu ments, accepting an illegal gratu ity and one count of aiding and abetting in an obstruction of Con gress. U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell set June 23 for sentencing. The illegal gratuity conviction - accepting a $ 13,800 security fence for his home - carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The conviction for destroying documents is punishable by a three year sentence and $250,000 fine. For obstruction of Congress, the maximum penally is five years and $250,000. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-lll., who had been one of North’s chief de The jury convicted North of falsifying and destroying docu ments in November 1986 as the affair was about to become public, and of accepting an illegal gratuity - the home security system - from Iran-Contra co-defendant Richard Sccord. North also was convicted of aiding and abetting in obstruction of Congress by falsifying a chro nology of events in the affair. The false chronology stated that no one in the U.S. government knew until January 1986 that a CIA-assisted shipment from Israel to Iran in November 1985 contained Hawk missiles. He was acquitted of five other charges of lying to or obstructing Congress, of two counts of lying to then-Attorney General Edwin Mccse III and obstructing Mccse’s inquiry into the affair, of convert ing tra veler’s checks to his own use and of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by using a tax-exempt foundation to raise funds for the Contras. Space exploration resumed Craft sails into orbit, Magellan close behind CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Atlantis found a hole in the clouds and thundered into orbit Thursday, sailing 184 miles above Earth, where five astronauts prepared to propel NASA’s state-of-the-art Magellan probe on a mapmaking journey to Venus. Scientists hoped the S550 million project would open a new “golden age’ ’ for an Ameri can planetary program dormant for a decade In a spectacular start, the winged spaccplanc vaulted away from its seaside launch pad at 2:47 p.m. EDT, after being delayed a cliff-hanging 59 minutes by shifting clouds and winds that had threatened a second postponement in six days. The astronauts quickly turned to remotely checking Magellan before its scheduled re lease later Thursday into an independent orbit. An hour after that release, a rocket motor was to fire to propel the 7,600-pound Magellan on the start of a 456-day, 806-million-milc trip to Venus, a course that will take it 1 1/2 times around the sun. Atlantis departed the pad just five minutes before its64-minute launch window for the day would have expired - a window dictated by a requirement to have the shuttle in the proper position in orbit to dispatch Magellan. The launch team had advanced the couni down to the 5-minutc mark and held there, waiting for a break in the clouds that obscured a runway near the launch pad where Atlantis would land in an emergency. Chief astronaut Dan Brandenstcin, flying a weather scout plane, found a break, signaled the go-ahead, and the count was started and carried down to the blazing liftoff. - “It was another cliff-hanger. I’m glad you stuck with it,” acting NASA administrator Dale D. Myers said as he congratulated the launch team. It waslhe60lh U.S. man-in-space flight, the 29th for the shuttle and the fourth since the ^a||cn^e|,plosion more than three years “Four of us arc very happy to be back in space, and the fifth one is very happy to be here,” radioed astronaut David Walker, mis sion commander. Walker, pilot Ron Grabc and mission spe cialists Mary Clcvc and Norman Thagard flew on previous shuttle flights. Mission specialist Mark Lee is a rookie. “Did somebody win the pool up there? mission control commentator John Creighton asked the crew. *‘ We had only five mmutes leit in the window.” “We wouldn’t want to push it any closer,’ rcpl'cd Walker. A launch attempt last Friday was halted with just 31 seconds to go because of a short circuit in an engine fuel pump. Technicians worked around the clock over the weekend to replace the pump and a fuel line. NASA had to launch Magellan by May 28 or ground it lor two years until Earth and Venus were again in the proper alignment. Among tens ol thousands wno wdiuicu uu, rare afternoon liftoff were some of the coun try’s most renowned planetary scientists. I hey have been wailing to resume solar system exploration since 1978, when Pioneer-Venus was launched on the last U.S. planetary expedi tion. Success for Magellan would signal the start of a science-rich three-year period during which five major probes will be rocketed into space. “The overture, the symphony, begins witn Magellan,” said NASA science chic! Lennart! Fisk. “It’s going to be a long symphony. Its going to have a lot of crescendos.... Nobody is going to question our leadership in planetary science again.” f Fisk hailed Magellan’s flight as the start o a “second golden age” of space science, i n first was the period from the mid- 1960s to tn late-1970s when unmanned spacecraft lor t e first time were launched to make closeup e' ' aminations pf Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupitc » Saturn and Uranus. , ,.. 1 •