1T NP W^ Hi OPCt KcuwNebraskan X ^ W W w Edited by Brandon Loomis Tuesday, May 1,1990 - .. ■ ■■■-..I.' —. - ■-. .I I ... n ■ „ ■ - _MM-WWMBW— Second hostage freed; Polhill visits White House DAMASCUS, Syria - American hostage Frank Reed was freed Mon day after being held for 43 ‘ ‘endless” months, much of the time blindfolded, by Shiite Moslem kidnappers in Leba non. He was the second American freed in nine days. ‘Td like to tell my family, espe cially my son Tarek, that his daddy is well. He is a little skinny, but he will be home very soon,” the 57-year-old educator from Malden, Mass., told state-run Syrian TV after his release. In the Boston suburb of Malden, Reed’s Syrian Moslem wife, Fahima “Fifi’ ’ Reed, 39, saw her husband on television and exclaimed, ‘‘He looks great! He’s in a suit_I want to see everybody happy as I am now.” Reed, who lived in Beirut since 1977, converted to Islam to marry Fahima. Tarek is their 9-ycar-old son. He was freed in Beirut at 8:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. EDT), Syrian officials said, and was driven to the Syrian capital, where Foreign Minister Farouk al Sharaa turned him over to U.S. am bassador Edward Djerejian. He left Damascus at 2:22 a.m. Tuesday (7:22 p.m. EDT Monday) on a U.S. military transport plane headed for the U.S. Air Force Base at Wi esbaden, We$t Germany, where he will undergo medical checks and a debriefing by a State Department team. President Bush hailed Reed’s re lease as Bush welcomed former hos tage Robert Polhill to the White House, another U.S. educator who was freed in Lebanon on April 22 after 39 months in captivity. Bush thanked Syria and Iran for their help in securing the releases and said “things seem to be moving,” but that there could be no rest “until all hostages are free.” There arc still 16 Westerners, in cluding six Americans, held hostage in Lebanon. “I hope this is a forerunner to the release of the other American hos tages and the others from other coun tries held against their will,” Bush said. The Iranian newspaper Tehran Times said Tuesday that unless Wash ington answers the latest releases with goodwill gestures, no more Ameri cans will go free. Reed appeared pale and smoked a cigarette following his release. At a briefing at the ministry, he said he could not answer some ques tions out of concern for the other hostages -- “I do not want to say anything that could harm them.” The freed captive appeared in reasonable health. He was cleanshaven, and wore a dark suit and a blue tie. His voice was husky. ‘ ‘ We had adequate fresh food, and the opportunity to bathe and shower, and given clean clothes,” he said. He told the briefing that although he was fed well and had warm cloth ing, “I was not very happy, of course.” Reed spoke haltingly at times, his eyes downcast. “I haven’t talked much 4‘as a hostage,” hecxplained. “I feel I’m well in terms of the basic organs I have in my body.” He said he did not hold the Leba nese people responsible for his or deal, and that “I want to thank the Syrian government for all their ef forts in helping me become a free man.” He said he was blindfolded 24 hours a day during much of his cap tivity. *‘I feel odd that my blindfold is not here,” he said, touching his face. He had an opportunity to bathe, Reed reported, and was offered the chance to watch TV occasionally, except for newscasts - but he re fused. “I did not want to be entertained when I had lost my freedom.” “I hope, Godspeed, that my col leagues ... somehow will be released soon,” he concluded. “It was lonely, it was boring,” he said. Asked why he thought he was captured, he replied: “No one ever said why I was taken. The bottom line was, I was an American.” Reed arrived at the Foreign Minis try at 11:20 p.m. (4:20 p.m. EDT) in a gray Peugeot. He was escorted out of the car by two Syrian security men, and whisked into the building through a side door. The security men helped the white haired Reed out of the car. But then he walked by himself into the minis try, where he appeared before a new s conference. In Beirut, Reed was handed to officers of the Syrian army contin gent that controls east and north Lebanon as well as Moslem west Beirut, where Reed was kidnapped Sept. 9, 1986, said the Syrian offi cials, who refused to be identified. They refused to say exactly where the release occurred. Journalists at the Summer land Hotel in Beirut, where previous hostages were released, said they did not see Reed. Latvian citizen’s group demands independence declaration MOSCOW - A Latvian citizen’s group claiming to represent hundreds of thousands of Latvians demanded Monday that the republic follow Lithu ania’s lead and declare independence from the Soviet Union, a spokeswoman said. The Latvian spokeswoman, voic ing sentiments identical to those heard in Lithuania, said, “This is an occu pied country. We are under Soviet power here, under an occupying army.’’ The Latvian Citizens’ Congress, elected mainly from among ethnic Latvians, convened Monday and called for restoration of Latvian independ ence, spokeswoman Iveeta Buickc said. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were independent countries between World War I and World War II but were forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. Ethnic Latvians make up just over half of Latvia’s population of 2.7 million, and a poll published Monday by the Soviet government newspaper Izvestia said that 92 percent of those polled favor secession. Non-Latvian residents make up 46 percent of the republic, and 45 percent were for independence. The congress met three days be fore the official Latvian Supreme Soviet parliament was to consider whether to emulate Lithuania’s March 11 declaration of independence. The Estonian parliament also has made clear it intends to follow Lithu ania in seceding from the Soviet Union, but more cautiously. The Latvian congress claims the right to replace the republic’s Su preme Soviet during the transition to independence. Its members were elected in March by registered ethnic Latvian voters. It says it represents about 700,000 Latvians. Latvian politicians arc predicting a heated parliamentary battle on the independence issue later this week. ‘ ‘ May 3 and 4 are going to be very hot days,” said Anda Anspoka of the pro-independence Latvian People’s Front, which won a majority in the Supreme Soviet in elections held in March. Soviet President Mikhaii Gorbachev recently warned Latvian delegates that he would offer the republic special status in a reconfigured Soviet fed eration but he would not accept out right secession. Gorbachev embargoed oil and natural gas shipments to Lithuania in response to its parliament’s declara tion of independence, although the sanctions do not seem to have damp ened the Lithuanians’ drive for sover eignty. Official Vilnius Radio reported on Sunday that Moscow planned to ease the sanctions by increasing natural gas deliveries to a large fertilizer plant at Jonova. However, deliveries did not in crease Monday, and it was impos sible to learn whether they would start before the end of the May Day holiday on Wednesday. 1^1 | | 0 101 !?WHY STUDY HARDER THAN YOU HAVE TO!? _ LET ZENITH SHOW YOU § HOW TO TAKE A BREAK £ Ijsr=r = ~T5W ' I ZENITH INNOVATES AGAIN “ -— iJ± iii _______ $ Z-286 LP 8MH1 with FTM momtof Let Zenith Data Systems make school work easier with the Z-286 LP, it delivers 286 speed and power in a compact, 4"-high cabinet design Our award win ning FTM monitor gives you the level ot compatibility and colors with greater depth and definition \\W=r= ’ . ■ ...r--:-n ■ SupersPort ?86 model 20 This battery-powered portable computer goes everywhere you and your back pack go!! And all the power of a desktop:! The SupersPort 286 offers: 1MB of memory, 79-key full-function keyboard, detachable battery, zero wait states and much more'! I o |0l Q«ap*ic« kuhMM MMroaoff* wtndoot < (M'XKm I of Mm k.vi* i orporaitor Mm roao** Wmttom* % •ncKxMO -rtf' it **»M modal* Of Data Sy*4*«» advanced daaftlop lyMmi 5p«oal oncm« 9il*yioodo»rtv-v'i*u»cfM*a»drta.ilvif»«»ii9f'^**»*ContM:«i»i«i»*MJ*tw^l»v«Mdartta fact** ar« «a* *»*#« *»» uaa »o off* (McoutH* apply . LaMfanaparwnMcdifHMla< PWftd'rtdua* nanv *; mo*>if'.««Hrtt f*f>ca*«.it)faciM.fM09a«rtf«ouimMca C 1989 Z«nith Data Sy*t«fTl» L-m Former HUD employee testifies I WASHINGTON - The Reagan administra tion’s Department of Housing and Urban De velopment was a “domestic political machine” under Samuel Pierce Jr., handing out giants to the well connected, a former HUD official later convicted of bribery told a House subcommit tee Monday. Dubois Gilliam, a former deputy assistant secretary under Pierce, disputed the former housing secretary’s assertion that he didn’t decide who got federal grants. Pierce himself ordered federal grants in some cases, Gilliam said. He linked the Reagan White House to the HUD controversy in at least one specific in stance, saying the administration ordered fed eral money for a New Mexico project that had encountered problems. “We dealt strictly with politics,” he told the panel that has spent more than a year investigating allegations of fraud, mismanage ment, influence peddling and political favorit ism at HUD. “During the period I was there ... the Department of Housing and Urban Develop ment was the best domestic political machine I have ever seen,” Gilliam said. Gilliam’s testimony was the first the panel has heard from a former top H UD insider about Pierce’s eight years as secretary. Pierce’s lawyers, who attended the hearing, dismissed Gilliam’s testimony as lacking credi bility. Attorney Paul Pcrito called the testimony “a sordid menu from an admitted felon.” He said Gilliam never accused Pierce of violating the law, and that Gilliam was testifying in an effort to win early release from prison. Pierce testified before the panel last May, later invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid further testimony. Three former top aides also refused to testify. Gilliam is serving an 18-month prison sen tence after pleading guilty to accepting gratui ties and conspiracy to defraud the government for abuse of HUD programs. Testifying under a court-ordered grant of immunity, he described receiving as much as SIOO.(XX) in clothes, money, travel and other gratuities from developers and consultants. Gilliam said he did not believe Pierce ever took any illegal gratuities. Subcommittee Chairman Tom Lantos, D Calif., called Gilliam “the key missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle.” Gilliam’s testimony about the Urban Devel opment Action Grant program raised new alle gations about a program under which grants were to be based on numerical formulas. He said HUD under Pierce considered who outside the agency supported projects when deciding which ones got money. Lantos asked Gilliam if he would agree with statements Pierce made in a September maga zine interview and to his committee in May 1989, saying he never told his top assistants to fund particular projects by developers seeking HUD grams. “I know for a fact the secretary made deci sions” on HUD grants, Gilliam said. He said Deborah Gore Dean, once Pierce’s executive assistant, would not allow approval of discretionary grants “without first clearing it with him.” Dean also has refused to testify before the Hose Government Operations sub committee on employment and housing. Nebraskan F tutor Amy Edwards Photc Chief Dave Hansen __ i72'1766 Night News Editors Jana Pedersen Managing Editor Ryan Sleeves Diane Bravlon Assoc Nows F ditors Lisa Conovan Professional Adviser Don Walton Thind. llk _ Eric Planner 473-7301 braskaUnior 34brianJfRQ,S^S 14,4 IS pubhsned by the UNL Publications Board, Ne weekly dur.ng summer session! ' NE' Ff'day dunnfl th# acaoem,c *ear; Dhomno o° Submit s,pry deas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by access9to the Puhi ,5 p m Monday through Friday The public also has • ^ SfttS^Sne year°rmaIIOn' Pam He,n 472 2588 St L?n