By the
Associated Press
Edited by Jana Pedersen
Egypt may be cleared of $7 billion debt
WASHINGTON - President Bush
will ask Congress to write off Egypt’s
$7 billion military debt to the United
States as “a symbol of our apprecia
tion” for help in the Persian Gulf
crisis, the While House said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State
James A. Baker III gave Congress a
ringing defense of the Bush admini
stration’s decision to pour troops and
weapons into the Middle East, saying
the United States had to react vigor
ously to ‘‘one of the defining mo
ments of a new era.”
He noted that economic effects of
the crisis already arc being felt, in
such ways as higher gasoline prices,
but he said the issue was hardly that
narrow.
“It is, rather, about a dictator who,
acting alone and unchallenged, could
strangle the global economic order,
determining by fiat whether we all
enter a recession or even the darkness
of a depression,” Baker told the House
Foreign Affairs Committee.
Baker also said the administration
would consider ‘ ‘working with others
to create a new security structure for
the region,” lasting beyond the end
of the current crisis.
He gave little detail on how such
I"'"'
an organization might work, though
he pointed to success by NATO in
curbing Soviet expansion during the
Cold War.
Presidential Press Secretary Mar
lin Fitzwater said Bush already had
consulted with members of Congress
about forgiving Egypt’s military debt
and felt confident they would give the
required approval. ButPatrick Leahy,
chairman of a Senate foreign aid panel,
said the debt forgiveness would lead
to similar requests from other nations
and “I’m not willing to double or
triple cur foreign aid budget without
a lot more understanding of what the
United States gets out of it.”
House Republican Leader Bob
Michel, loo, said the White House
announcement “may be a little pre
mature.” He added, “I would like to
hear firsthand from the administra
tion the rationale” for the move.
In a White House briefing the day
after Bush returned from his Kcn
nebunkport, Maine, vacation, Fitzwa
tcr also said on other Persian Gulf
topics:
• There “is no conflict with the
Saudis” on ultimate control of the
operations of U.S. forces stationed in
Saudi Arabia. He said the United State*
Bush will brief NATO leaders after superpower summit
WASHINGTON - Next week
end’s U.S.-Sovietsummit will give
Presidents Bush and Mikhail S.
Gorbachev a chance to prod slow
moving conventional-arms talks as
well as forge “an even stronger
bond” of opposition to Iraq’s Sad
dam Hussein, administration offi
cials said Tuesday.
Bush also is considering adding
add a stop in Europe to brief NATO
allies on his way back from Sun
day’s superpower summit in
Helsinki, presidential spokesman
Marlin Fitzwatcr said.
Originally, Bush planned to
return directly to Washington from
the capital of Finland. But Fitzwa
ter said the president would like to
be able to brief allied leaders on the
summit if possible, just as he did
after his meeting last December
with Gorbachev at Malta. After
that earlier summit, Bush stopped
briefly in Brussels to brief NATO.
“There is some discussion about
whether we need to make another
stop,” Fitzwatcr said. “Pack an
other pair of underwear,” he added
in an aside to reporters who cover
the president
Bush, on his first day back from
an often-interrupted three-week va
cation in Maine, met with his Cabinet
and other top advisers to discuss
the upcoming summit.
“A new foundation for world
order is being built and the spade
work begins in Helsinki,” Fitzwa
tcr declared. “It is somewhat ironic
that the prospect of war is forging a
new blueprint for world peace. Both
leaders will want to apply some
new brushstrokes to this emerging
picture.”
Most public attention has fo
cused on what the two leaders might
say on the subject of Iraq’s inva
sion and continuing occupation of
Kuwait. But arms talks also were
sure to be discussed.
Bush and Gorbachev will also
discuss regional hotspots, includ
ing Cambodia and Afghanistan,
officials said.
would not launch an offensive opera
tion without consulting the host coun
try, hut he insisted that the chain of
command for U.S. forces remains
unchanged -- from the president
through the Secretary of Defense and
to the commanders.
• The U.S. Navy had slopped and
boarded a tea-laden Iraqi-flagged
freighter in the Gulf of Oman as part
of the trade blockade against Iraq.
The spokesman said, “The ship was
ordered to divert. It did not divert. It
was then boarded and now has di
verted. We don't have information
nowon where it’s beingdiverted to."
• some piancioaas 01 cargo, re
ported to be food, have violated the
international trade embargo against
Iraq, and trucks continue to make it
through the leaky border with Jordan,
but those leaks arc not enough to
significantly harm the overall effec
tiveness of the embargo.
Researchers discover
arthritis-causing gene i
BETHESDA, Md. - Research
ers on Tuesday announced the dis
covery of a gene that in some
families causes osteoarthritis, a
degenerative disease that can lead
to stiffness, pain and crippling of
joints.
Dr. Darwin J. Prockop of Tho
mas Jefferson University in Phila
delphia, and Dr. Roland W.
Moskowitz of Case Western Re
serve University in Cleveland said
the faulty gene was isolated in studies
of three generations of one family.
The faulty gene appears to pro
duce a protein mutation that leads
to arthritis at an early age, they
said.
“We have taken a disease and
defined a specific cause,” Moskow
itz said. “Knowing whereto target
now will help us immeasurably”
in developing a specific treatment
for anhrilis.
Treatment now consists only of
treating symptoms and relieving
inflammation. Severe eases can lead
to crippling that can be corrected
only by replacing the diseased joint
with an artificial one.
Ten families with several gen
erations of arthritis have been ex
amined, and the faulty gene found
in three of those families, Moskow
itz said. Examination of the ge
netic pattern of the others is not
complete, he said.
“We think it is likely that other
genes are involved,” Moskowitz
said, adding that it was unlikely
that the single gene is responsible
for all forms of inherited ostcoanhri
tis.
He said a search is under way to
find other genes that may play a
role in the disease.
The cause of primary' osteoarthri
tis has long eluded science even
though it is one of the most com
mon ailments among people past
the age of 55. The disease causes a
breakdown of cartilage that covers
and cushions joints.
It can affect any joint, but most
commonly is seen in the hands,
ankles, knees and hips.
‘ ‘We now know that a gene can
cause the problem,” Prockop said.
The studies, he said, showed
that in some families there is one
defective gene and one good gene
for the production of collagen II, a
protein that the primary compo
nent in cartilage.
The defective gene, Prockop said,
changes a single amino acid in the
collagen II. The result is an altered
and weakened collagen, which leads
to an early onset of arthritis.
“With this discovery, we hope
to find ways to make the good gene
work better and the bad gene work
less well,” Prockop said.
Researchers, he said, are look
ing for way s to manipulate the gene
or block its action. But Prockop
said much more research is needed
before candidate drugs can be
developed.
John D. Stobo, a Johns Hopkins
University medical professor and
president of the American College
of Rheumatologists, said the dis
covery ‘‘provides real hope that a
cure will be forthcoming.”
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| u.S.-backed attempt unlikely
Saddam’s assassination discussed
W AS HINGTON - The easiest way
for the United Slates to end the Per
sian Gulf crisis might be lohave Iraq’s
Saddam Hussein removed - and don’t
think the idea hasn’t occurred in
Washington.
But assassinating foreign leaders
is prohibited by a 14-ycar-old presi
dential directive and, say some ex
perts, is far more difficult than it
might seem. Saddam came to power
via the assassin’s route and since then
has survived dozens of plots against
his life. He’s on guard.
Not surprisingly, no one in the
executive branch is publicly embrac
ing Sen. Richard Lugar’s formula for
dealing with the Iraqi president: “It
seems to me important that Saddam
Hussein must cither leave or be re
moved.”
But neither docs President Bush
walk away from the concept. Maybe
he simply wants to make his antago
nist nervous, but Bush doesn’t say,
‘‘No, that’s a violation of American
policy and principle.”
Three former directors of the Central
Intelligence Agency - Richard Helms,
William Colby and Slansficld Turner
•* reject the idea of a U.S.-sponsored
assassination.
‘‘When push comes to shove,
Americans don’t believe in having
America assassinate foreign leaders,”
Helms said. “They want somebody
else to pull the trigger.”
Colby said Bush clearly hopes the
economic squeeze on Iraq will be
come so severe that within the coun
try ‘ people will get the idea, ‘we’ve
got to get rid of this guy.’”
Turner said assassinations offend
American morality and can backfire.
I don’t think an American could
possibly kill Saddam Hussein and
survive, so you’d end up hiring some
one else and who knows what they
might do, ” Tumcr said. ‘ ‘They might
"W" *
k1115,000 people to get Husscin. It’s a
very chancy thing,”
Assassination is a muc h discussed
topic in Washington because diplo
macy seems to have such a scant
chance of getting Iraq out of Kuwait
and because the full-blown military
alternative could result in the deaths
of thousands of Americans and Iraqis
on the way to its predictable out
come: the defeat of Saddam’s out
numbered, outgunned forces.
Lugar, a solid member of the
Republican establishment from Indi
ana, is not speaking for himself alone
-4 4
When push comes to
shove, Americans don't
believe in having Amer
ica assassinate foreign
leaders. They want
somebody else to pull
the trigger.
Helms
former CIA director
--f t
when he raises the possibility of
Saddam’s removal.
Lugar said a week ago that Bush’s
goal of restoring Kuwait’s independ
ence is not enough if Iraq is left with
the ability to produce chemical and
possibly nuclear weapons.
Former Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger makes much the same point.
“If it should be concluded that
sanctions arc too uncertain and diplo
macy unavailing,” he has written,
“the United States will need to con
sider a surgical and progressive de
struction of Iraq’s military assets ~
cspccially since an outcome that leaves
Saddam Hussein in place and his
military machine unimpaired might
turn out to be only an interlude be
tween aggressions.”
Bush, asked about Lugar's view,
said on Thursday that he had “great
respect for Dick Lugar” but added
that he had not altered his “publicly
staled” objectives.
Ten days after Iraq invaded, Bush
said he hoped the U.S. military buildup
in Saudi Arabia would produce a
change in Saddam’s behavior.
“If that means Saddam Hussein
changes his spots, so be it,” Bush
said. “And if it doesn’t, I hope the
Iraqi people do something about it so
that their leader will live by the norms
of international behavior that w ill be
acceptable to other nations.”
Rep. Dave McCurdy, D-Okla. and
a member of the House Intelligence
Committee, was asked as he was leav
ing on a trip to visit U.S. troops in
Saudi Arabia last week about Sad
dam’s removal.
“The future of Saddam Hussein is
of concern to everyone, the potential
power and resources he would have
available,” the congressman said, j
“You fear his ability to regroup.” j
But as far as an assassination, |
McCurdy said simply, “That’sout ol
our hands.”
And Sen. William Cohen of Maine,
ranking Republican on the Senate
Intelligence Committee, told a re
porter that “there’s every possibility
that one could exploit the dissension
within the military ranks (of Iraq) ”
He said Saddam “is not so be
loved a figure as he would have ev* j
cryonc believe.”
On the other hand, the Wall Street
Journal quoted Sahib al-Hakin, an
Iraqi dissident in London, as saying
that removing Saddam would not make
much difference since those around
him who might succeed him arc as
ruthless.
Justice nominee receives highest rating
from American Bar Association panel
WASHINGTON - Supreme Court
nominee David H. Souteron Tuesday
receievcd the highest rating from the
American Bar Association’s judicial
screening panel, the Justice Depart
ment said.
Souter received a unanimous “well
qualified’’ rating from the American
Bar Association’s Standing Commit
tee on Federal Judiciary,according to
a letter from the panel to the Justice
Department.
Souter, a former member of the
New Hampshire Supreme Court, was
nominated by President Bush in July
for the vacancy created by the retire
ment of Justice William Brennan
Souter received a similar “well
qualified” rating earlier this year when
/f nominated for a seat on the 1 st
U S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Boston. He took the federal bench
last spring but has not heard any eases.
The 15-member ABA committee
rates judicial nominees either not
qualified,” “qualified” or well
qualified” but applies different stan
dards to evaluate candidates for dis
trict, appellate and Supreme Court
judgeships.
The Senate Judiciary Committee
is scheduled to open hearings on j
Souter’s nomination on Sept. 13.
