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News Digest Edited by Jana Federsen Saddam offers free oil to Third World The Associated Press Saddam Hussein offered free oil to develop ing nations Monday in a bid to win their sup port and to circumvent a U.N. trade embargo, and he got a boost from a former enemy when Iran agreed to restore full diplomatic ties. The White House characterized both devel opments as signs the Iraqi president is growing desperate and “grasping at any straw he can find.” Secretary' of State James A. Baker III, brief ing NATO ministers on the weekend U.S. Soviet summit, asked the allies to send ground troops into the Persian Gulf region - even as a symbolic presence -- to increase pressure on Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. There were no immediate offers. Baker also announced he would visit Syria to Coordinate opposition to Iraq with President Hafez Assad. TTie United States and Syria have longstanding differences over human rights and terrorism but have formed a makeshift alliance during the gulf crisis. Syria beefed up its contribution to the multi national force facing Iraq, saying it was send ing more troops to Saudi Arabia at the desert kingdom’s request. Diplomatic sources esti mate that Syria has already sent 4,000 to 5,000 combat troops to the kingdom. In other developments Monday: • Baker told reporters Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the exiled govern ment of Kuwait would contribute a combined $12 billion to help defray the cost of the U.S. buildup in the gulf and to assist poorer nations hurt by the U.N. trade embargo on Iraqi goods. • The official Iraqi News Agency criticized President Bush s motives in meeting witn soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Helsinki, Finland. It said the summit showed Bush s “evil tendencies and his spite for the Arab nation.” After seven hours of talks Sunday, the two leaders reiterated their demand that Iraq with draw immediately and unconditionally from Kuwait. They did not rule out the use of force if a peaceful solution is not found. • There were reports Saddam has executed members of his elite Presidential Guard who allegedly were planning to assassinate him. Two Egyptian state newspapers, quoting West ern diplomats, said five officers were ordered executed. Kuwait Radio, run by the emirate’s govemment-in-exile, reported Sunday that three members of the guard already had been killed. It gave no details. •Miwaii s amoassauor iu me united Na tions said Iraqi occupation forces have intensi fied their crackdown on Kuwaitis, killing civil ians in the streets and rounding up others in mass arrests. In his latest televised message, Saddam addressed Third World countries but did not name them. He said he was making his offer as a gesture of solidarity, regardless of the various governments’ stands in the Persian Gulf crisis. “We hereby declare that we are prepared to supply all Third World countries with oil free of charge in accordance with the needs of each country,” Saddam said. “We are brothers to you. We share the same destiny,” he told the developing nations in what appeared a clear attempt to gain iheir support in his faceoff against the West. Dilapidated buildings cause new nightmares for NASA HUNTSVILLE, .Ala. - It’s so damp and musty in Jim Lewis’ leaky office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center that tiny mushrooms some times sprout on his moss-flecked window sill. Down the hall, Mary Spaulding leaves a garbage can near her door to catch drips from the ceiling. The sprawling, concrete block struc ture, which houses the electronic systems laboratory, is the most di lapidated building at Mas hall. Marshall is NASA’s most dilapidated major Field center. The oldest section was built by the Army in 1957 as part of Redstone Arsenal. “What we hope is we don’t have Legionnaires’ disease up there,’’ Lewis said, pointing to moldy ceiling tiles above his leaking, tar-splotched win dow. NASA’s buildings are crumbling, much as its image has this summer. A shuttle has not flown in more than four months because of hydro gen leaks that have crippled two of the fleet’s three spaceships. In addition, NASA has spent the summer contending with mirror flaws in the Hubble Space Telescope that prevent a sharp focus, communica tions problems with the Magellan spacecraft orbiting Venus, and grow ing criticism over the proposed space station Freedom. Still, it is the day-to-day working conditions that are the immediate worry of NASA employees nationwide. The problem is aging buildings and not enough money to maintain them, according to the National Aeronau tics and Space Administration. “Almost all of NASA’s facilities were built in the mid-1960s,’’ said Ted Ankruin, who oversees the agency’s construction and maintenance projects, “(t’s all coming up on 30 years, and 30 years is about the life time for roofs. It’s the lifetime for heating and air conditioning systems. It’s the lifetime for paving and run ways.” The to-be-fixed list is a handy man’s nightmare. Leaky roofs abound, including the one on the 525-feet-tall Vehicle As sembly Building at Florida’s Ken nedy Space Center, the second larg est building in the world in terms of volume. Rain, on occasion, has splashed down on computers in the adjoining launch control center. Ventilation systems and heating boilers arc so old that parts arc no longer available and NASA must make its own components. Obsolete circuit breakers at Kennedy and Ames Re search Center in Mountain View, Calif., pose so much danger that power must be turned off before workers can test them. While less menacing, old electric switchboards at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., “look like they came from ‘The Bride of Frank enstein’ movie,” Ankrum said. NASA’s northernmost center, Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, has the worst roads in the agency -- they’re cracked and potholed. Inside the older buildings, asbestos fills ceil ings, walls and steam piping; it is a problem at other centers, too. The decay prompted NASA this year to conduct its first agency-wide study of field center maintenance. A rating system was needed to help NASA appropriate repair funds to the places most in need, Ankrum said. Of the 14 sites included in the three-month survey, the worst was Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, a subsidiary of Marshall. Marshall was next, with more main tenance problems than any of the seven other major field centers. Several of the smaller field instal lations, which like Michoud report to field centers, were excluded from the study because of financial constraints, Ankrum said. NASA officials insist none of the maintenance pioblems jeopardize workers’ safety. Every so often, though, shuttle operations fall victim tobuild ing disrepair. Last April, a corroded pipe sprayed water on electrical equipment at Kennedy. The accident interrupted final prelaunch testing of the HubbU telescope inside the shuttle Discov ery. New buildings are going up at just about every center, or are about to. Restorations are planned, including a $13.5 million modernization of the building in which Lewis and about 500 others work. NASA is seeking $186 million foi maintenance for fiscal 1991, which begins Oct. 1. Congress appropriated $141 million for the current fiscal year. About $400 million will be needed annually for maintenance dunng the next few years, Ankrum said. Nebraskan] IH Editor Eric Planner PhotoChief AlSchaben 472-1766 Night News Editors Matt Herek Managing Editor Victoria Ayotta Chuck Green Assoc. News Editors Darcle Wlegeri Art Director Brian Shelllto Diana Brayton Publications Board Arts & Entertainment Chairman Bill Vobefda Editor Michael Deeds 436-9993 Diversions Editor William Rudolph Professional Adviser Don Walton Graphics Editor John Bruca 473-7301 The Dally Nebraskan(USPS 144-060) is published by the UNL Publications Board. Ne braska Union 34.1400 R St.. Lincoln, NE. Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions. Readers are encouraged to submit story Ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1783 between 9 a.m. and 5 p m Monday through Friday. The public also has access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Bill Vobejda, 436-9993 Subscription prtoe is $45 for one year Postmaster Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan. Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St.,Lincoln, NE 68568-0446 Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1990 DAILY NEBRASKAN Energy Department: Fuel supplies adequate U.S. shouldn’t suffer this winter WASHINGTON - Energy De partment officials cautiously pre dicted Monday that fuel oil sup plies will be adequate this winter - but only if the weather isn’t severe, if refineries avoid operating prob lems and if Mideasl developments don’t disrupt oil shipments further. Several congressmen com plained that the assessment was based on “rosy assumptions’’ and suggested that it provides little comfort to Americans relying on oil to heat homes and factories. “There now is a very small margin of safety,’’ said Rep. Philip Sharp, D-Ind. and chairman of the House energy and power subcom mittee. The Energy Department “tends to underestimate what can go wrong,” he complained. Calvin A. Kent, head of the department’s Energy Information Administration, told Sharp’s sub committee that the supply of re fined petroleum products - gaso line, healing oil and jet fuel -- will be tight with refineries producing near their capacities. But he said U.S. petroleum stocks “appear adequate.” The agency estimated that while the worldwide crude oil shortage is expected to still be about 1 million barrels a day during the last three months of the year “the shortage can be handled” as higher prices dampen demand. But Kent said significant sup ply problems could emerge if de velopments in the Mideast further reduce supplies or if the winter is abnormally cold. Operational prob lemsat refineries, which have been running at belter than 96 percent of capacity, and extensive hoarding could cause localized shortages, he suggested. The agency collects and ana lyzes world energy data. Sharp and several other con gressmen reiterated their call for President Bush to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The president should consider “at least a modest” drawdown of the 590-million barrel reserve “to get confidence up and hopefully force prices down,” Sharp said. The Bush administration has said tapping the reserve is not needed at this time. Energy Department offi cials said last week the reserves will be used if there are “signifi cant supply interruptions. Kent gave these assessments on the expected supply of various refined crude oil products: Heating Oil Current slocks arc “well above normal” and rising. Supplies in the Northeast, which relics heavily on oil to heat homes and factories, are 16 percent above last year. The stocks “appear to be adequate barring any unusually cold weather or refinery breakdowns.” Gasoline Localized supply problems could develop. Inventories arc at the lowest level since July 1988 -- 5.9 million barrels above the operating inven lory required to prevent shortages. But the stocks, while tight, “should be adequate to see us through the fourth quarter.” His assessment did not extend into 1991. Jet Fuel Supply is above last year’s lev els but still tight and problems could develop late in the winter. Demand from the military is 300,000 bar rels a day greater than normal because of the Persian Gulf de ployment. Liberian president confirmed dead MONROVIA, Liberia - President Samuel Doe was reported Monday to have died of a gunshot wound suf fered in fighting with rebels who captured him a day earlier. On Sunday, breakaway rebel leader Prince Johnson named himself presi dent until elecuoas can be held. Shortly after Doc’s capture, however, loyal : ists named a successor to the former Liberian leader. And Liberia’s main rebel group said Monday it would carry on fight ing, dashing hopes for an early end to the 8 1 /2-month-old civil war that has left more than 5,000 civilians dead. The National Patriotic Front led by Charles Taylor on Monday de manded withdrawal of the 3,000-strong West African force in Monrovia to quell the fighting, which has often been tribal. Although fighters loyal to Johnson control Monrovia, Taylor’s 10,000 strong army has overrun most of the rest of Liberia. In Washington, the State Depart ment said it had been told by reliable sources that Doe had died from a gunshot wound suffered in a shootout Sunday with rebels loyal to Johnson. A Slate Department spokesman, who asked not to be identified, said U.S. officials considered the reports confirmation of the Liberian leader’s death. ”Wc have been informed by vari ous sources, including representatives of rebel forces, that President Doe died from a gunshot wound that he suffered in the shootout with Johnson’s forces over the weekend,” the spokes man said. The British Broadcasting Corp. quoted witnesses who visited a Johnson camp near Monrov ia as saying Doe’s mutilated body was on display there. The witnesses quoted by the BBC' did not say how Doe had died. They said, however, they watched Johnson interrogating Doe about the disap pearance of millions of dollars of state funds during his 10-year rule. Gambian President Sir Dawda Jawara, current chairman of the Eco nomic Community of West African States, said Monday: “Now that Doe has been toppled by Prince Johnson .. it might help the peace process in Liberia.” Both Johnson and Taylor had demanded that Doe step down. But Taylor’s spokesman, Tom Woewiyu, said from Burkina Faso that Patriotic Front rebels would only lay down their weapons after the West African task force leaves Monrovia. “Their mission has failed, and a prime example is the capture ol Doc by the Prince Johnson group right in their headquarters,’’ Woewiyu said. Cambodians agree to U.N. peace plan JAK.AK1A, Indonesia - Cambo dia’s Vietnamese-backed government and leaders of rebel factions agreed Monday to a U.N. peace plan that calls for power-sharing and free elec tions. Cambodia Premier Hun Sen said a date for a cease-fire had not been worked out, but all sides appeared optimistic following two days of talks to end the 11-year-old civil war. “We have not reached peace yet. .. but we have the framework,” said Son Sann, former Cambodian pre mier and leader of the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, part of the three-party guerrilla force. Efforts to reach a peace accord since July 1988 had failed when the factions disagreed about power-shar ing issues. Under the approved U.N. plan, each of the four factions would be represented in a governing coun cil. A joint statement said Hun Sen’s government would get six seats on the so-called Supreme National Coun cil. Six others seats would be shared by the resistance coalition. A 13th seat is reserved for Piince Norodom Sihanouk, leader of the rebel coali tion. The council is expected to make its first formal appearance Sept. 18 at the U.N. General Assembly seat now held by the rebel coalition. The council would cede much of its authority to the United Nations, which would administer the counuy until free elections. U.N. officials have said up to 10,000 troops and 10,000 civilian personnel could be sent to Cambodia to administer the peace plan and oversee elections. The plan, which also calls for dis arming the four armies, was adopted last month by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Coun cil: the United States, Soviet Union, China, Britain and France.
