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News Digest Edited by Jana Pedersen — — --.-Tiirnii v«ih-iniimrnM*^,'t<l,'JI“11 'll.i 111,111 * Baker asks Senate to back use of force WASHINGTON - Secretary of State James A. Baker III appealed Wednesday for broad support of the administration’s Persian Gulf policy so he can credibly tell Saddam Hussein when they meet: “Get out of Kuwait, or risk all.” He said he would not negotiate with Saddam on the visit, which the State Department said had been for mally accepted by Baghdad. And he added a new warning: “If force must be used, it will be used suddenly, massively and decisively.” The State Department said Joseph Wilson, the charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, had been informed of Iraq’s acceptance of the Baker trip, which President Bush proposed last week. Baker, laying out a hard U.S. line before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said international sanc tions against Iraq have not worked. He added that he was “very pessimis tic” they would if given more time, as some congressional Democrats have strongly recommended, and said the threat of attack now holds the best chance for peace. He said a formal congressional statement of support for using force if necessary “would, I think, signifi cantly reduce the risk of war.” But a congressional debate that led to an equivocal message would be counter productive, he added. “Nobody can ever tell you that sanctions alone can force Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. I am person ally very pessimistic that they will,” he said. Citing intelligence assessments, Baker said four months of a well enforced embargo have so far pro duced no glimmer of change in Sad dam’s position. “Instead, he seems to be doubling his bets,” Baker told the committee. CIA Director William Webster delivered a similar message to the House Armed Services Committee. “Our judgment has been, and con tinues to be, that there is no assurance or guarantee that economic hardships will compel Saddam to change his policies or lead to internal unrest that would threaten his regime,” Webster said. Committee Chairman Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., said sanctions have not been given adequate time to work. His mail is running “eight or nine to one to slow down” the rush toward military action, Pell said. “There is little evidence of... impatience or of a popular clamoring for war.” And Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., said “This is a time for the qualities of the long-distance runner: persever ance, stamina, determination, Lash ing out may be less courageous than to stick the course, particularly when you’re talking about a significant loss of life.” Former Carter administration National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski told the panel “both time and power are in our favor, and we do not need to be driven by artificial deadlines, deceptive arguments or irrational emotion into an unneces sary war.” But Baker said waiting “not only gives Saddam time to break the sanc tions, but it imposes costs on us .... As we wait, Saddam will continue torturing Kuwait, killing it as a nation .... He will continue to fortify Ku wait, to build chemical and biologi cal weapons, and to acquire a nuclear weapons capability.” ‘‘I know that some here and through out the country are uneasy about the prospects for war,” Baker said. ‘‘No one wants war, none of us.... But we have to face some hard facts.” Saddam is a “ruthless dictator” who is willing to starve his country men before curbing his military, he said. Webster said Iraq’s industry has been the hardest hit with more than 90 percent of imports and 97 percent of exports shutoff. By next spring, items such as poultry, sugar and edible oils will be either unavailable or in short supply, he said. Bush: Iraq wont withdraw without fight BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - President Bush said Wednesday “I am not optimistic” that Saddam Hussein will withdraw without a fight from Kuwait and vowed that Iraq will not be offered any con cessions to end the crisis peace fully. “I have no feeling whatsoever that Saddam Hussein is willing to do now that which he should have done five months ago, four months ago,” Bush said. Bush’s tough approach was echoed by Argentine President Carlos Menem. “We wholeheartedly condemn what Iraq has done, to invade and occupy a territory which does not belong to it,” Menem said at a joint news conference with Bush. The only way is for Iraq to withdraw without any preconditions.” Bush met with Menem at Casa Rosada, the president’s palace, within eyesight of ihe army head quarters seized by rebels in a short lived military uprising Monday. Bush congratulated Menem for ending the rebellion quickly. “The Argentine people proved again this week that they will not permit any group to return Argen tina to the days of violence and dictatorship in a superb show of strength and commitment,” Bush said. The president got a red-carpet welcome. A procession of presi dential grenadiers on horseback led Bush s motorcade to the Hall of Congress for an address to law makers. “Let those who would attack constitutional democracy under stand: in Latin America the day of the dictator is over,” Bush declared to the congress. He also praised Menem for his tough free-markct reforms to cure Argentina’s inflation, estimated at upwards of 2,000 percent in 1990. “We know of the painful, short term sacrifices you are being called upon to make, in what your own president has called ‘surgery with out anesthesia,”’ Bush said. “For this tremendous undertaking to succeed, it will not take miracles, it will take work.” Number of X-rays increases when doctors own machines BOSTON - Doctors take four times as many X-rays when they own X-ray machines and make money on them, according to a study that provides new evidence of how profits may influence the way physicians practice medicine. Doctors make a profit on every picture they take with their own equip I | ment. But they earn nothing when they send patients toother specialists for X-rays. In recent years, many doctors have purchased X-ray and ultrasound machines so they can take diagnostic images in their offices. While they argue that this is convenient for them and their patients, critics suspect that tfie chance to make more money is also a big incentive to buy and oper ate these machines. The new study provides circum stantial evidence that doctors who own their own imaging machines may Overuse the equipment, simply to collect fees. Compared to those who send their patients to radiologists, those who own X-ray and ultrasound ma chines take four times as many diag nostic images for such common complaints as colds and backaches, according to the study published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Bruce J. Hillman of the Uni versity of Arizona, who directed the study, cautioned that it could not determine whether the extra X-rays were needed. It also couldn’t delve into doctors’ reasons for taking them. However, he said: “Almost cer tainly one has to wonder whether it’s an issue of having these machines and realizing that incomes can be increased by them utilization. That doesn’t mean I believe that physicians are sinisterly abusing imaging. But when they come to the crossroads of making the deci sion and they have the machine in the office, it’s awfully easy to decide that the patient needs it.” Ethical guidelines agree that doc tors’ decisions should be based solely on what is best for patients’ health. Based on a study ot 65,517 doctor visits by privately insured patients treated for colds, pregnancy, low back pain and men having difficulty urinating. not physician’s finances. An editorial last year in the Jour nal of the American Medical Asso ciation said that while doctors are free to own equipment, “the patient’s interest must always be uppermost. Exploitation for any reason is repre hensible.” E. Haavi Morreim, a philosopher at the University of Tennessee Col lege of Medicine, said there may be other explanations for the higher X ray use ‘aside from the obvious pos sibility that frankly there is money to be made in them there hills.” “There is the simple fact that when something is available, it’s easy to use it often,” she said. “When you have a hammer, everything looks like •I .» AP a nail. I Primary care physicians who own X-ray machines were critical of the study and its implications. Dr. James Weber, a family practitioner in Jacksonville, Ark., said doctors who do more X-rays may be practicing better medicine. “The assumption is inferred that these tests are ordered to benefit the physician rather than the patient,” he said. “I can tell you that w hcrever you go in the country, that may be true of less than 1 percent of practicing phy sicians. The vast majority of physi cians have their patients* interests at heart. This article makes the assump tion that they don’t.” U.S., Soviet negotiators agree to arms limitation WASHINGTON - U.S. and Soviet negotiators have resolved three big stumbling blocks as they work to complete a nuclear arms pact for President Bush and Mikhail S. Gorbachev to sign in Moscow early next year, U.S. officials say. The two sides, in meetings over the last month, have agreed to limit Soviet Backfire bombers outside the treaty, to allow U.S. nuclear programs with Great Britain to continue and to restrict the launch and payload weight of the Soviets’ modernized, ground-based SS-18 missiles, said an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Plans for Bush’s trip to Moscow are on hold while the negotiators try to reach agreement on other technical matters involving inspec tion of weapons systems and inter pretation of missile data. The White House has said Bush will go to Moscow only if the treaty is ready for signing. The pact will call for scrapping hundreds of warheads under close supervision. Experts from both sides will meet Friday in Washington to work on the remaining technical matters. The session is a precursor to the meeting between Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze in Houston on Monday or Tuesday. The two arc expected to thrash out their remaining differences and set a date for the Moscow summit. Shevardnadze is to then fly to Washington to see Bush on Wed nesday. Recent negotiating sessions produced agreement on three of the outstanding differences hold ing up the pact, known as START, for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, officials said. Specifically: • The United Slates agreed that the Soviet Backfire bomber can be counted separately from other stra tegic weapons under the agreement, officials said. A separate letter, outside the actual START treaty, would limit the number of Back fires. Initially the United States had maintained the bombers had to be included in the overall START limits of 1,600 heavy bombers and other ballistic missiles the Soviets can retain, said an official close to the talks. • The Soviets agreed to contin ued U.S. nuclear programs with Great Britain as long as those pro grams are not seen as upsetting the overall strategic balance. The co operation primarily involves sub marine technologyand missiles the United States provides for British subs. • The negotiators have agreed that any modernized SS-18 could not have the capability to cany heavier payloads, including war heads, than the current SS-18. The treaty, however, would not limit modemizauon such as improved accuracy or fuel efficiency, or al teration in the types of warheads. Nebraskan Editor Eric Planner sports Editor Darran Fowler ..__ - ... f,72'17®® Photo Chief AlSchaben A>ioc^XLC,0,rii^yott* Night News Editor* Matt HerUt A*»oc News Editor* Darcl* Wlegart Chuck Green Frti.cv.-I CHI. “•"•Dayton Art Director Briar. Shelllto f d.t° ,ai Page Editor Llea Donovan General Manager Dan Shattll Copy Desk Editor Em^y^TSum Pro,e“'on* A*viser D™*™0" braskauSii34bi4r!n,p(c,SFlS 144 08°)is published by the UNL Publications Board, Ne weekly during sum!S2 Jeww! 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