News Digest Edited by Jennifer O'Cilka
Patriot missiles destroy Iraqi
air assaults on Saudi Arabia
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia - U.S.
forces fired what appeared to be
several Patriot ground-to-air mis
siles during an alert Sunday night,
and a Saudi official said they de
stroyed two incoming Iraqi mis
siles.
The Saudi official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, said
the Iraqi missiles were shot down
as they approached Dhahran from
the north. He did not identify the
type of missile, or give its altitude
when destroyed.
Dhahran, site of a major allied
military base, is 200 miles south of
Kuwait and about 240 miles south
of Iraq’s southernmost border.
Air raid sirens also briefly
sounded in Riyadh, the Saudi capi
tal 225 miles southwest of Dhah
ran and home of U.S. and Saudi
command headquarters. Iraq’s
modified Scud missiles can reach
both cities.
Warning sirens also sounded in
Bahrain, an island emirate about
14 miles east of Dhahran. Wit
nesses said they heard anti-aircraft
gunfire.
In Dhahran, an Associated Press
reporter saw two and heard four
Patriot missiles fired from the base
northward toward Kuwait. Just as
the fiery tails of the missiles disap
peared from sight, there was a small
flash in the sky.
At a hotel just off the air base,
dozens of journalists and spokes
men for the Saudi and U.S. mili
tary ran to a bomb shelter as the air
raid sirens sounded. Many donned
gas masks and chemical weapon
suits. It appeared that civil defense
authorities were notified of a pos
sible missile attack just seconds
before the first Patriot missile was
fired.
At the Dhahran air base early
Friday morning, a Patriot missile
recorded its first successful com
bat firing, blowing up an incoming
Iraqi Scud missile,
TURKEY f V :f U.S.S.R.
•A"''v/.7 I ......
SYRIA f \ IRAN V • • " '•
7 Missiles
1 IRAQ S launched from
“ ' \ \ southern Iraq
v. I. -'
SAUDI ri:!4 n ■ r ir
-'4 i : rt—Persian Gulf
ARABIA , ,~X—BAHRAIN
KUWAIT , P^sounded alert
(RiyadhjO 7tQATAR/>
Sounded alert 1 UAE 7 ’ •
‘.'“7 OMAN |
| Patriot 1 ,/
ground-to-air \
v:Fv / missiles
zo^miies .1 launched
7 200 km. s. ?*:• Arabian Sea
u Ap
Soviet troops occupy
Latvian police building
RIGA, U.S.S.R. - Soviet “black
beret” commandos attacked Latvia’s
police headquarters Sunday night and
occupied it temporarily, killing five
people and wounding nine in the as
sault, Latvian government officials
said.
All Latvian police were ordered to
take up arms and defend other gov
ernment buildings, but the comman
dos left police headquarters about six
hours after the assault began.
The elite forces of the Soviet Inte
rior Ministry began the attack at about
9:06 p.m. (2:06 p.m. EST), as red and
white tracer bullets lit up downtown
Riga. An automobile burst into flames
next to the Latvian Interior Ministry,
which controls police in the republic
and is loyal to the separatist govern
ment.
The raid came a week after Soviet
tanks attacked the main broadcast
center in the Lithuanian capital of
Vilnius,killing 14 people and wound
ing more than 200.
The central government in Moscow
has been pressuring the Baltic repub
lics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia
to nullify the independence declara
tions passed last year by their demo
cratically elected parliaments. The
three countries, independent states
between the world wars, were forci
bly annexed by the Soviet Union in
1940.
In Washington, the White House
called the Riga developments “deeply
troubling.” White House spokesman
Bill Harlow reiterated the Bush ad
m in istration’s cal l for a peaceful reso
lution to the Baltic problem.
The Soviet military commander
for the Baltic military district, Col.
Gen. Fyodor Kuzmin, demanded on
Jan. 14 that Latvian police turn in
their arms. Black berets briefly occu
pied a Latvian precinct station and
raided a police school for arms last
week.
Subsequently, Latvian Interior
Minister Aloisz Vanznis told the
separatist parliament that the police
were authorized to use their weapons
to defend government buildings.
In all, five people were killed and
nine wounded, according to the par
liament’s press office, quoting hospi
tal officials.
Pause would prolong war, Foley says
WASHINGTON - Congressional
leaders called Sunday for continued
vigorous prosecution of the air war
against Iraq, and House Speaker
Thomas Foley said any bombing pause
would give Saddam Hussein an open
ing for “schemas and maneuvers” to
prolong the conflict.
Foley spoke as an administration
source said the United States was
sending a seventh aircraft carrier to
the Persian Gulf region as part of a
continuing move to bolster Israel’s
defenses against Iraqi attack.
The source, who spoke on condi
tion of anonymity, said the USS For
rcstai, currently in Mayport Fla., would
be dispatched “in the near future” to
the eastern Mediterranean.
Foley was one of two senior law
makers to urge a continuation of the
air bombardment which Operation
Desert Storm officials said had pro
duced more than 7,000 sorties in less
than four days.
Iraqis “are being pounded very
heavily and I think we ought to keep
that pounding up and hope that we
can prevail in the shortest lime pos
sible,” Sen. Sam Nunn, chairman of
die Senate Armed Services Commit
tee told reporters at the Pentagon af
ter receiving a private briefing.
Nunn and Foley led the unsuccess
ful fight in Congress a week ago to
deny Bush the authority to wage war,
but since have stressed their support
for the war effort.
Foley and other lawmakers spoke
on Sunday morning interview pro
grams as President Bush spent the
day at his presidential retreat at Camp
David.
The president spoke by telephone
with Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd, French
President Francois Mitterrand, Brit
ish Prime Minister John Major and
Egyptian President President Hosm
Mubarak, said a White House spokes
man.
Rep. Stephen Solarz, D-N.Y., said
in an NBC interview that if Iraq uses
chemical or biological weapons “the
American people will be so enraged
that it will guarantee” long-term sup
port for the war.
Foley, invited to Camp David for
dinner with the president, rejected the
idea of a bombing pause to encourage
Saddam to withdraw from Kuwait.
“Saddam Hussein can request an
opportunity to remove his troops if he
wishes to, the wasnington state
Democrat said in an interview with
Cable News Network.
“But I think a pause would merely
give him an opportunity to resupply
the ground forces,” said Foley.
“It would give him an opportunity
to use various kinds of schemes and
maneuvers to try and delay it fur
ther.”
The move adds to the U.S. military
protective umbrella over Israel, which
has been given Patriot missiles with
U.S. crews to prevent renewed attack
by Iraqi SCUD missiles.
The war at home
Arab-Americans tom, worried
In the days after Pearl Harbor,
Japanese-Americans were routinely
fired, assaulted or accused of spying.
Civil defense director Fiorello La
Guardia confined Japanese to their
homes and boasted to the president,
“I am going to pep it up.”
Fifty years later, as the United
States has gone to war against Iraq,
there have been virtually no serious
attacks against Arab-Americans. But
Arab-Americans themselves are torn
by dual loyalties and nagged by the
worry that if war drags on, Americans
might look for scapegoats on the home
front.
‘ We feel caught between a mad
man in Baghdad and a madman in
Washington,” said Dr. M.T. Mchdi,
president of the Amcrican-Arab Re
lations Committee, which claims about
20,000 members.
Mehdi, a longtime critic of U.S.
policy in the Mideast, said an infor
mal telephone poll by his organiza
tion suggested that the vast majority
of Arab-Americans opposed the at
tack on Iraq, even though many have
no love for Saddam Hussein.
Although Arab-American organi
zations had been reporting a gradual
increase in anti-Arab sentiment as the
gulf crisis deepened, there was no
particular surge following the begin
ning of hostilities last week.
Security at mosques across the
country was increased, but Arab
American organizations said there were
only a few reports of war-related
arguments or insults. The Justice
Department said its hate crimes tele
phone hot line had received no com
plaints of harassment of Arab-Ameri
cans.
Detroit Mayor Coleman Young said
dozens of the city’s 45,000 Arab
Americans had reported bomb threats
and other harassment.
Police in Tulsa, Okla., said they
would step up patrols around mosques
and synagogues following a rock
throwing incident at the Islamic Soci
ety of Tulsa. Lt. Larry Merchant said
vandals shattered the mosque’s win
dows Friday night during a prayer
service for peace in the Middle East.
A bomb exploded in an Arab-owned
grocery Thursday morning in Cincin
nati, but the FBI said it appeared
unrelated to the war.
Some Arab students at the Univer
sity of Arkansas in Little Rock said
the war had caused ethnic tensions on
campus.
“We’re worried that something is
going to happen,” said Khalil Al
Kharaosi, a sophomore from Oman.
He said he hoped his fellow students
would keep in mind that “this is a
problem with countries, not with
people.”
Earlier in the week, Arab-Amcri
can leaders met with FBI officials in
Washington to complain about the
bureau’s interviews with leaders of
the community about potential ter
rorism.
Although the FBI declined to
comment in detail on the talks, Arab
Amcrican leaders said they were told
agents would continue to conduct
interviews, but would stop asking
certain political questions.
Mehdi said his office received only
two abusive calls since the attack
Wednesday night.
“Twenty years ago, we would have
received 80 or 90 of these kind of
calls,” he said. “American society is
more sophisticated, more educated,
less emotional now.”
Nebraskan
Editor Eric Planner Assistant Photo Chief Al Schaben
472-1766 Night News Editors Pal Dlnslage
Managing Editor Victoria Ayotte Cindy Wostrel
Assoc News Editors Jans Pedersen Art Director Brian Shelllto
Emllv Rosembaum General Manager Dan Shattll
Editonal Page Editor Bob Nelson Production Manager Katherine Pollcky
Wire Editor Jennifer O'ClIka Advertising Manager Loren Melrose
Copy Desk Editor Diane Brayton Sales Manager Todd Sears
Sports Editor Paul Do meter Publications Board
Arts A Entertainment Chairman Bill Vobe|da
Editor Julie NaugMon 436-9993
Diversions Editor Connie Sheehan Professional Adviser Don Walton
Photo Chief William Lauer 473-7301
The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) ia published by the UNL Publications Board. Ne
bra ska Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln. NE, Monday through Friday during the academic year;
weelly during summer sessions.
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by
phoning 472-1763 between 9 a.m. and S p m. Monday through Friday. The public also has
access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Bill Vobejda, 436-9993
Subscription price Is $45 for one year.
Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R
St.,Lincoln, NE 68588-0448 Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE.
_ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1991 DAILY NEBRASKAN_
Polls: Americans confident,
worried about war spreading
NEW YORK - Public opinion
polls have found Americans up
beat about the progress of the gulf
war, but two out of three remain
worried the conflict will spread.
In a poll taken by the Gallup
Organization for CNN Thursday
and Friday, 29 percent said they
were very worried and an addi
tional 38 percent were somewhat
worried war could spread through
out the region or other parts of the
world.
At the same time, 73 percent
said they thought the United States
and its allies were winning the war.
Virtually nobody thought Iraq was
winning and 20 percent said nei
ther side was winning.
Only 30 percent said the United
Slates should stop fighting if Iraq
withdraws all its troops from Kuwait
but Saddam Hussein remains in
power. Two-thirds favored fight
ing until Saddam is removed. An
ABC News poll Friday night had a
similar finding.
A Los Angeles Times poll
Thursday and Friday found that
more than three-fourths of Ameri
cans said Israel has the right to
retaliate for repeated missile at
tacks.
But raising the possibility that
such an Israeli response could break
un the U.S.-organized alliance
changes the result. The ABC poll
lound that when respondents were
told of Iraq’s desire to draw Israel
into the war, a 69-25 percent mar
?;in said Israel should leave the
ighting to the United States.
North Platte family among those
evacuated from Incirlik, Turkey
NORTH PLATTE - Karen French
held her sleeping 5-year-old daughter
as she and her three other children
arrived at the North Platte Airport,
exhausted after a two-day journey
from the Middle East.
The French family was among
hundreds of American military de
pendents evacuated from the U.S. Air
Force Base in Incirlik, Turkey, this
week after tensions in the Persian
Gulf erupted into war.
French’s husband, Steve, is an Air
Force sergeant stationed at Incirlik, a
small village and military base lo
cated near the town of Adana in south
ern Turkey.
Their final night in Incirlik was a
tense one. Around 2 a.m., as she ami
friends sat in the living room watch
ing news reports of the war, they
could hear Air Force planes taking ot I
overhead, apparently on bombing raids
into Iraq, French said.
At about 2:45 a.m., air raid sirens
sounded in Incirlik.
“We heard the sirens go off.. • we
had gas masks because of the possi
bility of chemical warfare ... Ire*
member 1 was shivering,” she said.
It was a false alarm, French said.
French and her children - Larissa,
5, Chris, 13, Anthony, 16, and Becky,
17 - Finally took off around 6 a.m.
Friday morning for the long trip.
