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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 1991)
M PTAT'C; I f "I O’PCt Associated Press I ^ V ¥¥ □ JL-^ iclV ^ l Edited by Jennifer O'Cilka ■hi in ■—ni—iiMiiniwwiT<nrrmTntiiinn«TinMnii»ienni uiiifianiOTiiniiiii'nmnTifiiM»iwn»iiiiiiiiii,iiniiinvmTiiiiwf]iniiTtTTTTrr~rrmiTwmrivLtT"u"* ***™"•‘**‘‘**—*g’""— Diplomacy dwindles as allies hammer gulf DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia - Marine gunners hammered away at Iraqi defense lines Tuesday and allied ships swept the gulf’s waters for menacing Iraqi mines as the desperate days of diplomacy dwindled down toward an all-out assault on Ku wait. Moscow gave Iraq an other day or two to accept a secret Soviet peace plan, a plan President Bush was already dismissing as “well short” of U.S. requirements. A Soviet mediator urged the Des ert Storm allies to delay the long expected ground war, or risk bearing “a great responsibility in history.” An Iranian mediator said he was sure Iraq’s bottom line would be simnle An Iraqi pullout from Kuwait in ex change for a U.S. pullout from Saudi Arabia. A senior Baghdad official told the Iranians more than 20,000 Iraqis have been killed, a Tehran newspaper re ported. “We’re totally prepared to do whatever is necessary,” said the man in overall charge of supplying the troops, Lt. Gen. Gus Pagonis. “We’re ready to go.” Mines sown at the northern head of the gulf will complicate any allied plan for an amphibious landing by the 15,000 Marines aboard a flotilla of some 30 ships. A dozen minesweepers from the U.S., Saudi and European navies criss crossed the sea Tuesday in the hunt for thousands of mines believed planted by the Iraqis. In one incident early Tuesday, a British frigate spotted and marked a floating mine, and divers from a U.S. cruiser were lowered by helicopter into the water to blow it up, a news pool dispatch said. The 600-foot-long helicopter-as sault ship USS Tripoli remained on duty Tuesday after its crew patched a 20-foot gash blown in its hull by a mine Monday. But the billion-dollar U.S. guided-missile ship Princeton was pulled out of action and sent to a gulf port for damage assessment. The Princeton’s port rudder was jammed and its port propeller-shaft seal was leaking, the U.S. command said. Unconfirmed reports also said it suffered hull damage and cracks in its supersUucture. Marines opened up artillery fire Tuesday on Iraqi bunkers and troop concentrations across the Kuwaiti Saudi border, south of the A1 Wafra oilfield, a poo! report said. At least seven secondary explosions were reported, indicating a hit on ammuni tion and field stores. In an incident Monday, the Iraqis dropped 20 to 30 artillery shells on a U.S. unit at the front, wounding one American, the U.S. command said. It did not identify the unit. The U.S. command Tuesday re ported one plane newly lost in the attacks in Kuwait and southern Iraq. The status of the pilot of the A-10 “tank killer” was unknown. The U.S. command has been re luctant to estimate overall Iraqi casu alties, but one senior military source Tuesday said he believed the Iraqi military has suffered “horrendous casualties.” m Proposal ‘inadequate’ Bush dismisses Soviet peace plan WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday dismissed a Soviet pro posal for ending the war in the Per sian Gulf as “well short of what would be required.” The Pentagon declared its readiness to fight a ground war against Iraq and predicted victory “in short order.” Defense Secretary Dick Cheney told Congress that any pause in the war would allow Saddam Hussein to regroup his army, which has been weakened by relentless air strikes. “A cease-fire, a pause of some kind, would in fact be very dangerous from die standpoint of \J .S. and alliec force,” Cheney said. Washington was abuzz with specu lation that a ground war was immi nent. “The general expectation is it’s not far off,” Sen. Claiborne Pell, D R.I., said as he left a White House meeting between Bush and congres sional leaders. The president was quoted by his spokesman as telling the lawmakers, “I obviously cannot say exactly when aground operation might commence. What I can say is, our preparations are on schedule.” The Pentagon played the same tunc. “We arc ready now (for a ground war) if the leadership decides that’s what they want to do,” said Li. Gen. Tho mas Kelly, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Of the Iraqi forces, Kelly said: “They will be defeated in short order if we initiate a ground campaign.” Marlin Fitzwater, the White House - 44 We are ready now (for ground war) if the leadership decides that’s what they want to do. Lt. Gen. Thomas Kelly Joint Chief of Staff director of operations -- l press secretary, said, “We’re assum ing that the war will have to be prose cuted to the end. We are moving along that course. . . . That’s where the planning is taking us.” The administration stepped back from its announced willingness to help rebuild Iraq after the war. “We arc not about to pay to rebuild Iraq,” Bush told the lawmakers. “It’s a rich country, if they'd just use their resources wisely,” Bush said, according to one participant. After a day of silence about Moscow’s proposal to end the war, Bush declared it was inadequate. “There are no negotiations. The goals have been set out,” Bush said at a picture-taking session with the congressional leaders. “There will be no concessions.” Bush sent a cable Monday night to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev specifying U.S. objections to his pro posal. “I’ve been frank with him on this.” The president said Gorbachev had asked that details of the plan be kept secret, and Bush pledged not to di vulge the contents. Gorbachev had given the plan to Iraqi Foreign Minis ter Tariq Aziz on Monday and re quested a speedy reply. The administration defended Gor bachev’s right to discuss peace with Iraq. However, Fitzwater character ized Gorbachev’s offer as a matter between Moscow and Baghdad and said Washington would not be bound by any such agreement. Nor was there any guarantee to Gorbachev that a ground war would be delayed while he talked with Iraq, Fitzwater said. House Speaker Thomas Foley, D~ Wash., said he did not believe Bush had rejected Moscow’s plan outright, but was waiting to hear Iraq’s re sponse. “He’s not rejecting, he’s not ac cepting it,” Foley said. “I think they’re waiting for the reaction to the Soviet offer by the Iraqis.” Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said Bush told the lawmakers the Soviet proposal “had stripped oul all of the conditions that the Iraqis had included in their statement on Friday.” House Minority Leader Robert Michel, R-1U., said, “I don’t see that anybody’s optimistic, because frankly the conditions are still there. We don’t want to be in any negotiating position at all.” - — _ Russian Federation president calls on Gorbachev to resign MOSCOW - Boris Yeltsin made an unprecedented televised appeal Tuesday for the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev, accusing the Soviet president of sacrificing re forms in adrive for personal power. Yeltsin has been a strident and frequent critic of Gorbachev, but never before called for him to step down. The attack seemed certain to exacerbate the enmity between the two men and to heighten the Soviet political crisis. “I warned in 1987 that Gor bachev has in his character a ten dency to absolute personal power,” Yeltsin said. “He has done all that and has led the country to a dicta torship, giving it a pretty name: presidential rule.” As president of Russia, the larg est Soviet republic, Yeltsin enjoys immense personal popularity but has had difficulty parlaying that into the kind of political power Gorbachev wields. Gorbachev has run the Soviet Union for nearly six years, but has been widely criti cized for the failing economy and the increasing disorder in Soviet society. Yeltsin’s nationwide broadcast was a first for the Soviet Union. Never before had an opposition leader been granted so much time on state-controlled television. His remarks came after most government offices closed but prior to peak viewing hours. There was no immediate reaction from Krem lin spokesmen. In the broadcast, Yeltsin said his biggest mistake since becom ing president of the Russian Fed eration parliament last May was placing too much trust in Gor bachev’s promises of economic and political reform. The heart of Yel tsin ’ s argument was that power should be shifted from the central government, led by Gorbachev, to the 15 Soviet republics. “I distance myself from the position and policies of the (So viet) president. I am in favor of his immediate resignation, with the Ipower being transferred to a col lective organ, the Federation Coun cil of the republic(s),” he said. The Federation Council, con sisting of the Soviet president, vice president and heads of the repub lics, was created at Gorbachev’s initiative. Reformers’ fears of a shift to ward a harder line were heightened in December by the resignation of Foreign Minister Eduard Shevard nadze, who warned of a coming “dictatorship.” Yeltsin, 60, has quit the Com munist Party and recently has been under attack by hardliners. His aides I say opponents have collected enough signatures in the Russian parlia ment to call for a special session at which they are expected to press for a vote of no-confidence. -... -- I m PSORIASIS^ If you are 19 or older and in good gen eral health, but suffer from plaque psori asis on 5-20% of your body, you may be selected to participate in one of two studies to test the safety and efficacy of an ointment for the treatment of your condition. For more information, please call 476-6548 LABORATORIES, INC. | 621 Rose • Lincoln, NE 68502 Show of strength IRA: Attacks can be anywhere I LONDON - The Irish Republican Army bombing of Victoria Station has reminded the British that the IRA can randomly attack almost anywhere, as it did in the 1970s at pubs, shops and railroad stations. Some analysts believe the inten tion is to subject London to the dis ruption and security checks that are part of life in Belfast, capital of the British province of Northern Ireland. “In the IRA there’s a feeling that events in Northern Ireland have been contained somewhat and most British people dismiss news of things hap pening there,” said lan Geldard, a researcher at London’s Institute for the Study of Terrorism. “But when they come over here and attack in London in particular, they arc bringing the war right to our doorsteps,”Geldard added in an inter view. The bomb that killed a 36-year oldcivilservantandinjured40pcoplc at Victoria Station on Monday was the IRA’s first lethal attack on a crowded, purely civilian target in an English city since the 1983 bombing of Harrods department store. That attack, which killed five people including an American, and injured 91, was immediately recognized by the IRA as a public relations blunder. The outlawed organization, which seeks to end British rule in Northern Ireland, apologized and said there had been a mistake. In contrast, the bombing at Victo ria was a textbook success from the IRA’s viewpoint of publicity, disrup tion, and stretching police resources in the midst of a security alert against Iraqi-inspired terrorist attacks. The IRA blames the civilian casu alties on the police, saying they ig nored a telephone warning hours af ter another explosion at London’s Paddington station. Hundreds of thousands of com muters were delayed or stranded later Monday with the closure of all 12 of the capital’s main railroad stations. On Tuesday, five British Rail sta tions, including London’s busy Char ing Cross, were closed during peak periods as police checked bomb hoaxes and reports of suspicious packages. In Belfast, the IRA frequently uses bombs, take bombs and hoax calls to disrupt business in the city center. It has also complained that police some times decide nol to evacuate build ings despite bomb threats. Nebraskan Editor Eric Planner 472- 1766 Managing Editor Victoria Ayotte Assoc News Editors Jana Padarsan Emily Rosenbaum Editorial Page Editor Bob Nelson Wire Editor Jennifer O'ClIka Copy Desk Editor Diana Brayton Publications Board Chairman Bill Vobsjda 436-9993 Professional Adviser Don Walton 473- 7301 The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) is published by she 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 commonts to the Daily Neoraskari Z by phoning 472-1763 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 price is $45 tor one year Postmaster Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St .Lincoln, NF 68588 0448 Second-class ; postage paid at Lincoln, NE ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1991 DAILY NEBRASKAN