"f| cl- Associated Press , Nebraskan I
2 1 It VV O MS l.^y%Z3 t Edited by Jennifer O Olka Monday Aprj, 29 1991
-— -—— ----—— ■ - -^
Allied zone expanded; refugees airlifted
ZAKHO, Iraq - In a change of
plans, allied forces have more lhan
doubled the size of their security zone
for Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq
and are scouting a site for a second
settlement, U.S. officers said Sun
day.
In southern Iraq, meanwhile, the
U.S. Army began an airlift to Saudi
Arabia of refugees who fear reprisals
from Iraqi security forces if they
remain. That was seen as a major step
toward the U.S. troops’ own depar
ture.
In northern Iraq, the initial allicd
protected security zone was to have
encompassed a 630-square-milc area
that stretched 18 miles south and 35
miles cast of Zakho. Allied troops
were also planning to complete one
camp before starling another.
Now, the new zone is envisioned
to be about 1,350 square miles and
troops will start a second camp before
finishing the first.
Army officers said the change of
plans came after they realized that
notall the Kurds were willing to come
to the camp at Zakho, where about
1,000 tents have been set up for refu
gees.
In addition, the officers said they
hoped that expanding the size of the
zone would encourage Kurds to come
down from the mountains, where many
of them live in appalling conditions
but are too afraid of Iraqi retribution
to leave.
Soon, U.S. Marines from the 24th
Marine Expeditionary Unit will enter
Amadiyah, about 75 miles east of
Zahko, where a second camp is
planned, said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jim
Christophersen, of the 432nd Civil
Affairs Company of Green Bay, Wis.
“This will effectively double the
size of the security zone,” said Chris
tophersen, whose men will manage
both camps until the United Nations
and humanitarian agencies can take
over.
Privately, some officers expressed
concern that the expansion, by in
creasing allied military involvement
in Iraq, could raise the possibility of
coalition forces being drawn into a
quagmire in Iraq.
“We ’ re hoping to be out of here by
the end of May,” said Christophersen.
But he added: “That may be wishful
thinking.”
Some refugees have begun to
complain that Kurdish resistance fight
ers, known as Pesh Merga or “those
who face death,” arc stopping refu
gees who seek to return to their homes.
On a winding road heading to the
mountain top refugee camp at
Isikvcren, on the Turkish side of the
border, dozens of Kurdish families
complained that the guerrillas were
blocking their return.
Dilbar Mohammed, a 30-year-old
Kurd, said he sent his wife and two
children home to Zakho two weeks
ago on the nine-hour walk on foot
from Isikvcren. Since then, he has
been wailing at a Pesh Merga check
point for permission to drive the family
car into Zakho.
“Before this time, I wanted to
Saddam keeps grip on power;
future continues to look good
NICOSIA, Cyprus - With cun
ning, brute force and sheer luck,
Saddam Hussein has kept his grip
on power. And he looks likely to
keep it for the foreseeable future.
To mark his 54th birthday Sun
day, Iraq’s government-run news
papers sang the president’s praises
in banner headlines. The ruling
party’s newspaper, Al-Thawra,
hailed Saddam’s “historic and
unique leadership traits . . . his
struggle in Iraq’s glorious march.”
The latest step in that “glorious
march”— the Persian Gulf war —
ended with the most crushing bat
ilefield defeat any Arab ruler has
suffered in nearly 25 years.
Even though battered by the
allies, Saddam managed to quell
two internal rebellions.
The Central Intelligence Agency
conceded in a recent report that
Saddam, whose overthrow was
publicly urged by President Bush,
has reasserted his power in a way
that few of his adversaries expected.
“I’d guess Saddam Hussein will
be in power after George Bush
leaves power,” Sen. Malcolm
Wallop, R-Wyo., said recently.
believe in Kurdistan,” he said. “Bui
now I just want to be with my fam
ily.”
At the checkpoint, Pesh Merga
guerrillas said they were waiting lor
orders to let the Kurds return. But
Mohammed and others charged that
the guerrillas were accepting bribes.
Discovery orbiting on Star Wars mission
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The
space shuttle Discovery thundered into
orbit with seven astronauts Sunday
on a “Star Wars” research mission
that promises to be one of the most
complicated flights in shuttle history.
The spaceship roared from its
seaside launch pad at 7:33 a.m. EDT,
climbing through a fairly clear sky
flushed by the rising sun.
Once Discovery was settled in its
161-mile-high orbit, shuttle com
mander and veteran spaceman Mi
chael Coats told Mission Control that
“everything seems to be going pretty
well.”
“We’ve got a bunch of kids in the
candy store up here having a ball,”
Coats said. It is the first trip into space
for five of the astronauts.
Project managers were just as
thrilled.
“How sweet it is,” gushed Michael
Harrison, a research official for the
Strategic Defense Initiative, belter
known as “Star Wars.”
The launch, stalled seven weeks
because of faulty shuttle parts, was
delayed a half-hour at the last minute
by yet another problem.
Launch director Bob Sieck held
the countdown clock at the rune-minute
mark after one of two data recorders
aboard Discovery turned on prema
turely. There was no safely hazard,
but officials wanted to make sure
there was nothing wrong with the
shuttle’s computers.
The countdown resumed after
engineers concluded the computers
were fine.
Sieck put that problem and others
behind once Discovery was safely in
space.
“You don’t keep score and you
don’t look back ... you go to school
on lessons learned,” Sieck said. “As
soon as it’s up there and everything is
working fine, that’s just history.”
Most of the eight-day flight will be
-- *4 -
You don’t keep score
and you don’t look
hack... you go to
school on lessons
learned. As soon as it’s
up there and every
thing is working fine,
that’s just history.
Sieck
NASA launch director
-99 ~
devoted to Star Wars tests aimed at
helping scientists develop sensors for
tracking and destroying enemy mis
siles. The astronauts will split 12
hour shifts to obtain as much data as
possible.
The toughest experiments will be
Tuesday and Wednesday. That’s when
a satellite released from Discovery
will measure and analyze the shuttle's
exhaust plumes. It also will examine
chemicals and gases sprayed into space
— potential missile camouflage —
before being captured for return to
Earth.
NASA considers this one of the
most complex shuttle flights because
of all the tricky, split-second turns
required. Discovery’s engine nozzles
must be pointed right at the space
craft during the plume observations.
A collection of five scientific in
struments will remain in the cargo
bay to study natural phenomena, such
as the atmosphere and aurora, that
could mask a missile’s path.
It was the 40th space shuttle launch
and the second one this month. Atlan
tis left April 5 and landed six days
later after placing an astronomical
observatory in orbit.
The last time NASA launched two
shuttles in the same month was in
January 1986. The second ship to go
up was Challenger; it exploded 73
seconds after liftoff, killing all seven
aboard.
NASA called off Discovery's
launch Tuesday less than six hours
before liftoff when a sensor for one of
the main engines fai led. A new sensor
was installed.
The mission already was six weeks
late because of cracks on hinge mecha
nisms that open and close two fuel
inlet doors. The mechanisms were
replaced, and the doors shut lightly as
expected after the external fuel lank
dropped away, said flight director
Lee Briscoe.
The crew, in addition to Coals,
consists of Blaine Hammond Jr.,
Donald McMonaglc, Gregory Har
baugh, Guion Bluford Jr., Richard
Hicb and Charles Lacy Vcach. Only
Coals and Bluford have flown in space
before.
1,484,000
1,489,170
1,328,000
1,273,280
1983
1982
1981
Cities with the most murders (1990 figures)
1. New York: 2,245 Up 18% 4. Houston: 568 Up 24%
2. Los Angeles: 983 Up 12% 5. Philadelphia: 503 Up 5.9%
3. Chicago: 850 Up 15% 6. Washington D.C.: 472 Up 8.8%
AP
FBI reports 7 American cities
recorded 25 percent of murders
WASHINGTON - Seven Ameri
can cities recorded more than one
fourth of all murders in the United
States, the FBI said Sunday in releas
ing its annual preliminary crime re
port.
Six of the seven cities had more
murders last year than in 1989. The
exception was Detroit, which had 582
murders, 42 fewer than the year be
fore.
Overall, violent crime — murder,
rape, robbery and aggravated assault
— jumped 10 percent in 1990.
“The growth in violent crimes is
larger than I would have thought,”
said Alfred Blumstein, d“an of the
School of Urban and Public Affairs at
Carnegie-Mel Ion University in Pitts
burgh.
Criminologists, however, don’t
consider the annual report a reliable
indicator of crime trends because it
covers only reported crime.
A more accurate barometer, those
experts say, is the Justice Depart
ment’s annual survey of crime vic
tims, which shows the level of violent
crime has been fairly stable in the last
decade.
The FBI expressed the national
picture only in percentages. Apply
ing those percentages to last year’s
figures, these would be the numbers
nationally in a few categories:
•Violent crime up 10 percent, to
about 1,810,000.
•Murder up 10 percent, to 23,600.
•Rape up 9 percent, to 103,000.
•Robbery up 11 percent, to 642,000.
•Aggravated assault up 10 per
cent, to 1,050,000.
In non-violent crimes:
•Burglary down 4 percent, to
3.040.000.
•Larceny theft, unchanged at
7.872.000,
•Motor vehicle theft, up 5 percent
to 1,620,000.
“Today’s FBI crime figures show
that America set new records for
murder and rape last year,’* said Sen.
Joseph Biden Jr., D-Del., chairman of
the Senate Judiciary Committee, who
has proposed a Democratic alterna
live to President Bush’s crime bill.
“The president and Congress must
pass tough measures to fight crime,
ban killer assault guns and combat
the epidemic of violence against
women before the death toll grows
even higher,” Biden said
Attorney General Dick Thornburgh
also saw in the statistics a need to pass
a crime bill — the one proposed by
the Bush administration.
“Never before has the need for the
president’s lough er ne bill been so
pressing and the consequences of its
absence been so dramatic,’’ Thorn
burgh said.
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