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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 1991)
T News Digest JSSSSss* Gates says he failed to predict Soviet change WASHINGTON — Robert Gates, under intense Senate questioning of his qualifications to head the CIA, conceded Tuesday that he had focused on the Soviet Union’s threat to the outside world and not on the “unthinkable” changes percolating among its people. On the second day of his confirmation hear ings before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gates also came in for renewed grilling from Democrats critical of his actions at the time of the 1985-86 diversion of money from Iran arms sales to the contra rebels in Nicaragua. However, many of the panel’s 15 members appeared to have been disarmed by Gates’ I admission of fault—both on matters of analy sis and in repeatedly saying on Monday and Tuesday that he should have been more vigor ous in probing early indications of the Iran contra affair. Republicans sought to stress Gates’ abilities as an analyst — the metier that propelled him through CIA and White House ranks to be nominated to the top intelligence post at the age of 47. “There’s a very strong record of your acting aggressively” at the CIA, suggested Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo. In response, Gates described a record that ^ .. brought him into several confrontations with the administration when he wrote analyses at variance with senior officials’ beliefs on such subjects as the Philippines and Lebanon. On the Soviet Union, Gates conceded, his record was imperfect. For instance, he said he had publicly dis agreed with a CIA analysis that the Soviets would undertake unilateral cuts in their de fense spending. “I was wrong,” he said. When asked about a 1986 speech he had made saying the Soviets would test a ground based anti-missile laser defense system by the end of the 1980s, Gates also conceded error but defended himself by say ing he had drawn from various expert opinions. He rejected suggestions from Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., that he had tailored his assess ment in order to justify U.S. defense spending by sounding a false alarm about a Soviet buildup. When reminded by Bradley that in 1986 he had rejected any suggestions that change was brewing in the Soviet Union, Gates responded: “We have all learned some important lessons. .. in terms of thinking the unthinkable.” Cease-fire broken Yugoslavian truce fails again, hours after Serbs, Croats sign IGALO, Yugoslavia — Yugo slav leaders agreed Tuesday to a cease-fire in war-tom Croatia. But within hours, explosions rocked the republic’s capital and federal gun boats blocked the harbor of the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik. At least 22 deaths were reported. Previous cease-fires in seces sionist Croatia have lasted no more than a few days. The latest peace accord was set to begin at midday today, the Tanjug news agency said. Croatian President Franjo Tudjman expressed some optimism about the cease-fire, saying in an interview with his republic’s tele vision network that the pact could “maybe mean that we’ve avoided an all-out war.” Intense military activity followed the surprise announcement of the cease-fire in this southern Yugo slav resort by European Commu nity mediator Lord Carrington. “This country is only days away from a state of irretrievable civil war,” Carrington said. While the pact was signed by the Serbian and Croatian presidents as well as the federal defense min ister, there are serious doubts whether anyone can control the violence that has killed more than 450 people since Croatia declared independence June 25. The fighting has pitted Croats against minority Serbs in Croatia who oppose independence. Fed eral forces have been fighting on the side of the Serbs, according to EC officials and Croatian militants. As a result, most of Croatia is now a battle zone. The deep divisions between the sides was obvious Tuesday when, after Carrington read the cease-fire statement, none of the representa tives at the U-shapcd table said anything. Instead, ignoring reporters’ questions, each of the representa tives walked off. An hour later, air raid sirens wailed in the Croatian capital of Zagreb. Croatia’s Defense Minis A l try reported fighting around a fed eral army barracks in cast Zagreb, and claimed the army was firing % cannons at the city. Baker gives Israel loans conditional OK CAIRO — Secretary of State James Baker told Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on Tuesday that the Bush administration would support the housing-loan guarantees Israel is vigorously seeking — if Israel ac cepts a four-month delay and limits on where the money can be spent. Baker’s proposal was part of an effort to end an acrimonious squabble that has upset U.S.-Israeli relations and threatened efforts to convene a Middle East peace conference next month. Shamir said after the talks, “We have achieved a certain progress,” but he added that the question of the $10 billion in loan guarantees was “not yet resolved.” Baker, rejecting a main Shamir demand, said the United States would insist on a condition that none of the money be used for settlements in the disputed territories of the West Bank and Gaza. A senior administration official traveling on Baker’s plane said the secretary of state believes that if that condition is dropped, Arab countries “won’t come to the table” for the talks Baker has been struggling to arrange. “That just is something we are not going to agree to,” said the official. After his meeting with Shamir, Baker flew to Egypt to confer with President Hosni Mubarak. Before he returns to Washington, Baker also plans to visit Syria and Jordan. The furor over the loan guarantees has reverberated both domestically and internationally and has prompted , unusually harsh exchanges between 1 the president and U.S. supporters of 1 Israel as well as between Bush and 1 Israeli government officials. Budgets, gulf war, changing world lead to SAC merger OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE— Thechang ing world, a tight fiscal climate and lessons learned from Operation Desert Storm contrib uted to an Air Force plan to merge the Strategic Air Command, based here since 1948, with two other major commands. The Air Force overhaul, which will restruc ture SAC, the Tactical Air Command at Lan gley Air Force Base, Va., and the Military Airlift Command, was announced in Washing ton Tuesday by Air Force Secretary Donald Rice. The secretary told the Air Force Association that he wants to form two groups, one that will focus on moving forces quickly and the other that will be in charge of missiles, fighters and bombers. Details of where the new commands will be based or who will be in charge are still being worked out, said Tech. Sgt. Alan Dockery, a SAC spokesman. “I don’t have a good timetable for details. We know the what and why, but we don’t know the who, when, where and how,” he said. Dockery said the changes are part of a process that has been going on for months. In April, the Air Force officials said Offutt would lose authorizations for about 1,200 military and civilian personnel, including a one-third reduction in the staff at SAC headquarters. The Strategic Air Command currently manages intercontinental missiles, long-range bombers, refueling tankers and some recon naissance and communications aircraft The Tactical Air Command has fighters and small bombers, while the Military Airlift Command controls most of the Air Force’s cargo planes. Rice said one new command would be called the mobility command, which will be respon sible for global transportation, but its mission will be expanded to include aerial refueling tankers. The combat command will consist of the Air Force’s intercontinental ballistic missiles, its communications aircraft, some tactical air lift and tankers, fighters and bombers, as well as the people who operate and support them. “We learned much from Desert Storm. Bombers dropped bombs on tactical targets. Fighter planes hit strategic targets,’’ Dockery said. “The distinction between strategic and tactical has gone away.” Solzhenitsyn says he will go home to Russia MOSCOW — The chief Soviet prosecutor Tuesday officially closed the 1974 treason case against Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and the exiled author of life in Stalin’s gulag said in Vermont that he would return to his beloved Russia. Prosecutor Nikolai Trubin found “no proof whatsoever testifying to any crime committed by Alexander Solzhenitsyn,” Tass news agency said in a brief dispatch. The decision came 17 1/2 years after Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union by a decision of the Supreme Soviet. Solzhenitsyn, now 72, is best known for his works “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” and “The Gulag Archipelago,” chronicling the lives of people sentenced under dictator Josef Stalin to forced-labor camps in Siberia. They are based on his own experience. The United Nations has added seven member nations to its General Assembly this year, as of September 17,1991. They are Estonia. Latvia, Lithuania, North Korea, South Kdrea. the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. A new U.N. order Assembly adds members, prestige UNITED NATIONS —The • General Assembly, its influence en hanced by tumultuous change from Moscow to the Middle East, convened its 46lh session on Tuesday. It picked Saudi Arabia's Palestinian-born envoy as president and welcomed seven nations earlier barred by Cold War politics. The assembly accepted the three newly independent Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as North and South Korea, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia. With their membership, the world body's size increased to 166 members. The Baltics, active members of the League of Nations, were seated with applause to signify their re joining the family of nations after 51 years of domination by the Soviet Union. All seven new members were seated by acclama tion. Resolutions of the General As sembly, M kind of international par liamcnt, are not legally binding like those of the Security Council. But its decisions carry weight as expressions of world opinion. Also, the United Nations’ new clout in the wake of its key role in the Persian Gulf War provides new opportuni ties for international cooperation and the settling of disputes. Soon after convening, the assem bly elected the Saudi U.N. envoy, Samir Shihabi, 66, as its president. The post is largely ceremonial, but the president has the power to arrange the agenda and schedule or postpone debates, sometimes defusing acrimonious issues. Addressing the assembly, Shihabi raised one of those issues, referring to “the tragedy of Pales tine.” “The United Nations is commit ted to full realization of Palestinian rights in accordance with U.N. resolutions, the U.N. Charter and desire of the international commu nity,” said Shihabi, who was bom in Jerusalem into a Palestinian family, i. Nebraskan Editor Jana Pedersen 472- 1766 Managing Editor Diana Brayton Assoc. News Editors Stacey McKenzie Kara Wells Editorial Page Editor & Wire Editor Eric Planner Copy Desk Editor Paul Do malar Sports Editor Nick Hytrek Assistant Sports Editor Chuck Green Arts $ Entertain ment Editor John Payne Art Director Brian Shelllto General Manager Dan Shattll Production Manager Katherine Pollcky Advertising Manager Todd Sears Sales Manager Eric Krlngel Classified Ad Manager Annette Sue per Publications Board Chairman Bill Vobejda 476-2855 Professional Adviser Don Walton 473- 7301 FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) 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. 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