News Digest Edited by Roger Price
Candidates rehash themes
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Five
Democratic presidential candidates
took turns replaying the themes of
their New Hampshire primary cam
paigns Sunday night in a debate con
centrated on economic issues.
Four of the five, reflecting the
lo^ take
Timing made it crucial — voting
begins in little more than 30 hours in
the first presidential primary election
of 1992.
Paul Tsongas, the former Massa
chusetts senator favored in the polls,
said the question for the voters isn’t
whether to back a government out
sider or an insider, it’s what would
happen in a new administration.
“When you raise your hand, you
become the insider,” he said. “What
arc you going to do to provide jobs for
the people of this country?”
Tsongas drew fire from most of
the field for his support of nuclear
power and especially the Scabrook
nuclear plant that operates in New
Hampshire.
Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton said
Americans need a president with “the
vision to tell the nation where we arc
and where we ought to go... who has
the ability to change things.
“You can make jobs, you can
educate people, you can solve social
problems,” he said. “That’s what
America needs.”
Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska said
he’d demand prompt action on na
tional health care, his central cam
paign issue.
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa pressed
his case as a champion of traditional
Democratic liberalism, saying Demo
crats should offer a sharp break from
President Bush’s policies, not fine
tuning on taxes and other issues.
Former California Gov. Jerry Brown
said there is a clear choice among the
Democratic rivals because he wants
to shake the entire system and alter
the power structure in America.
Tsongas said the money should be
spent at home, because only if the
U.S. economy is strong can America
be generous to other nations. “You
take this country, make it strong, make
it vibrant, make it competitive,” he
said.
Earlier Sunday, in a television
interview, Harkin sniped at both
Tsongas and Clinton. He said Tson
gas sounds like a Republican while
the controversy over Clinton’s per
sonal life and draft record raise ques
lionsof characlcrand veracity. “They
raise questions in everyone’s mind,
and, of course, I’m like everyone else
in America,” he said.
But Clinton said Americans “know
that I have stoutly denied the untrue,
tabloid, paid-for trash” alleging an
illicit affair, “and they know now I
didn’t dodge the draft.”
In Nashua, Bush wrapped up his
Republican primary campaign, say
ing he’d win substantially and “go on
ELECTIONS
New Hampshire .
An overview
of 1992's first
primary:
Delegates at
stake In N.H.:
Democratic: 18
Republican: 23
Delegates at
stake In U.S.:
Democratic: 4,284
Republican: 2,209
N.H. electorate:
1990 population
Eligible voters
1 830,497|
Registered voters
648,716
'Other-31.22%
-Republicans-39.15%
- Democrats-29.63%
__
to have another four years as presi
dent.”
Conservative challenger Patrick
Buchanan insisted he can stall the
president in New Hampshire and in
the March 3 Georgia primary, go on
to other contests and eventually ‘‘drive
Mr. Bush out of this campaign.”
Support grows for Haiti invasion
NEW YORK — Many Haitian
Americans frustrated by the failure of
diplomatic efforts to reinstate ousted
President Jcan-Betrand Aristide, now
arc calling for an armed invasion to
knock out Haiti’s repressive military.
But in the same breath, members
of the 300,000-strong Haitian immi
grant community in New York ada
mantly oppose sending U.S. troops
because of memoricsof a humiliating
American occupation early this cen
tury.
Philippe Wilson Dcsir, 52, Haiti’s
consul general in New York, thinks a
force of Haitian exiles sponsored by
friendly nations might be a solution.
“Thousands and thousands of
Haitians arc ready to do it,” said Dcsir,
a former Haitian navy lieutenant who
lied after taking part in a failed 1970
coup attempt against the Duvalier
family dictatorship.
Many Haitians don’t believe the
Bush administration backs Aristide,a
radical priest who a year ago became
Haiti’s first freely elected leader. And
they’re outraged by the forced return
of refugees who have fled the Carib
bean island nation since the bloody
coup Sept. 30.
“There is a tacit collaboration
between the Haitian military and the
State Department,” Desir said. “The
Americans will have the last word.
And the Americans don’t want Aris
tide’s return.”
The Bush administration, which
recognizes Aristide as Haiti’s legiti
mate leader, denies that charge.
Kerrey campaign begins
to struggle for survival
Pollster admits
to leaking memo
attacking Clinton
MANCHESTER, N.H. —
Democratic hopeful Bob Kerrey
said Sunday he felt angry and be
trayed by his own pollster who ac
knowledged that he had anony
mously circulated a memo critical
of rival Gov. Bill Clinton.
The Boston Globe reported
Sunday that Harrison Hickman had
acknowledged
being the
source of a
memo faxed
anonymously
to the newspa
per. The memo
alleged incon
sistencies in the
Arkansas governor’s account of how
he obtained and then gave up a
draft deferment in 1969.
Kerrey was asked at a midafter
noon press conference if Hickman
was continuing to work for his
campaign, and said, “At the mo
ment, he’s not.” An aide said later
that Hickman was “on probation.”
“I’m not only angry in a per
sonal way but I feel that he be
traycd me in this campaign,” the
Nebraska senator told reporters. At
one point he referred to the pollster
as “Harrison Hitman.”
Hours later, Kerrey’s press sec
retary Steve Jarding said Kerrey
had not meant to suggest that he
had fired Hickman. He said Kerrey
had “put Harrison on probation.”
Kerrey said distributing the
memo violated his orders for cam
paign aides to steer clear of criti
cizing Clinton’s explanation, al
though Kerrey himself has ques
tioned Clinton’s account.
The Boston Globe said the
newspaper and CBS News received
the memo about Clinton by fax,
without a cover letter or computer
ized identification usually typed
across the top of such transmis
sions.
The newspaper later determined
that the memo was sent from Hick
man’s Washington office fax ma
chine, and confronted him again.
He adm iltcd it originated there, but
said it was sent to the Globe by
mistake.
“I’m quite angry about this, and
I told Harrison that he made a ter
rible mistake,” Kerrey told the
newspaper. “I told him what he did
was stupid. And that’s the elcancd
up version.”
Senator shoots for win in South Dakota
OMAHA — Regardless of how
Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey does in
the New Hampshire primary Tues
day, the Democratic presidential
candidate will take his campaign
west with plans to win South Da
kota, campaign officials said. *
Kerrey, who was lagging be
hind in New Hampshire polls Sun
day, will try to establish a base in
the west and
position his
campaign for
the March 10
Super Tuesday
primaries,
campaign aides
said. Eleven
stales hold primaries that day.
Before that, he will make a one
day stop Wednesday in Maine for
the Feb. 23 caucuses. The South
Dakota primary is Feb. 25.
Kerrey will be financially strong
for South Dakota, campaign press
secretary Steve Jarding told the
Omaha World-Herald.
Jarding said he could not esti
mate how much Kerrey will spend
in New Hampshire or how much
cash the campaign will have after- i
ward. Kerrey spent more than
S7(X),(XX) on TV advertising in New
Hampshire, the most of any candi
date.
“The cash flow is capable here,'
said Jim Pribyl, who is managing*
the South Dakota campaign for
Kerrey.
A victory in South Dakota keeps
the money coming in and retains
national press coverage of the
campaign, said Mike McCurry, a
Kerrey consultant.
The victory' would instantly make
him the favorite in Colorado, which
holds its primary one week later on
March 3, said Mike Stratton, a
Denver political consultant work
ing for Kerrey.
West Bank building rolls on
SHILO, Occupied West Bank
— Rows of red-roofed houses that
cascade down a hillside, more than
doubling the size of this militant
Jewish settlement, arc part of a
huge Israeli building program in
the occupied lands.
By some estimates, it will raise
the number of Jewish settlers in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip from
the 115,000 now listed by settler
groups to 185,000 by the end of
1993.
In Shik), 20 miles north of Jerusa
lem, the 200 new homes are seen as
progress. But Washington views
the tracts springing up in the terri
tories as barriers to peace.
They also have jeopardized Is
rael’s request for $10 billion in
U.S. loan guarantees to help ab
sorb 350,000 Jews who have im
migrated since 1989 from what used
to be the Soviet Union.
Secretary of State James A. Baker
III has told Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir’s government to freeze
settlement building if it wants the
guarantees.
Baker offered a compromise
earlier this month that would allow
completion of units under construc
tion, and a dispute has arisen over
how many are actually being built.
The burgeoning settlements are
a contentious issue because they
. Ir—*----1---'-*-;■ .-.'.T-.J
could undercut U.S.-sponsored
peace talks in Washington based
on Israel trading land for peace
with the Arabs.
Israel captured the West Bank
and Ga/a from Jordan and Egypt
respectively in the 1967 Middle
East war. They arc home to 1.7
million Palestinians, who began a
revolt four years ago to end Israeli
rule and form their own state.
“The land is the essence of the
conflict,” said Hanan Ashrawi,
spokeswoman for the Palestinian
delegation to the peace talks. “If
the Israelis confiscate the land and
populate it with settlers, they have
unilaterally ... negated the very
foundations of the peace process.”
To Shamir and settlement lead
ers, the land is not negotiable and
the settlements arc a way to make
sure it stays in Jewish hands.
“This represents our commit
ment to Israel as we understand it,”
said Rabbi Dov Berkovits, a Shilo
resident who immigrated from
Skokie, III. “It is our type of Zion
ism, the building of our country.”
Shamir’s government had sought
to play down the amount of hous
ing being built in the territories,
fearing a backlash from the United
States and European countries that
consider the Jewish settlements an
obstacle to peace.
Israeli helicopters kill Islamic leader
in revenge attack on convoy in Lebanon
S1DON, Lebanon — Israeli heli
copters blasted a convoy Sunday car
rying the leader of the pro-Iranian
group Hc/bollah, killing him and his
wife and son.
In response, Shiite Muslim leaders
vowed revenge and called for a holy
war against Israel.
The dramatic strike, which could
damage the Middle East peace proc
ess, capped a day of Israeli air attacks
on south Lebanon that left eight other
people dead and 29 wounded.
The Israeli strikes came less than
48 hours al ter a raid on an army camp
inside Israel, in which three Israeli
soldiers were hacked to death.
Hezbollah said its leader, Sheik
Abbas Musawi, 39, his wife, Siham,
and their 5-year-old son, Hussein, the
youngest of the couple’s six children,
were “martyred’’ in what it called “a
cowardly air attack.” The terse state
ment issued at the group’s headquar
ters in Beirut gave no other details.
In addition to Musawi and his
family, four other people were killed,
and 18 were wounded, police said.
They said eight of the wounded were
in “very critical condition.”
Hezbollah, or Party of God, was
considered the umbrella group for the
Shiite Muslim holders of Western
hostages in Lebanon. It opposes the
Middle East peace talks, the next round
of which arc to begin Feb. 24 in
Washington.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli military
acknowledged it had carried out the
attack on the convoy, but suggested it
had not specifically targeted Musawi.
It said it “turned out” the Hezbollah
leader was in the convoy, which was
carrying militia leaders from a meet
ing in the south Lebanon village of
Jibshcct.
The attack on Musawi's convo>
followed air strikes earlier Sunday on
Palestinian refugee camps at Ein cl
Hilweh and Rashidiyeh, in which police
said four people were killed and 11
wounded.
The Israeli military said it targeted
the Fatah faction of the Palestine
Liberation Organization, which ithad
blamed for the fatal raid early Satur
day on an Israeli army camp near the
West Bank. Three soldiers were killed
by Arabassailanlsarmed with knives,
axes and pitchforks.
In the raid on Rashidiyeh, the Is
raelis struck an empty two-story mili
tary base that had been used by Fatah,
the mainstream PLO faction.
SYRIA
I
Israel
Security Zone
Golan Heights
AP
In the convoy strike, police saul
Musawi was riding in a black Mer
cedes limousine in a convoy of sev
eral vehicles on a road near Sharqiya,
13 miles southeast of the port city ol
Tyre, when two Israeli helicopter
gunships attacked with wire-guided
missiles.
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