By The
Associated Press
Edited by Alan Phelps
Cheney says U.S. won’t be bogged down
WASHINGTON — U.S. troops
may round up and disarm the warring
Somali gunmen who block the deliv
ery of aid to the starving, Defense
Secretary Dick Cheney said Sunday,
but he insisted Americans will not get
i bogged down in a guerrilla war.
Cheney, in an appearance on NBC’ s
“Meet the Press,” said the first order
of business for 30,000 troops being
sent to Somalia will be to “restore
some semblance of order,” and that
means dealing with the guns, mortars,
artillery and other weaponry amassed
by the nation’s warlords.
“We may well want to go in and
round up troops or weapons. We might
want to offer a bounty” so people turn
in their guns, Cheney said.
“We will be concerned about any
potential military threat to our own
forces, to the relief workers, and we
A ^
First Pentagon step in Somalia may be to round up gunmen
will, in fact, have to deal with some of
those elements in order to achieve our
objective,” Cheney said.
Marine Commandant Carl Mundy
echoed Cheney’s comments, saying
he hoped U.S. troops encounter “a
peaceful disarmament,” but will be
ready to meet any challenge if they
don’t.
“We are prepared to lake whatever
measures we have to to achieve disar
mament,” the four-star general said in
an appearance on ABC’s “This Week
With David Brinkley.”
The Marine general said he be
lieved U.S. forces in the region will
begin moving into Somalia “in about
two days.”
The troops will be allowed to re
turn fire if fired upon, andLplso will be
allowed to shoot first should someone
even appear to be making threatening
moves, Mundy said.
They may “need to fire because..
.somcone’spointingawcaponatyou,
a machine gun or a tank (is) coming
towards you or something, and they ’ll
be able to engage,” the general said.
Neither Cheney nor Mundy said
they viewed the U.S. role as “round
ing up every AK-47 in Somalia,” nor
remaining until peace returns to the
devastated nation.
“IX you’re looking for the United
States to slay until all Somalia’s prob
lems arc solved — it’s not going to
mr
happen,” Cheney said.
He said U.S. officials hoped to
begin turning some areas of Somalia
over to U.N. peacekeepers by the end
of next month.
Queried about the possibility that
U.S. forces might end up in a lengthy
guerrilla conflict, Cheney responded,
“I think that’s dead wrong.”
He refused to specify any date for
a U.S. departure, but said, “the idea of
leaving a large U.S. combat force for
a long time in Somalia is not a valid
one.”
National security adviser Brent
Scowcrofl, i ntcrv ie wed on C B S -TV ’ s
“Face The Nation,” said the U.S. role
in the operation “is strictly limited”
and nopciuiiy will prepare a ground
work of peace so Somalia can rebuild
a govemmeni structure.
Scowcroft said, however, that at
least “a few thousand” U.S. military
personnel may be called upon to re
main in Somaliaaftcr the U.S. ground
troops depart.
They would be logistics specialists
who would help provide support for
any U.N. follow-on forces, Scowcroft
said, because of the dire conditions in
Somal ia and the lack of such basics as
fuel and water.
Meanwhile, the Navy announced
that it had ordered the Baltimore
based hospital ship USNS Comfort to
begin preparations to deploy to So
malia. »
The ship is expected to get under
way from Baltimore in three to four
days.
Anarchy rules in Somalia as Marines prepare orrsnore
MOGADISHU, Somalia — With armed
guards riding shotgun, relief workers Sunday
broke a month-old siege of Mogadishu’s port
and sent 100 trucks loaded with food roaring off
the docks to the isolated northern half of the
capital.
More desperately needed food made it to the
centralcity of Bardcra, where three relief planes
landed as aid workers were down to their last 25
sacks of grain. It was the first food to reach
Bardcra in nine days, but was not soon enough
to save the 160 people who died of starvation
there Saturday, said Ian MacLeod, a U.N. aid
spokesman.
But Somalia’s anarchy still made itdifficull
for relief groups to get help to starving Somalis
in inland areas, even as 1,800 U.S. Marines
made final preparations to come ashore to
begin an armed, U.N.-mandated mercy mis
sion.
Aid groups planned to parachute food to tens
of thousands of people in villages around Bardcra
who are trapped by land mines surrounding the
city. The international relief agency CARE
said the airdrops, using C-130 cargo planes,
would be an interim measure until the situation
around Bardcra calms.
Relief agencies havccul back staff in Bardcra
and in nearby Baidoa, where gangs of militia
men have reportedly gone on looting sprees and
threatened more attacks. Five Somalis guard
ing a CARE convoy in Baidoa were killed last
week in a looting attack, and the agency was
down lo three workers in the city on Sunday.
Some 28,150 soldiers from the United Slates
and other nations arc expected to participate in
the operation to restore order and guard food
shipments. The first detachment of the more
than 2,000 French soldiers earmarked for the
force will be ready to go Monday, Defense
Minister Pierre Joxe said in Paris. Egypt, Tur
key and Mauritania also announced they will
send troops.
Somalia has descended into chaos since
rebels drove dictator Mohamed Siad Barrc
from power nearly two years ago. Central au
thority collapsed, and drought and warfare
have ravaged the nation.
About 300,000 Somalis have died this year
from starvation, disease and the fighting. An
additional 250,000 could die by the end of the
year without help. Some 2 million people, or
one-third of the population, arc at risk of star
vation.
Aid agencies estimate at least half the food
donated to Somalia so far has been stolen.
, In Mogadishu Sunday, relief workers re
opened the port and got food from one end of the
divided city to the other unscathed for the first
lime in more than a month.
Arranging the convoys took two days of
negotiations between the two rival clan militias
lhalconirol halves of the city, but their success
raised hopes that more of the food sitting in
warehouses would soon reach the hungry.
Earthquake faults discovered
under downtown Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — Two previ
ously unknown earthquake faults have
been discovered in downtown Los
Angeles, passing beneath skyscrap
ers, along the Hollywood Freeway
and near Dodger Stadium, geologists
said Sunday.
If the faults arc active, they could
produce quakes measuring 5.5 to 6.5
on the Richter scale.
That would “be very damaging
because they are so close to major
population centers,” said geologist
Jim Dolan of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena.
Of more concern is the possibility
that the newly discovered Echo Park
and MacArthur Park faults may be
connected to and rupture at the same
time as the deeper Elysian Park fault,
which was discovered five years ago,
Dolan said.
Scientists believe the Elysian Park
fault could produce a quake measur
ing at least 7 right under downtown
Los Angeles. Dolan said existence of
the shallower faults suggests the
deeper fault is active.
“If you find a live flea on lop of a
dog, it’s likely that dog is alive loo,”
said Caltech geology professor Kerry
Sieh, who discovered the new faults
with Dolan and San Diego Slate Uni
versity geologist Thomas Rockwell.
Government studies have said that
even a magniludc-6.5 quake centered
under Los Angeles could be far more
deadly and damaging than a quake
measuring 7.5 to 8.3 on the more
notorious San Andreas fault, which is
about 35 miles from downtown.
A decade-old federal study said
such a San Andreas quake, dubbed the
“Big One” in local parlance, could
kill up to 14,000people,although that
estimate is now considered high.
Other scientists said the discovery
only slightly aggravates Los Angeles’
already high quake risk.
“There arc so many faults through
out the L. A. area that adding twomore
doesn’t really significantly heighten
the hazard,” said Jim Mori,scientist in
charge of the U.S. Geological Survey’s
Pasadena office.
China goes on arms spending spree
WASHINGTON — China is
engaging in a flurry of arms deal
ing, apparently fearing that the in
coming Clinton administration will
try to take a harder line toward the
lucrative weapons trade.
The arms activity—with China
at the hub—involves Russia, Libya,
Syria, Iran and Pakistan, and deals
for missile and other weapons tech
nology, government sources said.
“It s like the end of a fireworks
show. They’re throwing everything
up there,” said one official, speak
ing only on condition of anonym
ity.
The arms deals have left U.S.
national security policymakers
wary of a proposed sale of a Cray
supercomputer to Beijing.
The computer would be more
than one hundred times faster than
the most powerful computer the
Chinese now have.
Friday, top Bush administration
officials postponed a decision on
whether to go ahead with the sale
while they consider the weapons
activity and whether the computer
might have military uses.
One official said it appears that
Beijing believes the incoming
Clinton administration will take a
far harder line toward its arms ex
ports, and is trying to do as much
business as possible before the new
administration takes over in Janu
ary.
As evidence, the official cited
the recent Chinese shipmentof two
dozen M-ll missiles to Pakistan.
The missiles were shipped through
a port which the Chinese know is
watched by U.S. intelligence.
“That’s got to mean they don’t
think we care,” the official said.
“They’re trying to get this done
before Clinton comes in.”
China is buying weaponry from
Russia, whose own arms industry is
suffering a depression as thfi gov
ernment dramatically cuts its mili
tary strength, and re-exporting it to
other countries, the official said.
“There is an explosion of deals
in the making, and the Chinese arc
clearly No. 1 in the middle of it,”
said one source.
On the proposed U.S. computer
sale,Commerce Secretary Barbara
Franklin had planned to announce
a decision during a trip to Beijing
10 days from now. The computer is
intended for weather forecasting,
and is to be kept under tight secu
rity to make sure it is not pul to
other purposes.
One congressional source said
the high-speed computer could be
used to help China enhance its tar
geting of missiles, or to modernize
its nuclear weapons guidance sys
tems.
“Nobody believes this kind of
thing could be secure,” he said.
In Friday’s meeting, officials
from Commerce and the State De
partment argued for the sale, while
the Pentagon, the CIA, and the
Arms Control and Disarmament
Agency opposed it.
Sen. Jesse Hclmsof North Caro
lina, the senior Republican on the
Senate Foreign Relations Commit
tee, dashed off a letter to President
Bush to complain about the con
templated sale.
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