s&!-— News Digest
Tuesday* November 22,1994 Page 2
NATO planes strike Serb-controlled airfield
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina—In
its biggest airstrike ever, NATO retaliated
Monday for repeated Serb attacks on a U.N.
safe haven by bombing an airfield in a Serb
controlled section of Croatia.
NATO commanders said the raid knocked
the Udbina airfield out of commission for
30 days. The airfield and its artillery batter
ies have been used by Serbs in recent weeks
to terrorize residents of government-held
areas of northwest Bosnia.
A Croatian commander tweaked his nose
at the NATO raid, saying only two runways
were damaged by the midday airstrike and
could be repaired as early as Wednesday.
About 30 F-15s, F-16s, Jaguar and Mi
rage jets from the United States, Britain,
France and the Netherlands crossed the
Adriatic for the airstrike, NATO’s seventh
since the Bosnian war started in April 1992
and the alliance’s first in neighboring
Croatia.
The bombers struck the airfield 22 miles
southwest of the U.N.-designated safe area
of Bihac and reportedly took out its anti
aircraft guns and one surface-to-air missile
site, said Adm. Leighton W. Smith, NATO
commander for southern Europe.
’’Initial reports are that the strike was
successful,” Smith said. Serb surface-to-air
missiles were fired at the NATO planes, but
he said all warplanes and 20 support aircraft
returned safely to their bases in Italy.
The U.N. commander for former Yugo
slavia, Gen. Bertrand de Lapresle, requested
the NATO warplanes target runways and
taxiways — not destroy aircraft, Smith told
reporters in Naples, Italy.
“Our intention was to try to limit collat
eral damage,” Smith said. “We did not want
to go outside of that airfield area, and we
wanted to limit the number of people on the
ground who might be casualties as a result
of the strike.”
Slobodan Jarcevic, an aide to Croatian
Serb leader Milan Martic, asserted that two
vi Uages north of the airfield were destroyed,
“and it is assumed that all civilians that
were in those houses were killed.” There
was no independent confirmation.
The United Nations said some Czech
peacekeepers, who were posted near Udbina,
were taken hostage after the raid. Jarcevic
said two peacekeepers were being held by
Serb troops who were “threatening to kill
them.”
Smith said the raid wasn’t meant “to put
the airfield out of commission for an aw
“Our intention was to try to
limit collateral damage. We
did not want to go outside of
that airfield area, and we
wanted to limit the number
of people on the ground who
might be casualties as a
result of the strike. ”
■
ADM. LEIGHTON W. SMITH
NATO commander
fully long time. If we had wanted to we
would have taken out all the aircraft, the
ammunition.”
Croatia’s air force commander said the
damage to two runways “could be repaired
in 48-72 hours.” The commander, Col. Imra
Agotic, also said about 20 fixed-wing air
craft and 10 helicopters were “destroyed or
considerably damaged."
l he air strikes actually may play into the
hands of Bosnian and Croatian Serbs. Since
they have been attacking Bosnian govern
ment lands jointly in recent weeks, an esca
lating cross-border conflict might pressure
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to
help the Serbs.
The Serbian leader cut off most aid to
Bosnia’s Serbs in August in exchange for
eased international sanctions on Serb-domi
nated Yugoslavia. He continues to wield
influence in Serb-held parts of Croatia.
Senior U.N. envoy Yashushi Akashi said
Monday that he and Milosevic would meet
Wednesday with Martic, head of Croatia’s
breakaway Serbs.
Martic condemned the bombing as “an
insolent and vandal attack ... which we
haven’t provoked at all.”
Akashi, the top U.N. official in former
Yugoslavia, insisted the NATO air strike
was a “necessary and proportionate re
sponse.”
And President Clinton said: “It was a
strong and entirely appropriate response
That airfield has been used to conduct the
air attacks against the Bihac region. It was
the right thing to do.”
Dole moves to link GATT vote
with capital gains tax cut
WASHINGTON — Dry as
toast, a global trade accord emerged
Monday as a potent test between
President Clinton and Senate GOP
Leader Bob Dole, whose demand
for a capital gains tax cut escalated
the issue sharply.
No sooner had Dole suggested
linking the two over the weekend
than White House Chief of Staff
Leon Panetta shot down the sug
gestion.
“I don’t think he’s going to get
a commitment from us that we're
going to suddenly support a capi
tal gains tax cut, particularly as
part of’ the trade accord, Panetta
said.
Asked about the rebuff. Dole
said Monday: “He only took one
shot at it. He can fire again.’’
On political grounds, many con
gressional Democrats oppose a cut
in the capital gains tax, which is
levied on the profits of sales of
stocks and other assets. House
Democratic leader Richard
Gephardt said Republicans were
interjecting their “favorite give
away for the rich’’ into the debate
over a trade agreement. He said 72
percent of the benefits would go to
taxpayers earning $100,000 a year
or more
At the same time, Clinton has
pushed hard for passage of the
trade agreement, and rejection
would be a blow to his prestige.
Several White House officials
said that while talks continue with
Dole on other issues, Panetta’s
comments stand on a capital gains
tax cut. Lobbying for the accord
during the day, Vice President Al
Gore said, “This is a big fight. It's
going to be hard fought and close.”
Congress is scheduled to vote
after Thanksgiving chi legislation
to implement the 123-nation GATT
agreement. The accord would re
duce trade barriers and cut tariffs
by an estimated $740 billion world
wide while offering more protec
tion for American patentsand copy
rights.
The lame duck, Democratic
control led House and Senate will
be voting, but Democrats concede
Republicans hold the balance of
power, just as they will hold a
majority in the new Congress that
meets in January.
The GATT trade accord
TIm accord Passing the
GATT trade accord must U.S. Senate
be ratified by the three trade
giants, the United States, the . Approval !rom ,
European Union and Japan _ 'ncorn'nfl f^^jorrty leader
before being invoked on Robert Dole is key in the
January 1.1995. It includes: Sanate whora support« waning.
Critics of the acoord say it would
hnport tariffs > infringe on U.S. sovereignty while
Overall cut of more than 33 |ho69 ^avor A believe i* wiN
percent on these border taxes on 0008tt”9 economy,
thousands of products including Dole j$ standing firm on his
electronics, wood and metals. demand tor a 28 percent capital
Should bring down prices. oains tax cut 5^^ he backs
TtTfff the bill's passage.
Phase-out over 10 years of quotas
that protect industrialized countries
from cheaper Third World imports.
Product duuiplutf
At a closed-door strategy ses
sion last week, according to one
congressional aide, the White
House estimate was that one-third
of the Senate was undecided.
With organized labor often in
opposition, free trade issues tradi
tionally divide the Democratic
caucus in both houses. Republi
cans supplied a majority of votes
in the House and the Senate last
year when the North American
Free Trade Agreement passed.
In the Senate, in particular,
where it will take 60 votes to pre
vail on a key procedural motion,
the Republican grip on GATT is
strong, and the politics intense.
In the House. Speaker-to-be
Newt Gingrich has called for pas
sage of the accord next week.
Not only is Dole publicly unde
cided, but so is a likely rival for the
AP/Carolyn Sand w ion
1996 presidential nomination, Sen.
Phil Gramm. Adding his voice on
Monday was William Kristol, a
conservative strategist who wrote:
“GATT for something else. It’s
unnecessary in our view.”
“1 want to fix it,” “Dole said
Sunday in an interview on ABC’s
“This Week with David Brinkley.”
“And if we can fix it, then I’ll vote
for it.”
Dole and several other Repub
licans have expressed concerns that
American sovereignty would be
compromised by the world Trade
Organization that would be estab
lished under GATT to police the
accord. He said his office had been
receiving roughly 2,000 calls a
day on the issue, adding, “Some
may be from talk shows but a lot of
them are legitimate questions.”
University blocks access
to cyberspace pornography
PITTSBURGH — In a case that
has colleges taking another look at
their legal responsibilities in
cyberspace, Carnegie Mellon Uni
versity has blocked access to bulletin
boards that students can use to call up
dirty pictures.
About 300 students protested the
move earlier this month as an assault
on academic freedom, and a public
interest group for computer users sug
gested Carnegie Mellon overreacted.
“It is censorship," said Declan
McCullagh, student body president.
“We have obscene books in our li
brary, but the university isn’t burning
them. The university is burning
cyberbooks."
Carnegie Mellon officialssaid they
fear the school can be prosecuted for
distributing pornography to minors if
it knowingly allows access to the
pictures via the Internet to anyone
under 18. Most of the school’s stu
dents are adults, but children as young J
as elementary-school age also use the
university’s computer networks.
Richard Goldberg, an Allegheny
County deputy district attorney, said
it would be very difficult to prosecute
Carnegie Mellon, for the same rea
son it is hard to prosecute other kinds
of obscenity cases: The prosecutoi
would have to prove the material has
no redeeming social value.
“Then you have the problem of
where do you prosecute them? Where
is it coming horn?” he said.
Goldberg was referring to the ques
tion of what community standards
should be applied to obscenity-in
cyberspace cases. In 1973, the U S.
Supreme Court ruled that obscenity
must be judged by local community
standards. But cyberspace crosses
such earthly boundaries.
Assistant county attorney
dies from accident injuries
An assistant county attorney has
died from injuries he suffered in a car
accident.
Assistant Lancaster County At
torney Daniel D. Fahmbruch, 31, died
Monday.
He had been comatose since Sat
urday morning, when his car appar
ently went out of control and collided
nearly head-on with a pickup truck
on a county road northwest of Lin
coln.
“The attorneys in the office and
myself respected him as a very com
petent attorney, and our hearts eo out
to his wife and the judge and Mrs.
Fahmbruch,” Lancaster County At
torney Gary Lacey said.
i---—
The son of Nebraska Supreme
Court Judge Dale Fahmbruch, Daniel
Fahmbruch was a six-year veteran of
the county attorney’s office. He also
was active in Republican politics.
Fahmbruch was en route to the
farm of County Commissioner Larry
Hudkins for a day of hunting when
the accident occurred, Hudkins said.
Raymond rescue squad workers
said Fahmbruch apparently was not
wearing a seat belt.
Fahmbruch is survived by his wife,
Roxanne; his parents, Margaret and
Dale; and a sister, Rebecca.
Funeral arrangements were pend
ing.
■ —i
Nebraskan
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