NATO draws Yeltsin’s ire for
courting Warsaw Pact nations
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Up
staging a 52-nation security sum
mit, Russian President Boris Yeltsin
on Monday accused the United
States and its NATO allies of trying
to exclude and isolate it.
“Why sow the seeds of mistrust?
After all, we are no longer enemies
—we are all partners now,” Yeltsin
said in an uneasy start to the two
day conference on reducing ten
sions in an increasingly unstable
Europe.
“No major country is going to
live by the laws of isolation,” he
said in attacking NATO for agree
ing last week to draw up conditions
for admitting former Warsaw Pact
foes. “Any such country will reject
(having) such a game played with
it.”
The conflict in Bosnia, raging
not far from this picturesque Cen
tral European capital, also threat
ened to upset the summit of the
Conference on Security and Coop
eration in Europe.
Bosnian President Alija
Izetbegovic heaped scorn on the
West for doing so little to stop the
carnage that has left 200,000 dead
and missing.
“What is happening in Bosnia is
the weakness of the West,” he said
in an address unusual for its bitter
ness. “It is nothing more than that.”
President Clinton, in his speech,
sought to focus attention on fresh
moves to end nuclear confrontation
on the European continent.
Standing side by side, Clinton
and Yeltsin formally put in force
the Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty, the first accord ever to re
duce long-range nuclear weapons.
“Today we herald the arrival of a
new and safer era,” Clinton said at
a ceremony also attended by lead
ers of the former Soviet republics
of Belarus, Kazakhstan and
Ukraine.
Under the START I accord, long
range missiles stockpiled by the
United States and the former Soviet
Union will be slashed by about one
third, and the stage set for U.S.
Senate action on the START II ac
cord and its provisions for deeper,
50 percent, reductions.
At the same ceremony, Ukraine,
the world’s third largest nuclear
power, renounced its arsenal of
nuclear arms inherited from the
Soviet breakup.
“It’s hard to overestimate the
importance of the event that has
just taken place,” Ukrainian Presi
dent Leonid Kuchma said after sign
ing the Treaty on the Non-Prolif
eration of Nuclear Weapons.
Ukraine will become nuclear-free
around the end of the century.
Summit participants are search
ing for ways to use the CSCE to
defuse European tensions. But
Yeltsin’s remarks underscored the
difficulties in agreeing on security
measures in the post-Cold War era.
Russia has long sought to make
the CSCE the premier security or
ganization in Europe. The United
States favors a more assertive
CSCE, though not at the expense of
the 16-nation North Atlantic Treaty
Organization.
Created in 1975, the CSCE was
the only institution in which NATO
and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact
came together to discuss security
and human rights issues.
Speaking ahead of Yeltsin,
Clinton sought to head off the
Russian’s criticisms ofNATO mem
bership plans by saying the alliance
“will not automatically exclude any
nation from joining.’’
In an obvious reference to Mos
cow, he added: “No country outside
will be allowed ... to veto expan
sion.”
With Clinton sitting not far away,
Yeltsin thundered, “Europe has not
yet freed itself from the heritage of
the Cold War (and) is in danger of
plunging into a Cold Peace.”
In a slap at Washington, Yeltsin
said it was a “dangerous delusion”
to think the “destinies of conti
nents and of the world community
in general can somehow be man
aged from one single capital.”
Gingrich’s allegations
anger administration
WASHINGTON — Suggest
ing a pattern of Republican reck
lessness, President Clinton’s top
adviser said Monday “we cannot
do business” with Newt Gingrich
if the new House speaker insists
on making unfounded allega
tions.
From chief of staff Leon
Panetta to first lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton, the administra
tion pounced on Gingrich for his
charges that up to a quarter of the
White House staff had used ille
gal drugs.
“His charges are absolutely
false,” Panetta said angrily.
“The time has come when he
has to understand that he has to
stop behaving like an out-of-con
trol radio talk show host and be
gin behaving like the speaker of
the House of Representatives,”
Panetta said.
Saying he saw signs of “a trou
bling pattern,” Panetta compared
Gingrich’s remarks with Repub
lican Sen. Jesse Helms’ recent
warning that Clinton would need
a bodyguard if he ever visited
North Carolina.
“I think it is so unfair,” the
first lady said of Gingrich’s re
marks.
If any Republicans were both
ered by Gingrich’s accusations,
there was no sign of it as House
GOP members joy fully installed
him as the next House speaker,
cheering, “Newt, Newt, Newt.”
Rep. Bob Walker, R-Pa., a
close Gingrich ally, said, “This
White House is going to have to
learn that they no longer have lap
dogs on Capitol Hill.... They’re
also going to have to learn there’s
a new majority here.”
Gingrich ignited the latest flap
between Republicans and the
White House when he charged in
a television interview that up to a
quarter of the White House staff
had used drugs in the past four or
five years.
Gingrich, who has admitted
smoking marijuana as a youth,
said the source of his informa
tion was a senior law enforce
ment official, whom he did not
name.
Panetta said that no one in the
White House uses drugs. “ I f
Newt Gingrich has evidence to
the contrary he ought to tell me
that, he ought to make it public
and I’ll fire them,” Panetta said.
The White House seized on
Gingrich’s remarks as evidence
that Republicans who are taking
power in Congress are out of con
trol and willing to go to any length
to undercut Clinton.
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Child mistaken for burglar
JACKSON, Miss. — A toddler enthralled by Christmas tree
lights tripped an anti-crime motion detector in his living room and
was shot to death by his stepmother, who told police she mistook the
3-year-old for a burglar.
Jonathan Hicks’ death was ruled an accident. No immediate
charges were brought against the stepmother, whom police refused
to identify. Police said they were still investigating.
On Saturday night, the woman grabbed a 38-caliber semiauto
matic handgun and fired when she saw movement.
Jonathan was shot in the head as he stood inches from the
Christmas tree.
The shooting took place in drug-infested west Jackson, where
anti-crime devices such as motion detectors and burglar bars are
common in many homes.
The largest city in Mississippi, Jackson had the 12th-highest
homicide rate among U.S. cities last year, according to the FBI. The
city of nearly 200,000 people has surpassed its 1993 record of 87
slayings with 89 so far this year.
Man gets life for levee sabotage
KIRKSVILLE, Mo. — A man who prosecutors said sabotaged a
levee during the 1993 Midwest floods to strand his wife so he could
have affairs was sentenced Monday to life in prison.
James R. Scott, 24, of Fowler, HI., got the maximum for his
November conviction on charges of causing a catastrophe.
Scott admitted to police that he removed sandbags from the
levee, opening a breach that allowed the swollen Mississippi River
to flood 14,000 acres of farmland and destroy scores of buildings in
West Quincy.
The breach also shut down for 71 days a bridge that was the only
link between Missouri and Illinois for 200 miles.
Prosecutors said Scott, an arsonist and burglar, told a friend he
wanted to make sure his wife couldn’t return home across the river
from her Missouri job, so that he could have affairs and party.
Americans’ pension deficit climbs
WASHINGTON — The shortfall in money that companies set
aside to pay for Americans’ pensions climbed to $71 billion last
year.
“Millions of Americans still are in danger of not getting their
pensions,” Labor Secretary Robert Reich said Monday.
“Underfunding has gone up to $71 billion from $53 billion in 1992
and $27 billion in 1987.”
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said underfunded single
employer pension plans at the end of 1993 had assets of just $316
billion to pay $387 billion in benefits.
The announcement came just four days after Congress approved
legislation requiring companies with pension deficits to reduce
their underfunding by more than two-thirds within 15 years. Reich
said President Clinton will sign the bill on Thursday.
Bentsen planning to resign
Treasury Secretary position
WASHINGTON — Treasury
Secretary Lloyd Bentsen is plan
ning to resign early next year to
return to Texas, administration of
ficials said Monday. The Cabinet
departure would cost President
Clinton one of his most respected
policy-makers.
Robert Rubin, who has headed
the president’s National Economic
Council for two years, is widely
believed to be in line for Bentsen’s
job.
The administration officials, who
all spoke on condition that their
names not be used, said that Bentsen
has long wanted to return to Texas
and believed that now was a good
time given that Congress has fi
nally passed the world trade agree
ment, the last unfinished economic
business from Clinton’s first two
years in office.
These officials said that while
Bentsen and Clinton have discussed
Bentsen’s desire to leave the Cabi
net, no formal resignation letter has
been submitted yet and the exact
timing was still up in the air.
Speaking on Monday at the Na
tional Press Club, Bentsen sought
to make light of the resignation
rumors although he did not deny
them.
“Paraphrasing Mark Twain, the
news is premature. I will let you
know,’’ he promised the room full
of journalists. “You will be among
the first to know when it is news.”
Rumors of Bentsen’s imminent de
parture have circulated around
Washington ever since he purchased
a townhouse in Houston earlier this
year for more than $1 million.
When he does leave the Cabinet,
Bentsen, 73, said he doesn’t plan to
retire. “I think you rust out before
you wear out,” he said.
Associates expect Bentsen, who
made millions of dollars in insur
ance before he beat George Bush
for a U.S. Senate seat in 1970, will
become active in business again,
possibly with his son.
The administration has so far
floated only one name as a possible
successor to Bentsen — Rubin, a
multimillionaire who resigned as
chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co.,
the giant Wall Street investment
firm, to become head of Clinton’s
National Economic Council.
Rubin, 57, who spent nearly three
decades at Goldman Sachs, is well
regarded on Wall Street and has
also won praise for his ability to
coordinate economic policy inside
the administration.
“Rubin’s selection as Treasury
secretary wouldn’t cause any prob
lems. Wall Street would be getting
one of its own,” said Bruce
Steinberg, an economist at Merrill
Lynch in New York. “Rubin would
be the obvious choice either for
Treasury secretary or Federal Re
serve chairman.”
But some analysts expressed con
cerns that in losing Bentsen, the
administration was losing a re
spected go-between with Congress
at a critical time when the adminis
tration will have to deal with a
Republican-controlled House and
Senate.
“If ever Bentsen was needed, he
is needed now to be able to work
effectively with a much more con
servative Congress,” said David
Jones, an economist at Aubrey G.
Lanston & Co.
Others also worried that Rubin
would be difficult to replace as head
of the NEC although some sug
gested that he could very well take
some of the NEC’s powers along
with him to Treasury, much as Henry
Kissinger did when he moved from
National Security adviser in the
Nixon administration to Secretary
of State.
In his press club appearance
Monday, Bentsen let it be known
that he is still actively engaged in
the administration’s efforts to put
together a 1996 budget, which the
administration hopes to use to de
pict Clinton economic policies as
more responsible than the Republi
cans’ “Contract with America.”
Nebraskan
Editor JeffZeleny
472-1786
Managing Editor Angie Brunkow
Assoc. News Editors Jeffrey Robb
Rainbow Rowell
Opinion Page Editor Kara Morrison
Wire Editor Deb McAdams
Night News Editors Chris Hain
DougKouma
Heather Lamps
Sean Green
Art Director James Mehsling
General Manager DanShattil
Production Manager Katherine Policky
FAX NUMBER 472-1761
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