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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 1995)
Si!sr- NewsQgest Assassin says he had help TEL AVIV, Israel — Yitzhak Rabin ’ s confessed assassin suggested Sunday that one of the prime minister’s bodyguards helped him, saying that the truth about the slaying would “turn the country upside down.” Yigal Amir fed rumors of a wider conspiracy in the assassination when he said that authorities killed a Rabin bodyguard who helped him by creat ingconfusion during the Nov. 4 shoot ing at a Tel Aviv peace rally. “Why don’t you publicize that they killed one of Rabin’s bodyguards? The one who shouted 'The bullets are dum mies,”’ Amir yelled to reporters as he was brought into a Tel Aviv courtroom to have his detention extended. Amir, 25, has in the past insisted that he acted alone, and previous re ports indicated Amir was the one who shouted the bullets were fake. No evi dence has surfaced so far to support his claim that one of Rabin’s body guards was killed. “I can say something that will de stroy everything ... Everything until now was a mask,” said Amir, wearing a white T-shirt with a gray sweater draped over his shoulders as he en tered the court. “I did not think they would start killing people,” he muttered. “You are killing people,” retorted Judge Dan Arbel. “If I tell the truth, it would turn the country upside down,” Amir said, waving his hand dismissively and sit ting down. A government spokesman called Amir’s comments “nonsense.” Police investigator Arieh Silverman submitted to the court a document he said contained new material “that could change the nature of the charges” and requested Amir’s detention be ex tended eight days beyond the maxi mum 30 days without charge. The contents of the document were not revealed. The judge agreed to extend Amir’s detention by four days. Amir is accused of murder, attempted murder, illegal weapons manufacture and possession, sabotaging the investigation, and con spiracy. He has said he shot Rabin to stop the Israel-PLO peace process. Amir has not yet been charged. Nor has his brother, Hagai, who was or dered detained for four more days. He i s accused of supplying the bullets that killed Rabin. Suspicions against Hagai Amir deepened Sunday when police Sgt. Ronen Saar testified before a govern ment-appointed commission investi gating the assassination that he saw the Amir brothers talking just before Yigal shot Rabin. Hagai claims he knew nothing of his brother’s plans. As the government investigation neared completion, authorities inten sified their crackdown on right-wing extremists, charging three leaders of a protest movement with sedition dur ing the tension-packed months that preceded the assassination. Clinton OKs first troops, won’t rewrite agreement MADRID, Spain — President Clinton authorized a vanguard of 700 American troops to open a risky mission in former Yugoslavia and rejected Bosnian Serb demands Sunday for rewriting the treaty U.S. forces will help enforce. “When you make a peace agree ment, not everybody is happy with it,” Clinton said, referring to Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic’s warning that Serbs in Sarajevo will never live under Mus lim and Croat rule, as the agree ment prescribes. Despite the complaints of Mladic and others, Clinton said, “I don’t think the treaty is in trouble and, no, I don’t think it should be renegoti ated.” It is to be signed Dec. 14 in Paris. Wrapping up a five-day Euro pean trip, Clinton announced he had given the go-ahead for sending into Bosnia 700 U.S. troops trained in logistics and communications. Within a few days, the advance troops will establish a U.S. head quarters in the northeast town of Tuzla in preparation for nearly 20,000 Americans set to follow ina matter of weeks. The Americans, part of a 60,000-troop international peacekeeping effort, will spend the winter and the months after that trying to separate warring parties and disarming land mines hidden by snow-covered fields. As he headed home from Eu rope, Clinton faced deep skepti cism from Americans citizens and the Congress about the military mission. News in a Minu Palestinians raise flag near Bethlehem BEIT JALA, West Bank—The first Palestinian police who will take control of Bethlehem from Israeli troops by Christmas raised the Palestinian flagon a hill overlooking the biblical city Sunday. About 400 people turned out to welcome the 12 officers who opened the Israel-Palestinian liaison office in this neighboring village. They raised the red, green, black and white Palestinian flag over the office. Residents clapped and chanted “We will sacrifice soul and blood for Palestine” when the officers marched in, carrying handguns, flags and pictures of PLO leader Yasser Arafat. As he raised the flag, Brig. Gen. Ziad Atrash, a senior police commander, announced: “Christmas will be under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority, and Arafat will attend the ceremonies.” Wyoming senator announces retirement CODY, Wyo. — Republican Sen. Alan Simpson told a hometown crowd Saturday that he will not seek another term after 17 years in Congress, saying simply, “It is time.” Surrounded by his wife, Anne, and their three children, Simpson said he wants to spend more time with his wife and wants to try somethingnew when his term ends in January 1997. Simpson is the third senator in the past month, after Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., and Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., to announce plans not to seek re-election in 1996. Four Republicans, including Simpson, and eight Democrats are leaving the Senate when their terms end 13 months from now. The last time that many senators retired was a century ago — in 1896. Gingrich will remain a top messenger WASHINGTON — Republican leaders spoke approvingly Sunday of Rep. Newt Gingrich’s decision to steer clear of TV cameras for a while, but said the speaker of the House will remain a top messenger for their party. “I think he himself feels that maybe it’s best now to keep a low profile for a while, because there were some statements made that he regrets,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Caterpillar strikers reject contract PEORIA, 111. — Union members at Caterpillar Inc., rejected a contract offer Sunday and ended their bitter 17-month strike worse off than when they started, out thousands of dollars in lost wages and not knowing if they’ll get their jobs back. Union members rejected the latest company offer as the United Auto Workers’ central bargaining committee voted to send the 8,700 strikers back to work. UAW officials wouldn’t say why they ended the strike. “I think the company’s in complete control. We have to accept defeat,” striker Jim Schmidt said, Algerian journalist and driver killed ALGIERS, Algeria — A journalist for Algeria’s largest French language newspaper and his driver were kidnapped and killed early Sunday. Hamid Mahiout was a reporter for Liberte, which is close to the small, secular opposition party Rally for Culture and Democracy. Assailants kidnapped him and his driver, Abdallah Belkhefellah, overnight and slit their throats, authorities said. Their bodies were found Sunday morning in the Rais Hamidou neighborhood in western Algiers. No one claimed responsibility for the killings, but Islamic extremists fighting to oust Algeria’s secular regime have targeted intellectuals, foreigners and journalists as well as officials. Thomason won’t release records Deadline set in travel office investigation WAbHlINUlUIN — Hollywood producer Harry Thomason, a close friend of President and Mrs. Clinton, faces a showdown with Congress for refusing to release documents detail ing his role in the White House travel office affair. Rep. William Clinger, R-Pa., chair man of the House Government Re form and Oversight Committee, has set a committee vote for Dec. 12 to authorize subpoenas that would com pel Thomason to produce a wide range of records. “This committee has not received a single explanation as to why Mr. Thomason has refused to voluntar ily cooperate with all requests from every other investigative body in volved in this matter as well as this committee,” Clinger wrote in a stern letter last week to Thomason’s law yer. Ginger’s letter, obtained by The Associated ness, gives t nomason a final deadline of Friday. But Thomason ’ s lawyer already has told the GOP-led committee there’s little chance of cooperation, accusing Clinger of conducting a “political fish ing expedition.” Attorney Robert Bennett wrote Clinger two weeks ago, saying the committee’s document request was “unreasonably overbroad” and accus ing Clinger of being “less concerned withgettingthe facts than with embar rassing the White House.” Under the current conditions, “Mr. Thomason will continue to decline to cooperate voluntarily,” Bennett wrote Nov. 15. Clinger’s committee has been in vestigating the White House’s bungled decision in May 1993 to fire seven longtime White House travel office employees and put a Clinton relative in charge of the office. The incident put a spotlight on Thomason and his frequent contact at the White House during the early days of the Clinton administration. Subse quent reviews showed Thomason had inquired about the possibility of open ing up travel office business to com petitive bidding around the time of the firings. Clinger’s committee also is ex amining a related issue, the removal of documents from White House law yer Vincent Foster’s office shortly after Foster killed himself July 20, 1993. Clinger asked Thomason in late August to provide any documents he had with information about the fir ings, the handling of Foster’s docu ments and other matters he worked on with the White House. Bennett has repeatedly declined, saying the requests were too broad and that his client was convinced he would not be treated fairly by the committee. Election jostles a changing Savannah SAVANNAH, Ga. — Three days after this regal coastal city elected its first black mayor, the campaign man ager warned the staff: Beware of all packages delivered to the office. No one had threatened violence but “we can’t take any chances,” he said. In a majority black city that has thrived on all-white social clubs, seg regated neighborhoods and separate debutante balls for each race, resi dents are adjusting to the latest shat tered racial barrier. “It was long, long overdue, but changes are happening in Savannah,” said W.W. Law, a black historian who led the local NAACP chapter for 26 years. “Now, as the world’s eyes look to Savannah, there will be an African American at the helm, and that’s as it should be.” The city is in the national spotlight as site of the 1996 Olympic yachting events and setting for “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” John Berendt’s best-selling account of a murtter lit the historic home of a gay antiques dealer. Before black newspaper publisher Floyd Adams Jr. narrowly beat white incumbent Susan Weiner last week, Savannah already had witnessed the admission of the first black to an elite all-white yachting club, the birth of a civil rights museum financed by local tax dollars and the lifting of a longstanding federal court order to desegregate the schools, all within the last two years. The rotund, bespectacled Adams, an alderman for 13 years, knows he owes his 256-vote victory margin to a small white crossover vote. “They have faith in me that I will work hard and I won’t cause them any harm or damage,” he said. Georgia’s oldest city (pop. » 140,000) has long suffered subtle big otry but never racial violence, thanks to its veneer of Southern gentility. “Savannah never had a black lynch ing,” said college professor John Duncan, who teaches a course on city history. “There’s a sense of civility here ” But peel back that layer and Savan nah reveals its quirky , scandalous side. As Berendt’s book illustrates, Savan nah is a odd mix of cotillions and drag shows, blue bloods and funky art stu dents. While the city is tolerant of its natives’ foibles, nothing is begrudged more in Savannah than outsiders. “I don’t know what race problems you’re talking about,” said former Mayor John Rousakis, who served 21 years before he was ousted by Mrs. Weiner in 1991. “I think we’ve done a dell of a job.” While millions of tourists flock each year to its cobblestone riverfront and stately squares, Savannah’s black neighborhoods suffer the same blight as many inner cities: poverty and ram shackle housing. And blacks are typi cally missing from top corporate boards and social clubs. While Mrs. Weiner has asked for a recount, the rest of the city is warily ready to accept Adams as their new leader. < “The black community is justifi ably proud. The white community is dolding its breath,” said architect Eric Johnson, a white Republican state senator. “If Floyd immediately -eaches out and shows that hevs pro business, then there will be a big sigh of relief.” NefcJraskan http://www.unl.edu/DailyNeb/ FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763 between 9 am. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also has access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Tim Hedegaard, 436-9253,9 am.-11 p.m. Subscription price is $50 for one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St.,Lincoln, NE 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1995 DAILY NEBRASKAN