Mideast summit is set, outcome uncertain
By Barry Schweid
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Clinton’s politically risky Mideast
summit was back on track Monday as
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shook
off Egyptian advice and said he would
attend as promised.
“Our expectation is he is coming
tonight, and we look forward to it,”
said State Department spokesman
Nicholas Bums. “We understand there
was some hesitation.”
In a phone conversation today,
Clinton failed to' persuade Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak to join with
King Hussein of Jordan in assisting
the negotiations.
Nor was Bums able to offer assur
ances Arafat and Israeli Prime Minis
ter Benjamin Netanyahu would meet
face-to-face.
“We will have to see what hap
pens,” he said.
Hussein was due to arrive in early
evening, Netanyahu around midnight
and Arafat early Tuesday morning.
Mubarak, who is angry at the Is
raeli government for its policies, is
sending his foreign minister, Amr
Moussa. “It would have been prefer
able to have Mubarak here,” Bums
said.
Presidential spokesman Mike
McCurry said the talks would begin
today and probably include a session
Wednesday.
Other sources, speaking on condi
tion of anonymity, disclosed that
Arafat’s hesitation was prompted by
the Egyptian government. The Egyp
tians are furious at Netanyahu for
opening a new entrance to a tourist
tunnel near Muslim and Jewish holy
sites in Jerusalem.
The talks are designed to diffuse
tensions and revive faltering peace
negotiations between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority over the future
of Jerusalem.
Bob Dole, the Republican presiden
tial nominee, discussed the Middle
East developments with his senior for
eign policy advisers today. Jeane
Kirkpatrick, ambassador to the U.N.
during the Reagan administration,
told reporters afterward that Dole was
“deeply concerned” by the latest Mid
east violence.
“The administration’s foreign
policy is in a serious state of disarray
with one failure after another,”
Kirkpatrick said.
The summit was thrown into ques
tion by reports the Palestinian leader
wants to postpone the meeting until
its success can be assured.
Netanyahu left for the United States
as planned, but Arafat drove to Egypt
to meet Mubarak before heading later
to Luxembourg to meet European for
eign ministers.
Clinton sounded hopeful in an
nouncing Sunday that Netanyahu and
Arafat had accepted his invitation to
Washington.
“I think they’re both concerned
about the way events spun out of con
trol, about the loss of life, the injuiy,
the eruption of old tensions and bit
terness,” the president said.
Netanyahu’s decision Tuesday to
open a second entrance to a tourist
tunnel near the Temple Mount and
sites sacred to Muslims and Jews
touched off angry Palestinian protests.
Netanyahu, even while agreeing to
go to Washington for U.S. mediation,
said Sunday that he would not discuss
the tunnel reopening with Arafat be
cause it was Israel’s business alone.
A senior U.S. official acknowl
edged Sunday that Clinton was tak
ing a political risk in intervening just
five weeks before the presidential elec
tion. If the mediation fails, or if
Clinton puts heat on Netanyahu, he
could lose some points among the elec
torate.
Netanyahu eyes continuous
negotiations for accord
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands
(AP) — Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, heading to
Washington for a summit with
Yasser Arafat, proposed today to
hold continuous negotiations to
work out all remaining obstacles to
implementing the peace accord.
Netanyahu said he and the Pal
estinian leader would be directly in
volved in such negotiations.
Speaking to reporters,
Netanyahu sought to create a posi
tive atmosphere after the peace pro
cess was put in jeopardy by clashes
last week that killed 73 people —
the worst fighting between Israelis
and Palestinians in decades.
The crisis began after Israelis
enraged the Palestinians by open
ing a new entrance to an archaeo
logical tunnel that runs alongside
one of Islam’s holiest sites.
A senior Netanyahu aide told
reporters on his plane that the Is
raeli leader expected Arafat to re
affirm his renunciation of violence.
“I call on both sides immedi
ately after the conference in Wash
ington to enter into continuous ne
gotiations at an agreed-upon loca
tion and to hold them until agree
ment is reached,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu is apparently look
ing for a Camp David-style meet
ing, similar to the one in 1979 in
which Israeli and Egyptian nego
tiators isolated themselves in the
Maryland presidential retreat un
til they reached their peace treaty.
Netanyahu promised that after
an agreement was reached on is
sues such as Israel’s soldiers in
Hebron, the Israeli closure of the
West Bank and Gaza Strip and a
Palestinian airport in Gaza, Israel
would “move into implementa
tion”
Arrests made in four-year-old slaying of Omaha student
OMAHA (AP) — Two childhood
friends who allegedly kidnapped and
sexually assaulted a high school stu
dent have been arrested in the four
year-old slaying death of Kenyatta
Bush.
Adam Barnett, 21, of Omaha was
charged Monday with first-degree
murder. His friend, Jeremy C. Sheets,
22, was charged in an arrest warrant
with first-degree murder.
Sheets, who recently joined the
Navy, was arrested Sunday in Lisbon
Falls, Maine. Prosecutors were trying
to extradite him back to Nebraska.
Barnett and Sheets, then 17 and 18,
lived in Omaha at the time of the slay
ing.
Bush’s disappearance on Sept. 23,
1992, rattled the community as hun
dreds of volunteers searched for the
honor student and former homecom
ing queen. Her body was found 10 days
later wrapped in two large rugs near a
road in Washington County. About
3,000 mourners attended her funeral.
Police, who believe Bush’s death
was a random act of violence, do not
have a motive.
“All I can tell you is it was a ran
dom kidnapping, sexual assault and
homicide,” said Charles Circo, deputy
chief of criminal investigation.
“The two people that are arrested
were both friends. There is no rela
tionship that we have been able to
identify with the victim,” Grco said.
The break in the case came two
weeks ago when a concerned person
came forward with some new infor
mation that led police to Barnett. He
was arrested Friday on an unrelated
misdemeanor change. One day later,
he was booked on murder. Sheets was
arrested Sunday.
Why didn’t the informant come
forward sooner?
“They didn’t have the information
before,” Circo said.
At one time, police had focused on
an acquaintance of Bush’s. In 1994, a
police officer said suspicious behav
ior at the time of Bush’s disappear
ance “has caused us to continue con
sidering him a suspect.”
Police never identified the name of
the suspect.
On Monday, Circo said: “That per
son would not cooperate with us. He
was never identified by the police de
partment ... as a suspect.”
James M. Davis, an Omaha attor
ney and current candidate for the U.S.
Congress, alleged in early 1994 that
he represented the young man who
was the prime suspect and he claimed
police were trying to force his client
to confess to the crime.
According to police, Bush drove to
school on Sept. 23, after dropping off
her younger sister at a day-care cen
Ler. Known as Bunny to her family,
Bush lived with her mother and step
father, Barbara and LaFem Stennis.
She was last seen in a hallway of
school at about 8:36 a.m. by friends
and faculty. She did not attend her al
gebra class at 8:40 a.m. Her stepfa
ther found her car the next morning
parked near the high school. Her par
ents reported her missing Sept. 24 at.
9 pjn.
Police believe she died shortly af
ter being abducted. Her death certifi
cate said she died of a cut throat, but
police have declined to confirm how
she died.
Congressional leaders spar
over two-year GOP record
In a televised debate Re
publicans and Democrats
argue taxes and Medicare.
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) - In an unprec
edented campaign debate, Republican and
Democratic leaders clashed cordially Sunday
night over taxes, Medicare and the record of
the GOP-controlled Congress.
“We have delivered genuine welfare reform
... We had common sense health reform ...
We’re going to have immigration reform,” said
Senate Majority Leader TVent Lott. “We have
delivered for the American people,” he said,
while the first GOP-led Congress in 40 years
was on the verge of wrapping up its work.
House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt
countered that Republicans “tried to cut Medi
care to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Ameri
cans; they tried to cut school lunch and student
loans.* hi addition, he said, the GOP tried to
“raise taxes on working Americans.”
Lott; of Mississippi, and Gephardt, of Mis
souri, were joined by House Speaker Newt
Gingrich of Georgia and Democratic leader
Tom Daschle of South Dakota in colonial
Williamsburg, Va., for the 60-minute debate
televised live on PBS.
The dash occurred a little more than five
weeks before Election Day. Moderator Jim
Lehrer setthe stakes in the opening moments
of the encounter. “The outcome of those (elec
tions) will decide which party will control Con
gress” in January.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Gephardt
said the debate reinforces a national wave in
lis party’s favor.
“It’s not just 435 local elections,” he said.
‘There’s a national set of issues that should be
iiscussed between the leaders.”
In the debate’s final moments, Lott said a
renewed Republican majority would try again
to pass tax cuts and balance the budget.
Daschle touted the Democrats’ “Families
First” agenda, which stresses modest measures
to improve health and pension coverage for
Americans.
For the most part, the congressional lead
ers discussed issues they have disagreed over
since the day Gingrich took the gavel as speaker
in January 1995. They rarely if ever raised their
voices, though. And whatever their personal
feelings — the relationship between Gephardt
and Gingrich is particularly strained they
addressed one another by their first names as
they sat facing each other at wooden desks.
The debate briefly turned pointed near the
end, though. Gingrich accused the AFL-CIO
of spending millions to defeat Republicans this
fall, using “dues money that is coerced” from
its members.
Daschle retorted that Republicans had in
vited polluters into the committee rooms last
year “to figure out ways” to make the air and
water dirtier.
The Democratic leaders challenged Repub
licans, too, on two of the most memorable mo
ments of the 104th Congress — the twin gov
ernment shutdowns of last winter.
“It was wrong. It was irresponsible,”
Gephardt said.
Neither Gingrich nor Lott defended the
shutdowns, and the speaker conceded, “I think
wedid learn a lot over that.”
Black delegates plan to sue
over alleged CIA conspiracy
ST. LOUIS (AP)—Delegates to the first
National African-American Leadership
Summit said Sunday they planned to sue the
government over allegations the CIA delib
erately introduced crack into black commu
nities.
“You can go to jail for conspiracy. But
this is not just a conspiracy theory—this is
reality,” Nation of Islam lawyer Arif
Muhammad told several hundred delegates
who stayed for the end of the three-day sum
mit.
Muhammad urged blacks to make lists
of people who had been adversely affected
by crack cocaine. He said he and several at
torneys were preparing to file a class-action
conspiracy lawsuit against the government.
The convention was billed as a push to
get Democrats and Republicans to pay more
attention to the concerns of black Ameri
cans.
_
Several hundred delegates capped their
meeting by ratifying a 56-page national
agenda to be sent to the Democratic, Repub
lican and Reform parties.
It calls for better housing and education
for blacks, abolishment of the Electoral Col
lege, campaign finance reform, proportional
representation and the strengthening of his
torically black colleges.
It also expresses anger over allegations
reported by the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury
News that the CIA sold tons of cocaine to
the street gangs in South-Central Los An
geles and tunneled millions in profits to a
CIA-run guerrilla arniy fighting to over
throw the Sandinista government in
Managua.
During the keynote address Saturday
night, Nation of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan called the cocaine allegations “the
most important revelation since Watergate.”
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