Army flooded with calls after ‘sex scandal’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly
2,000 calls, hundreds considered wrath
investigation, have poured into an
Army hotline set up after revelation of
the sex scandal at a Maryland training
center, the Army said Monday.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff said the Army was
“casting its net very wide” to find prob
lems elsewhere.
A separate investigation is looking
into allegations of sexual misconduct,
ranging from rape to fraternization,
among supervisors at an Army train
ing base in Missouri, but no charges
have been filed, Army sources said.
Joint Chiefs Chairman John
Shalikashvili, making the rounds of
television talk shows in honor of Vet
erans Day, was asked whether he had
any evidence sexual abuse was occur
ring at other training sites.
“We certainly have to assume that
it could be happeningsomewhere else,
and that's why the Army is casting its
net very wide all across the Army, and
/ certainly all training centers, to get to
the bottom of this,” the four-star Army
general said on CBS’ “This Morning.”
“But right now, I don't think we
have all the evidence, or it’s very diffi
cult to determine just how big that
problem really is,” he added.
Some 1,999 phone calls had been
made to a toll-free hotline set up at the
Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground,
near Baltimore.
Ed Starnes, an Aberdeen spokes
man, said calls have been constantly
coming in from across the country
since the scandal broke last week.
“As soon as you are off, another
rings,” he said Monday, adding that
some complaints go back to World War
n.
Of the calls received between
Thursday and 4 pjn. Monday, 246
were deemed serious enough to be re
ferred to the Army’s Criminal Investi
gative Division for further inquiry. The
rest needed no follow-up, officials said.
Of the calls pertaining to sexual
complaints, 56 were Aberdeen-related
and 89 stemmed from complaints about
other Army facilities.
The rest of the calls had to do with
administrative requests, complaints
concerning nonsexual matters and
crank calls. The Army refused to pro
vide details about the complaints that
were being referred for investigation.
The Army has filed criminal
charges against three military trainers
and administrative charges against two
more—ail married—at the Ordnance
Center in Aberdeen. The men, four drill
instructors and a captain, were sus
pended along with 15 other instructors,
who were placed on paid administra
tive duty.
The men facing charges, ranging
from rape to sending improper love
letters to trainees, were accused of ha
rassing at least a dozen women in their
first weeks of training. The average age
of the women was 21.
One instructor threatened to kill
three trainees if they told superiors he
was having sex with them, the Army
said in documents released over the
weekend.
M
Our task now is to ensure that we find,
out exactly just how widespread it is and
bring to justice all those who should be
brought to justice.”
John Shaukashvhj
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman
__ ■
“It’s a great, great tragedy and our
task now is to ensure that we find out
exactly just how widespread it is and
bring to justice all those who should
be brought to justice,” Shalikashvili
said on ABC’s “Good Morning
America.”
At Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., on
ongoing investigation is looking into
several allegations of sexual miscon
duct, from rape to fraternization, a se
nior Army official said Monday, speak
ing on condition of anonymity.
The official said the Missouri in
vestigation had been going on since
September and was not started because
of similar allegations emerging from
Aberdeen. “There’s no connection be
tween the two,” he said.
Army investigators at Aberdeen
have said they plan to interview as
many as 1,000 women who were
trained at the post since the beginning
of 1995, a process that could take
months.
Texaco offical cleared
of using racial slur
Investigators say a
tape recording
indicates that no slur
was said at a 1994
meeting.
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — A
senior executive at Texaco Inc. did not
use a racial slur at a 1994 meeting, in
vestigators hired by the company said
Monday.
Their analysis of a tape recording,
enhanced by sound ejqrats, contradicts
earlier claims that former Texaco trea
surer Robert Ulrich referred to minor
ity employees as “niggers.”
The investigators concluded that
the word Ulrich used on tape was ac
tually “Nicholas,” according to the re
port issued by outside lawyer Michael
Armstrong. It was part of a reference
to St. Nicholas during a disparagement
of the black cultural festival Kwanzaa.
“The phrase (expletive) niggers’
just doesn’t exist on the tape,”
Armstrong said Monday.
Texaco chairman Peter Bijur said
he still found the words on die tape
troubling.
“The findings merely set the record
straight as to the exact words spoken
in the conversations,” he said in a state
ment released today.
The Wall Street Journal reported
Monday that federal prosecutors
planned to file criminal charges against
at least one individual in the Tbxaco
r—
case this week, perhaps as early as
Tuesday.
Prosecutors have been investigat
ing whether to file obstruction-of-j us
tice charges against Texaco employees
who allegedly are heard on tape plot
ting to destroy documents in a $520
million discrimination lawsuit filed by
nearly 1,500 black employees.
Court papers filed last week relat
ing to the lawsuit include a transcript
of a conversation between a man iden
tified as Ulrich and ctibrf executives
discussing, among other things, holi
days like Hattukkah and Kwanzaa.
The version of the transcript filed
in court has Ulrich saying^Tm still
having trouble with Hanukkah. Now,
we have Kwanzaa. (Expletive) niggers,
they (expletive) all over us with this.”
The investigators’ transcript quotes
him as saying: “I’m still struggling with
Hanukkah, aid now we have Kwanzaa.
I mean, I lost Christmas. Poor St.
Nicholas, they (expletive) all over his
beard ”
The preliminary report, prepared by
Armstrong, also attended to explain
Ulrich’s reference to minority employ
ees aS “black jelly beans.”\
:Ulrich was using an analogy from
a diversity training program attended
by Texaco executives, the investiga
tors’ report said. Such programs com
monly use jelly beans tp symbolize
how different colors can be mixed
without losing their identities.
“The references to 'jelly beans’ do
not appear to us to have been intended
as a racial idur,” Armstrong’s report
concludes.
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Reno reappointment is in limbo
WASHINGTON (AP)—When
a reporter asked Janet Reno if she
would remain attorney general, she
replied: Yes, “if the president
wanted me to stay.”
A stock answer, but it still irked
White House aides who felt she was
boxing President Clinton into a cor
ner.
Shaking up the Cabinet—an al
most painless task so far—is grow
ing more ticklish as Clinton decides
whether to reappoint Reno in the
midst of Whitewater and other in
vestigations. •• • jh |jy$ r
Air Force One was still en route
from Arkansas to Washington,
within hours of the election, when
word got out that three Cabinet
members were leaving. Three more
soon followed, and the news quickly
spread about who was in and who
was out.
But Reno remained a huge ques
tion mark.
Asked about her status Friday,
Clinton passed up a chance to en
dorse her. ,
“I should have no comment on
any personnel decisions,” said the
president, who is making the judg
ment against a backdrop of legal dif
ficulties.
If he reappoints her, Clinton will
have to deal with an attorney gen
eral whom some aides view as a bit
top independent But if she goes,
critics wul accusebim of ousting her
to help escape legal woes.
“It would be viewed by some in
a very dark light,” said Joseph
diGenova, a Republican who has
served as a special prosecutor. “But
I don’t think he cares.”
The uneasy consensus among
White House aides is that Reno will
survive. But it is remarkable that
there is any doubt at all.
She is a star of the Clinton Cabi
net, mobbed by friendly crowds out
side Washington and respected by
many lawmakers inside the
Beltway. Only the president gets
more invitations for speaking en
gagements.
But one of Reno’s greatest as
sets, a fierce sense of independence,
may havje caused some of her
trouble.
She shouldered the blame for the
1993 disaster at Waco, Texas, in the
hours after the Branch Davidian
complex fire. The president, who let
Reno go public alone, looked meek ~
by contrast.
Overfishing may cause caviar shortage
Illegal trade, lack of regulations threaten sturgeon with extinction
WASHINGTON {AP) — Gour
mets maybe facedwith a shortage ol
caviar this holiday season because ol
aggressive fishing by Russian and Ira
nian trawlers, the World Wildlife Fund
said Monday.
Even if the expensive delicacy is
found, it may not be genuine caviar,
which is the unfertilized eggs of stur
geon. Rather, conservationists warned,
it might just be ordinary fish eggs la
beled as caviar.
The best Beluga caviar from Rus
sia costs more than $80 an ounce in
American gourmet shops. Other caviar
can sell for as little as $10 an ounce.
Last year, nearly $12 million worth ol
caviar was brought into the United
States, but mark-ups made the value
of retail sales nearly three times that
much.
Total world trade was about $125
million, according to the World Wild
life Fund’s report. • I jL
“After awhile, there just won’t be
any more of those sturgeons,” said
Andrea Gaski, director of die fund’s
wildlife monitoring program and au
thor of the report. “We can’t know just
when.”
“With significant illegal trade, little
regulation, tremendous profits and in
creasing demand, sturgeon species are
perched precariously on the edge of
extinction,” her repot said.
Caviar can be obtained oily by kill
ing the female sturgeon while she is
carrying the unfertilized eggs. The kill
ing of other sturgeons is depleting the
source of the mature, egg-bearing fe
males, which make up oily about 7
percent of sturgeons found in the sea,
according to the report.
Aggressive fishing by Russian and
Iranian trawlers kills all sturgeons, not
just the egg-bearing females, the report
said.
The number of adult sturgeon in the
Caspian Sea, where moSt caviar is har
vested, is estimated tohave dropped
from 142 million in 1978 to 43.5 mil
lion in 1994.
I. i ' j
Though the eggs of other fish are
sometimes called caviar, experts and
the U.S. customs only allow the label
for the unfertilized eggs of sturgeon.
But Switzerland and the Nordic coun
tries lump sturgeon roe with other fish
eggs.
“The supply of superior caviar is
so low, traders are now mislabeling
lower-quality eggs and charging supe
rior prices,” she said. “Buyers may not
be getting what they’re paying for.”
Europa may harbor Lie, hidden ocean
Scientists plan to use
an unarmed missile to
search for life on
Jupiter’s moon.
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif.
(AP) — Scientists want to shoot the
moon. . -: ; • -
Using a missfle to smash off a piece
of icy crust from Jupiter's moon
Europa, they hope to discover a hid
den ocean and perhaps even life.
Scientists from the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena are consider
ing knocking chunks of the crust into
space. A spacecraft will retrieve the
chunks and bring them back to Earth.
The idea, so far unfunded, will be
discussed Tuesday at the San Juan In
stitute during a meeting of geologists,
planetary scientists and exobiologists
considering the potential for life on
Europa.
“It’s an inspired plan that could
bring important dues about what might
be the only ether body in our solar sys
tem with an ocean,” said Doug Nash,
the institute’s director.
The idea involves a space probe
that would launch a 20-pound, un
armed missile into Europa, hurling
pieces of the surface 30 miles into
space. Then it would use a gel to coP
led shards of ice as it streaked through
the resulting debris cloud. I
The probe would return the sample
to Earth by parachuting into the atmo
sphere.
The Galileo spacecraft is already
exploring Jupiter and its moons.
Galileo will make its closest pass to
Europe on Dec. 19, when it will fly
within 435 miles of the surface.
Scientists are eager to see close-up :
shots that might strengthen evidence
that a crust of icy slabs is sliding on a
layer of slush or water that might har
bor hidden life.
