News Digest
Jordan questioned by House prosecutors
WASHINGTON (AP) - Vernon
Jordan was questioned for nearly three
hours Tuesday in a secure area of the
Capitol by House prosecutors in
President Clinton’s impeachment trial.
Senators also viewed Monica
Lewinsky’s videotaped testimony, and a
few Republicans said they saw little rea
son to summon her before the Senate.
“Based on what my staff told me,
there is nothing new. If there in fact is
nothing new, I would not expect her to
be called,” Sen. Robert Bennett, R
Utah, said.
But Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who
viewed the tape himself, said he
believed it might be helpfiil to have
Lewinsky testify from the Senate floor.
“It’s far better for the public to meet
her and make up their own minds,” he
said. “Personally, I found her to be
«
If there in fact is nothing new; I would not
expect her to be called.”
Robert Bennett
Utah senator
young, vulnerable and credible. I think
she’d make a very effective witness.”
Lead House prosecutor Henry
Hyde acknowledged today that
Lewinsky’s testimony delivered no
bombshells, but he added that “con
firming the accuracy and the reaffirma
tion of her previous statement under
oath is something worthwhile.”
Hutchinson said he planned to meet
with the other 12 House prosecutors to
determine whether to try to summon
witnesses for live testimony before the
Senate or to call additional witnesses.
“Those are issues we still have to
address,” Hutchinson said
As senators for the first time got
access to Lewinsky’s videotaped depo
sition, prosecutors were to focus their
questions on some of the discrepancies
that emerged between her grand jury
testimony and Jordan’s last year.
Tuesday marked the first time
Jordan, a Washington attorney and
longtime friend to Clinton, had testified
since Lewinsky began cooperating with
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.
In contrast to Jordan, Lewinsky gave
the grand jury specific details that linked
Jordan to conversations about gifts she
received from Clinton, destroyed notes
to the president and a false affidavit in
which she denied an affair.
The trial is to resume Thursday, and
unless the depositions yield new infor
mation, the Senate will proceed to clos
ing arguments and final deliberations
that could meet the lawmakers’ target
for ending the trial by Feb. 12, or sooner.
Videotapes of the three depositions
could be made public if a majority of
senators vote to do so, or the witnesses
could be called to testify live.
Jury says Web site
uses death threats
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A
federal jury ruled Tuesday that a
Web site and “wanted” posters list
ing abortion doctors’ names and
addresses amounted to death
threats, ordering the site’s authors to
pay damages of more than $100
million.
Striking a blow to militant
online tactics in the fight against
abortion, the verdict could redefine
what is considered constitutionally
protected political speech. The anti
abortion materials contained no
explicit threats of violence, only
veiled messages, such as crossing
through the names of abortion
providers who were killed.
“The jury saw the posters for
what they are - a hit list for terror
ists,” said Gloria Feldt, the president
of Planned Parenthood, the main
plaintiff in the case. “Whether these
threats are posted on trees or on the
Internet, their intent and impact is
the same.”
Defendants had said that they
would not pay any damages, no
matter what the verdict.
One of the defendants,
Catherine Ramey, sobbed as the
verdict came in, after 4Vi days of
deliberations.
“This is a moral and constitu
tional outrage,” Ramey said after
ward. “There was no threat and they
knew it,” Ramey said. She had testi
fied that she would not so much as
offer a tissue to an abortion provider
if he or she was shot.
At issue was the “The
Nuremberg Files” Web site, which
lists hundreds of “baby butchers”
and invites readers to send in such
personal details as their home
addresses, license plate numbers
and even the names of their chil
dren. The similar Wild West-style
posters offered a $5,000 reward for
information about the “Deadly
Dozen” doctors branded “Guilty of
Crimes Against Humanity.”
Three times, doctors whose
names appeared on the list were
killed, most recently last October
when Dr. Barnett Slepian was
gunned down by sniper fire in his
home outside Buffalo, N.Y. His
name on the Web site was promptly
crossed through.
Throughout the three-week
trial, held under tight security, abor
tion doctors on the list testified that
they lived in constant fear, used dis
guises, bodyguards and bulletproof
vests, and instructed their children
to crouch in the bathroom if they
heard guntire.
“This is terrorism,” plaintiffs’
attorney Maria Vullo said in closing
arguments, pointing to a timeline of
the four doctors and two clinic
workers killed since 1993. “The
message is, ‘Stop performing abor
tion or wear a bulletproof vest.’”
Attorneys for more than a dozen
defendants, including the anti-abor
tion umbrella group American
Coalition of Life Advocates, con
tended their clients were peaceful
protesters engaged in a vigorous
political debate.
But on the stand, defendant
Andrew Burnett, publisher of Life
Advocate Magazine, conceded that
doctors may have reason to fear the
Web site because of the extent of
anti-abortion violence.
“If I was an abortionist,” he said,
“I would be afraid.”
Questions? Comments?
Ask for the appropriate section editor at (402) 472-2588
or e-mail dn@unl.edu.
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Unadilla groundhog:
6 more weeks of winter
UNADILLA (AP) - Back in
1988, then-Lt. Gov. Bill Nichol
tabbed this southeast Nebraska town
as the Comhusker State’s groundhog
capital.
Well, Tuesday was Groundhog
Day and Nebraskans were not to be
outdone by those folks in
Pennsylvania.
About 80 people gathered before
dawn in this community of290 about
30 miles southeast of Lincoln to see if
the state’s version of the famed
rodent, Punxsutawney Phil, would
see his shadow and curse Nebraskans
to six more weeks of winter.
One significant difference,
Nebraska’s groundhog - named
Unadilla Bill in honor of Nichol - is
stuffed. The central committee han
dling this groundhog did see his
shadow, and apparently more winter
is in store for Nebraska.
“We recycle it every year,” said
Bob Brandt, the president of First
National Bank in Unadilla. “We’ve
had him for 11 years. We don’t have
to pen a groundhog up for a year and
bring him out for one day.”
Phil, on the other hand, this time
around, saw no shadow in
Punxsutawney, Pa., where thousands
gathered to see the event.
The Groundhog Day tradition has
its roots in Germany. It was a German
folk belief that held if an animal casts
a shadow on Feb. 2, bad weather will
come.
German immigrants brought the
old belief to America. About 110
years ago, the Groundhog Day obser
vance began in Pennsylvania. Since
then, the morning of Feb. 2 has
evolved into an elaborate show.
Tourists to walk on water
■ An Israel park is planning
an attraction to simulate the
aquatic steps of Jesus.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Retracing
Jesus’ footsteps on Holy Land pil
grimages is nothing new - but the
tours have not extended onto water,
until now.
Israel’s National Parks Authority
said Monday that it had authorized a
private contractor to build a sub
merged bridge into the Sea of Galilee
that would allow tourists to simulate
Jesus’ miraculous walk on water.
“In the beginning we thought it
was a joke,” the authority’s head of
planning, Zeev Margalit, told The
Associated Press.
Margalit said that after canvass
ing church authorities about the idea
and reviewing the plans, he conclud
ed it would “not hurt the feelings of
the Christian tourists and it would not
be too kitschy, so we decided to go
with it.”
The bridge is one of a long list of
projects approved by Israeli authori
ties for the millennium, when an
anticipated four million pilgrims are
expected.
Some church authorities said they
were reserving judgment on the
bridge until August, when it is due to
be in place at Capernaum, the leg
endary site of Jesus’ walk on water.
“It is problematic,” said Wadia
Abu Nassar, director of2000 celebra
tions for the Roman Catholic Church
in Israel. “It will lead to various inter
pretations.”
He said the church had yet to
decide whether to list it as an official
site.
The 13-foot wide, 28-foot long
crescent-shaped floating bridge will
be submerged two inches below
water, and will be able to accommo
date up to 50 people.
It will not be railed in order to
enhance the “walking on water”
effect, and lifeguards and boats will
be in attendance in case a walker slips
off.
The site of Jesus’ reported walk
on water at the Sea of Galilee - actu
ally a freshwater lake in north Israel -
has been a pilgrimage point since at
least the third century, and is marked
by an ancient church.
■ Washington
Gephardt announces
he won’t run in 2000
The Associated Press -Leaving one
less hurdle for A1 Gore, House
Democratic leader Dick Gephardt has
decided to skip the 2000 presidential
campaign and try instead to win control
of the House and become speaker, sev
eral allies said Tuesday.
He will announce his decision
today in a meeting of House
Democrats, most of whom urged the
Missouri lawmaker to remain in
Congress and help eliminate the
Republicans’ paper-thin hold on the
chamber.
■ Washington
U.S. warplanes attack
Iraqi missile launchers
The Associated Press - American
warplanes on Tuesday attacked Iraqi
anti-ship missile launchers newly
deployed along the Persian Gulf.
Pentagon officials said the Iraqi
weapons had been moved to the area as
a threat to ships in Kuwaiti coastal
waters.
This was the first time during a
recent escalation of tensions with Iraq
that U.S. planes targeted Iraqi weapons
designed to strike ships. The other,
almost daily, U.S. attacks have been
against anti-aircraft missile launchers
and radars used to threaten U.S. and
British planes patrolling Iraq’s skies.
■ Yugoslavia
Albanian rebels agree
to attend peace talks
PRISTINA (AP) - Ethnic Albanian
rebels reluctantly agreed Tuesday to
take part in weekend peace talks aimed
at ending the bloody 11 -month conflict
in Kosovo - a decision that focused
international pressure on the hard-line
Yugoslav government
Rebel participation had been
thrown into doubt after a spokesman
recommended not sending delegates.
However, the main Kosovo Liberation
Army spokesman, Jakup Krasniqi, told
reporters in central Kosovo that the
KLA would name its delegates today.
■ Colombia
Earthquake victims
running out of food
ARMENIA (AP) - Emergency
food supplies are dangerously low for
the more than 200,000 people left
homeless by last week’s earthquake in
Colombia, authorities said Tuesday.
The officials said private cfcpations
were dropping off sharply and appealed
for more aid to fill the gap between
what Colombians need and what the
government and international relief
agencies have rushed in. Aid officials
were trying to avoid a repeat of the first
few days after the Jan. 25 earthquake,
when shortages were widespread.
■ United Kingdom
Lawyers say Pinochet
should be sent home
LONDON (AP) - Lawyers for the
Chilean government concluded their
case in Britain’s highest court Tuesday,
saying Gen. Augusto Pinochet should
be freed and sent home even though
Chile has not requested his extradition.
A formal extradition request is
irrelevant since the former Chilean dic
tator “is not a fugitive,” lawyer
Lawrence Collins said.
The 83-year-old general was arrest
ed Oct 16 in London at the request of a
Spanish magistrate.