News Digest
Friday, August 27,1999 * Page 2
Questions
WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General
Janet Reno pledged Thursday to “get to the bottom”
of why it took the FBI six years to admit its agents
may have fired potentially flammable tear gas can
isters on the final day of their standoff with the
Branch Davidian cult near Waco, Texas.
A senior Pentagon official said the military’s
advice was sought on how to end the standoff and
that three military observers were on the scene the
day of the raid.
But the military had “no operational involve
ment,” said the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Reno told reporters, “I have no reason at this
point to believe the FBI is responsible for the deaths
of those people.”
But she told her weekly news conference she
was “very, very frustrated” that news reports sur
faced about the possible use of flammable devices
six years after categorical denials by the FBI.
Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh ordered a
fresh investigation of what transpired on April 19,
1993, at the Branch Davidian compound. The
standoff ended with the death of David Koresh and
about 80 followers during a fire that erupted after
the tear gas assault on their wooden headquarters
Earlier, Reno and Freeh ordered 40 FBI agents,
led by an FBI inspector, to re-interview everyone
who was at the Waco scene. FBI spokesman John
Collingwood said Wednesday night the agents will
report “within weeks” about the use of military
type tear gas and why it took so long to be admitted
publicly.
Reno said she had gone over in her mind many
times the events of that fiery day, asking herself
how the government might have handled it differ
ently.
Had no stand been taken that day, she said, “We
don’t know if (cult leader) David Koresh would
have done it two weeks later on his own, without
any provocation, and the federal government would
have been blamed for not acting sooner.”
The chairman of the Texas Department of
Public Safety told The Dallas Morning News that
federal officials should explain why members of
the Army’s secret Delta Force anti-terrorism squad
were at the scene the day the compound burned.
“Everyone involved knows they were there. If
there is an issue, it was what was their role at the
time,” said Chairman James B. Francis of Dallas.
“Some of the evidence that I have reviewed and
been made aware of is very problematical as to the
role of Delta Force at the siege.”
Asked whether the new FBI investigation
would address questions about the Delta Force,
Reno replied: “We will pursue any issue in ques
it
I don't think it s very good
for my credibility, and thats
why I am going to pursue it
until I get to the truth ”
Janet Reno
attorney general
tion.”
Republicans in Congress made clear they
would reopen hearings into the 51 -day siege.
Reno said she planned to discuss the issue with
Freeh by phone later Thursday and likely would dis
cuss whether an outside investigation should begin.
Asked if she thought the reversal of position
had harmed her credibility, Reno replied, “I don’t
think it’s very good for my credibility, and that’s
wiiy I am going to pursue it until I get to the truth.”
Later, she said, “I’m not embarrassed. I’m very,
very upset.... If anybody says they’ve never relied
on information that proves to be inaccurate, I’d like
to meet them.”
Blood shortage fear
changes donor policy
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
government is taking the first small
steps to address fears that serious,
nationwide blood shortages could
hit as early as next year.
Certain blood banks will be
allowed to use blood from people
with a genetic disease called
hemochromatosis that causes them
to build up too much iron, the Food
and Drug Administration said
Thursday.
Giving blood regularly allevi
ates iron buildup. That blood is
healthy, but today it’s thrown away
because it’s a medical treatment
patients pay for - donations must be
altruistic.
The FDA said any blood bank
that offers free bleeds to hemochro
matosis patients can apply for
exemptions from federal regula
tions forbidding use of hemochro
matosis blood. Under the exemp
tion, hemochromatosis patients
would be treated like any other
blood donor.
Experts have estimated the
change could provide up to 300,000
more pints of blood a year.
Also, the National Institutes of
Health is beginning a program to
monitor how much blood the nation
has on hand each month, something
not currently tracked. Experts hope
the program could offer better infor
mation about pending shortages.
The steps, announced at a feder
al blood meeting Thursday, come
amid increasing worries that blood
donations are steadily dropping.
The National Blood Data Resource
Center predicts that next year,
Americans will donate just under
11.7 million units of blood - but that
hospitals will need 11.9 million
units.
Concern increased last week,
when the FDA banned donations by
people who lived or traveled fre
quently to Britain during that
nation’s “mad cow disease” crisis, a
ban estimated to cut the blood sup
ply another 2.2 percent.
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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Turkey to raise
taxes, rebuild
■ Some Turks worry
that new funds will be
mishandled by officials;
investors dump shares '
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -
Turkish lawmakers have approved
new taxes to help pay for die earth
quake that ravaged the country’s
industrial heartland.
But some Turks worried
Thursday that the funds will be
siphoned off by corrupt builders and
officials.
Worried investors dumped shares
in Turkish companies on Thursday,
sending the stock market index
plummeting about 10 percent on its
first day of trading since the Aug. 17
earthquake.
Such falls, however, are not
unusual during major crises in
Turkey and experts expect shares to
recover.
J 1 he death toll in the quake rose to
13,040 dead and 26,630 injured
Thursday.
Thousands are believed still
buried underneath the rubble,
A small quake of 3.7 magnitude
hit the ravaged town of Adapazari
Thursday evening, followed 14 min
utes later by another with a 4.1 mag
nitude, the Anatolia news agency
said.
There were no reports of injuries
or damage.
In the same town, an argument
between two families over whether a
quake-damaged building should be
tom down led to a shootout that left
ttyd people dead, Anatolia said.
Desperate for cash, the govern
ment proposed a 5 percent tax hike
on corporations, the self-employed
and the wealthy late Wednesday, as
well as a 25 percent monthly sur
charge on cellular telephones. Some
experts estimate the measures could
raise $20 billion a year.
The proposal would also give the
government the authority to increase
taxes on gasoline, tobacco and alco
hoi, but does not immediately call for
such increases.
The proposals have been passed
by a parliamentary committee and
are widely expected to be approved
by the full assembly. The government
holds a strong majority.
The new taxes were immediately
met with suspicion.
Although Prime Minister Bulent
Ecevit is widely considered to be
honest, many previous Turkish gov
ernments Were plagued by allega
tions of corruption.
“Take Your Hands Off,” the pro
Islamic Yeni Safak newspaper said in
a front-page editorial. “Levy your
taxes not on the people, but on those
who swindle the state.”
“The people do not trust the state
on the issue of the new taxes,” the
paper added.
Financial experts said they
expect the new taxes to help the
recovery effort.
iney notea tnat lurkey also
approved a controversial measure to
boost the retirement age from 45 to
58 for women and 50 to 60 for men, a
belt-tightening move considered cru
cial for securing loans from the
International Monetary Fund.
‘Taxes are always an ugly issue,”
saidTevfik Aksoy, chief economist at
Istanbul’s Bank Ekspres. But he
added that the taxes would mostly
hurt the wealthy and would help pave
die way for an IMF deal.
’ Taking recovery efforts into their
own hands, Turkey’s main media
groups opened their “Lay a Brick
Yourself” campaign Thursday to
raise money.
Five media conglomerates
kicked off the campaign by donating
$500,000 each.
The pop star popularly known as
Tarkan donated $60,000, the
Hurriyet newspaper said.
The money will be used to build
schools and hospitals, papers said.
They promised to disclose how the
money is spent to avoid corruption
charges that have plagued other aid
campaigns.
! [
■ India
Dozens drown after bus
plunges into bathing pool
UCHANGIDURGA, India (AP)
- A crowded bus plunged into a pool
near a temple Thursday in the south
ern state of Karnataka, and dozens of
people drowned, police said.
The exact number of victims was
not immediately known, as there
were no records kept of passengers
on board the private bus. Police said
at least 45 people were on board the
bus, based on the number of seats.
Witnesses said the bus could have
been carrying 80 to 100 people, as it
was crowded and there were many
people sitting on the roof. They said
the victims were pilgrims leaving a
Hindu religious festival celebrated at -
a nearby hilltop temple. The pool is
used for ritual bathing.
■ Britain
Bubonic plague vaccine
to be tested on humans
LONDON (AP) - British govern
ment scientists said Thursday they
have developed a vaccine against
bubonic plague to help protect mili
tary troops from biological warfare.
The vaccine is in a “particularly
advanced stage” of development and
is ready to be tested on humans, Rick
Hall, technical director at the govern- ^
ment’s military research center, said
in a British Broadcasting Corp. inter
view.
“Of course once it is licensed -
through exactly the same process as
any other medicine - it will not only
provide increased protection for
Britain and its armed forces, but it
will also be available to help protect
civilians in parts of the world where
plague occurs naturally,” Hall said.
■ Washington
Ape skeleton may be link
in human evolution path
WASHINGTON (AP) - A
baboon-sized ape that lived in East
Africa about 15 million years ago
may have been among the first pri
mates to leave the treetops and live
on the ground, a key step in the evo
lutionary path that, theoretically,
eventually led to humans.
The fossilized partial skeleton of
the animal is distinctly different from
other ancient apes, prompting
researchers to identify it as the only
member of a new ape genus,
Equatorius.
■ Northern Ireland
Britain governor takes no
punitive action against IRA
BELFAST, Northern Ireland
(AP) - Britain’s governor for
Northern Ireland took no punitive
action Thursday against the Irish
Republican Army, even though she
said the outlawed group had been
involved in a recent killing and arms
- smuggling.
Mo Mowlam issued her verdict
after weeks of pressure from leaders
of Northern Ireland’s pro-British
Protestant majority to impose puni
tive sanctions on the IRA and its
allied Sinn Fein party, most specifi
cally to halt the ongoing accelerated
paroles of imprisoned IRA members.
The province’s police comman
der, Chief Constable Ronnie
Flanagan, said his detectives had “no
doubt” that the IRA kidnapped, tor
tured and killed a Belfast man last
month in apparent violation of the
group’s July 1997 cease-fire.