THE BATTALION
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1979
Page 5
clipse seen by many;
auses accidents, talk
:R
ter
United Press International
The shadow of the moon crept
, ross most of the United States to-
■ay dimming the morning sunlight
"i the last solar eclipse over North
Lrica in the 20th century.
Millions using various view-
Jhg devices checked the progress of
ae eclipse in those areas not
bscured by clouds as the moon
assed between the earth and the
jn in the awesome spectacle that
nee brought terror to primitive
copies.
But in modern-day America,
olice in Los Angeles reported a
umber of fender-bender traffic ac
cents involving motorists preoe-
upied with the eclipse. In Salem,
Ire., they joked about it taking an
it of God to silence the politicians.
who joined other state workers in
watching the one minute and 34
seconds of total eclipse.
In Portland, Ore., the largest city
in the path of the total eclipse, the
sky became darker than night, be
cause none of the usual night street
lights was turned on. In Sac
ramento, Calif., state workers atop
buildings waved to one another.
In Boise, Idaho, a state legislative
committee turned out the lights in
the committee room in observance.
Residents lined streets in downtown
Salt Lake City to watch the solar
show.
At Goldendale, Wash., where
thousands gathered at the only pub
lic observatory in the path of the
total eclipse, the event was
obscured by dark clouds except for a
few spectacular seconds. But all who
shivered together on a cold hillside
there agreed it was worth it.
The spectators cheered, clapped
and yelled. Move clouds! Come on
sun!”
I thought it was exciting,”
William Yantis, observatory direc
tor, said. “I was disappointed about
the clouds, but we got to see it.”
Many other cities in the path of
the eclipse reported heavy overcast
and could not see the moon blocking
the sun. But even in the areas of
only partial eclipse, there was a
noticeable dimming of the morning
sun’s usual brilliance and shadows
became softer.
U.S.S.R. Soyuz 32
inks with space lab
United Press International
MOSCOW — The Soviet Union’s
[rst manned space flight of 1979,
Soyuz 32, Monday successfully
[linked up with the mothballed
Tilyut 6 space lab, Tass reported.
The news agency said Soyuz 32,
Lanned by rookie commander Lt.
Jol. Vladimir Lyakhov and flight
iengineer Valery Ryumin, docked
Safely with Salyut 6 at 4:30 p.m.
The pair then transferred to the
uce lab.
The Soyuz 32 spaceship had lifted
at 2:54 p.m. Sunday Moscow
time
Baikonur Cosmod-
Moscow Radio said earlier all the
spaceship’s systems were function
ing normally and both cosmonauts
felt fine as they began the final run
toward docking with the space lab.
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Firing called result of torture disclosure
United Press International
WASHINGTON — “I knew
when it would break, I would be
smeared, and I was.”
Alexandra Johnson made that
statement in a clipped, unemotional
voice as she described having re
ported to the State Department her
discovery of “systematic” Israeli
torture of Palestinian security pri
soners in the occupied territories.
Not long ago, she was eminently
successful and publicly praised for
doing what she likes doing best:
being a State Department bureauc
rat. Then, in the course of visa in
vestigations in Jerusalem, Ms.
Johnson s carefully ordered life was
turned upside down.
Johnson said she discovered sys
tematic Israeli torture of Palestinian
security prisoners, reported it to the
State Department and then was
dismissed from the Foreign Service.
The State Department said her
dismissal last month had nothing to
do with the allegations, but it would
not reveal the reason.
Israel categorically denied the
torture charge.
Johnson acknowledged having
been engaged briefly to a Palesti
nian — one of those making torture
charges. She said it happened after
the bulk of her evidence was col
lected.
She told of investigating visa re
quests in Jerusalem of 29 exprison
ers who insisted Israeli interrogators
tortured them into confessing
membership in groups affilated with
the Palestine Liberation Organiza
tion.
She said the State Department
eventually granted visas to 22 of the
Palestinians — a development she
described as de facto U.S. recogni
tion the men had been convicted on
coerced confessions, since U.S. law
bars immigrants who have been -
“meaningful” members of organiza
tions on the attorney general’s list,
such as the Communist Party or the
PLO.
Johnson says there’s no doubt in
her mind that Israeli authorities —
not just a few wayward interrogators
— are responsible. She said some
prisoners described being tortured
by “electrical apparatus, or tape
recorders and loud speaker sys
tems.”
The prisoners also repeatedly told
her of being beaten in the same way
with the same kind of instruments
— a yard-long stick for the chest and
a footlong club for the genitals.
Several former members of the Is
raeli armed forces compared the
situation of Israeli security forces in
occupied Arab territories to the role
of American soldiers in the nastier
days of U.S. involvement in
Vietnam.
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28 and 29.