Thursday, February 13, 1986/The Battalion/Page 11
World and Nation
Mediterranean maneuvers going OK
Sources say Libya avoids U.S. jets
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Libya dis
patched an unusual number of its
planes toward U.S. aircraft carriers
operating in the Mediterranean
Wednesday, but there were no con
frontations or incidents as the first
day of an American exercise came to
a close, Pentagon sources said.
During the First day of the U.S.
maneuvers, which began as sched
uled Tuesday night, more than a
dozen Libyan flight operations were
conducted over the Mediterranean
with planes flying toward the Coral
Sea and Saratoga, said one high offi
cial who asked not to be named.
In each case, as American F-14’s
and F-A-I8’s were directed towards
the Libyan jets, the Libyans turned
for home before they were con
fronted, the official said.
He added that there had been no
evidence of hostile intentions.
The source agreed that based on
the first day’s experience, Libya was
dispatching substantially more
planes toward the 6th Fleet than
during the last week of January,
when the two U.S. carriers last con
ducted maneuvers in the area.
The source added, however, the
United States had seen such Libyan
air activity during earlier exercises in
past years and attached no particular
significance to it.
Both the U.S. and Libyan jets are
operating in international airspace,
the source said, and the Libyans
have turned toward home well be
fore drawing close to the carriers
themselves.
excellent training," the official con
cluded.
The official refused to say exactly
how many Libyan planes had moved
toward the fleet before turning
around but added there had been
instances, in which Libya sent out a
jet fighter accompanied by other
planes.
f >l;
t
viet-built Mig fighters to French-
made Mirage jets and even a Soviet-
made transport plane, the official
said.
Other Pentagon sources, mean
time, said the Navy had detected no
evidence of a large-scale Libyan
exercise promised last week by Libya
leader Col. Moammar Khadafy, nor
had there been any effort by Libyan
ilic
The Libyan flights “are giving us fighters to intercept Israeli civilian
airliners flying across the Mediterra
nean.
On Feb. 4, Israel intercepted a
private jet after it departed Libya
and forced it to land in Israel in an
abortive search for terrorists.
Khadafy responded by saying he
had ordered his own air forces to be
gin searching for Israeli airliners.
The U.S. carriers first moved into
position off Libya’s coast last month
in what administration sources de
scribed as a “show of resolve.”
Like the January exercise, the cur
rent maneuvers are being conducted
within the so-called Tripoli Flight
Information Region.
The region is a broad area off Li
bya’s coast which includes the Gulf of
Sidra, a large, U-shaped body of wa
ter that cuts into the central Libyan
coastline.
NASA not convinced booster at fault
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — NASA insisted Wednes
day it is not yet convinced a booster rocket
caused the explosion of space shuttle Challenger
and said both the rocket’s manufacturer and
space agency experts agreed to the launch in un
usual sub-freezing weather.
At the same time, the space agency released
internal documents that showed a history of
concern with the “O ring” seals where the four
segments of the solid rocket booster are joined.
In report after report, the huge rubber-like
rings’ elasticity and ability to contain gases were
mentioned as critical items to be looked at.
Attention has been focused on the seals be
cause films of Challenger’s Jan. 28 liftoff show a
plume of flame appearing to spurt from the
right rocket booster toward the shuttle’s main
tank loaded with volatile fuel. The ability of the
seals to contain gas and flame is under close
scrutiny.
“The cause is still an open issue,” William R.
Lucas, director of the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration’s Marshall Space Flight
Center told a news briefing. “We are investigat
ing every part of the shuttle and not attempting
to focus in too early.”
After scrubbing a launch on Jan. 27 for other
causes, NASA engineers discussed the weather
by telephone with space shuttle contractors, in
cluding some at Morton Thiokol Inc., which
manufactures the booster rockets in Utah. The
overnight low temperature was expected to be
24 degrees, said Lawrence B. Mulloy, director of
the booster rocket program at Marshall, in
Huntsville, Ala.
“At that time no concern was expressed by the
solid rocket motor manufacturer or my people
on the solid rocket motor relative to the pre
dicted temperatures,” he said.
Rather, he said, the discussion turned on
whether the shuttle was ready for launch again
in a short 24-hour “turnaround” period.
Later that evening there was another tele
phone conference, Mulloy said. Thiokol engi
neers had looked at NASA data on the possible
effect low temperatures might have on O ring
performance.
“The initial recommendation of the Thiokol
engineers was that we should launch within our
experience base — which was that the O ring
temperatures should be 53 degrees.”
Schoransky to
renew fight for
free emigration
JERUSALEM — Anatoly Sh-
charansky said Wednesday he will
resume the campaign for free
emigration of Soviet Jews that led
the Kremlin to put him in prison
and labor camps for more than
eight years.
Israel radio also said he sent
forms to Moscow formally invit
ing his 77-year-old mother, Ida
Milgrom, and his brother Leonid
to Israel on the basis of family
reunification.
The State Department said
Wednesday the Soviet Union has
“indicated” Milgrom and other
relatives of Shcharansky would be
allowed to emigrate to Israel.
Tuesday, Shcharansky walked
across the Glienicke Bridge to
West Berlin from Communist
East Germany. Three other peo
ple held in the East and five im
prisoned in the West were ex
changed on the “bridge of spies”
half an hour later.
In East Berlin, he said, he was
told to walk a straight line to a car
and deliberately took a zig-zag
route. “Of course, that’s funny,
but it was a matter of principle
never to agree to anything for the
KGB (secret police),” he said.
His brother Leonid, 39, told
Western reporters in Moscow
that Shcharansky lay down in the
snow, demanding the return of
his belongings before boarding
the special plane taking him to
Berlin, but finaly left with only a
prayer book. He crossed the
bridge in borrowed clothes.
50 to be charged with smuggling
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Depart
ment of Justice is preparing indict
ments against about 50 employees of
Eastern Airlines believed to be
smuggling cocaine from South
America, federal law enforcement
sources said Wednesday.
The sources, who spoke on condi
tion of anonymity, said the 50 em
ployees are “almost exclusively bag
gage handlers” in Miami. The
handlers are said to be the key to a
narcotics pipeline bringing cocaine
into the United States from Bogota,
Colombia, by way of Miami, where
the carrier is based.
The probe has been going on at
least two months, the sources said,
and it may continue for another two
months.
“We think there is a small cadre of
handlers who are holding out bag
gage” to circumvent a narcotics net
set up by U.S. Customs officials, one
of the law enforcement sources said.
The sources said that Customs of-,
ficials employed sniffer dogs to de
tect drugs. The baggage handlers in
volved in the drug shipments have,
for example, kept baggage con
taining cocaine away from the con
veyer belts at the Miami airport until
after sniffer dogs are taken away,
the sources said.
Eastern Chairman Frank Borman
said in an interview with NBC News,
“We will . . . cooperate every way
with the authorities to make certain
that none of our airplanes or our
employees are involved in that
trade.”
Contacted Wednesday night by
The Associated Press, Eastern
spokesman Mark Wegel said he had
seen reports about the drug allega
tions but that the airline had no com
ment.
NBC, quoting federal authorities,
said the drug-smuggling involving
Eastern employees dates back four
years, and averaged 300 pounds a
week.
One source said that in some
cases, the handlers simply keep the
bags loaded with narcotics on the
planes until Customs checks are
completed.
Tuesday, the head of the Drug
Enforcement Administration, John
Lawn, said in California that the in
dictments were being prepared, but
did not name the airline.
Cyanide in Tylenol unlike previous case
Associated Press
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The
type of cyanide that killed a woman
who took Extra-Strength Tylenol
capsules last weekend differed from
the poison that killed seven people
in Chicago in 1982, the Food and
Drug Administration said Wednes
day.
Diane Elsroth, 23, of Peekskill
died Saturday after taking two cap
sules of Extra-Strength Tylenol, at
least one of which contained potas
sium cyanide. Dr. Millard Hyland,
county medical examiner, said.
FDA spokesman William Grigg
said Wednesday that tests conducted
on two of three poisoned capsules
found in the bottle used by Elsroth
showed that the cyanide had a dif
ferent chemical profile from the
chemical used in Cnicago in 1982.
The Chicago case remains un
solved.
The poisons used in both killings
also differed from the cyanide used
for testing and quality control in the
Johnson & Johnson plant that pro
duces the painkiller, Grigg said.
The FDA inspected the factory
where the pills were made and de
termined that “there were no indica
tions that it (the contamination)
could be the result of the manufac
turing,” he said.
Grigg said the determination that
the type of cyanide in the latest
death differed from that found in
Chicago or at the manufacturing
plant.
Westchester County District At
torney Carl Vergari said earlier
Wednesday that the contamination
of the capsules “could have hap
pened anywhere” and several the
ories were being investigated.
He said tampering at the factory
had not been ruled out, despite Hy
land’s contention that the cyanide
found in the Tylenol would have
eaten through the capsules in eight
to 10 days.
Elsroth took the pills while staying
at her boyfriend’s home in Yonkers.
Notarnicola’s mother, whose
name has not been released, then
took a single Tylenol but was unaf
fected.
Investigators found three of the
remaining 21 capsules also had been
contaminated with cyanide.
Notarnicola told police the bottle
had been bought at an A&P in
nearby Bronxville, but authorities
would not say who bought the bottle
or when.
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