Page 2^The Battalion/Wednesday, June 4, 1986
Dance of death
While the members of the National Rifle Association are
dancing a jig around Capitol Hill over weakened gun control
laws, aclvances in the firearms industry are making it easier for
people — especially terrorists — to kill people.
Plastic weapons are the latest rage for gun manufacturers.
An Austrian pistol, the Clock 17, is made partly of plastic, mak
ing it difficult to detect on airport X-ray machines and magne
tometers.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is said to be negotiating to
buy 100 to 300 of these weapons on the black market.
Naturally the NRA, which claims to support responsible use
of handguns, opposed any import restrictions on the Clocks.
But the Austrian handguns are not the only boon to the ter
rorists and bane to travelers. A Florida gun developer, David
Byron, is working on an all-plastic .22-caliber pistol. Byron
claims his intentions are to sell the guns to the U.S. military. His
gun is light, non-corrosive and needs no maintenance or oiling.
He also claims his weapon is detectable and even has proposed
implanting a device in the plastic to make his gun more detecta
ble than conventional weapons.
While Byron’s intentions sound honorable, the technologies
he is developing could be adopted by less scrupulous manufac
turers. Terrorist dream-guns could be sold to or even stolen by
criminals and hijackers.
The guns have slipped past airport security in a number of
tests conducted by Pentagon officials, congressmen, the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the West German gov
ernment.
Plastic handguns are the first step, and other undetectable
weapons certainly will follow. Regulation will be extremely dif
ficult — it’s hard to restrict what can’t be detected. Trying to
convince gunmakers to put common sense and humanitarian
concern ahead of profits will be even more difficult.
Security systems are being developed to combat the new ad
vances in gun-making, but few have been effective so far.
In the meantime, terrorists have been given a valuable new
tool of the trade and the security of the civilized world has been
dealt another losing hand.
Keep dancing, NRA lobbyists, they’re playing your song.
The Battalion Editorial Board
The White House leaks
Two of the most
important posi-i
tions in t lie admin
istration are the
president’s
'‘Keeper of the Se
crets” and the
"Chief Leaker of
Information.” Al
though their of
fices are next to Art Buchwald
each other, they
always seem to he working opposite
sides of the street.
Sshhh. as the “Keeper of Secrets” is
c alled, becomes li\ id when a govern
ment sec ret appeals in print and wants
to send everyone to jail. Pssst, on the
other hand, works diligently to plant se
cret stories with the media that will fur
ther the cause of the administration.
1 t an into Sshhh at a fancy restaurant
the other dav. "How can we run an anti
terrorist intelligence operation when
you people print that we broke Libya’s
code?" he* asked.
"We didn't break the news. President
Reagan revealed it himself on TV.”
Sshhh was burning. "Did it ever occur
to vou that the Libyans don’t watch
American TV. but they do read I'he
W'lislunLftoii Post and l he .Yen York
I imes'r"
I said. "Ninety percent of all the con
fidential news concerning the govern
ment is leaked by this administration,
and the* other 10 percent In the opposi-
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The Battalion Editorial
Michelle Powe, Editor
Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor
Scott Sutherland, City Editor
Kay Mallett, News Editor
Ken Surv, Sports Editor
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lion. Whv don’t vou go after the leakers
instead of those of us who are no more
than relay stations for the information?"
"I deny the administration is now or
has ever been the source of leaks,”
Sshhh said.
1 confronted him. "Have you ever
heard of a White House employee
named Pssst?"
Sshhh went red. “The name doesn’t
ring a bell."
"Would it surprise you to know that
Pssst has been leaking an average of 10
stories a dav. with the approval of the
president's team?”
"You’re making it up.”
"For heaven’s sake, man, who do you
think has been putting out all the stuff
about Deaver?”
"We wouldn’t leak about Deaver. He’s
one ol us."
"Correction — he was one of vou. Ex
cept lot the president and Nancy, every
one in the White House seems to want
Mike- to twist slowlv in the wind.”
Sshhh said. “I can understand our
doing that to Stockman, but not to Dea-
\ c-r."
"Nevertheless, vou want to send us all
to jail lot stuff that Pssst leaked to make
the- Reagan administration look good. If
vou keep putting on pressure, we won’t
accept am leaks f rom vour side."
Sshhh un tied his back on me and I
walked over to the cloakroom. I saw
Pssst standing bv the door handing out
secrets. I said. "Fve just been talking to
Sshhh. and he told me he.wants to put
all of us in jail for using vour leaks.”
Pssst guf fawed. "Lie’s just saying that
to scare' vou. The onlv time the Justice
Department will prosecute is when vou
print a leak that wasn’t leaked bv us. I
have just as muc h authority around the
W hite' House' as Sshhh —— some davs
even mot e."
"In describing vour work, is it OK to
sa\ \oui major tasks ate to hand out
classified material, deal in disinforma
tion and send up trial balloons?"
"There’s a bit of that involved.” Pssst
said. "Though sometimes I’ll leak a
stoic to hurt someone politically as
well. ”
"Will vou be walking the streets if the
administration puts the lid on a// se
ct els?"
More' guffaws. "Whoever heard of a
go\ cm mneni w ithout leakers.-"
W hilc we were' talking Sshhh went by
and angrile put his finger over his lips.
Pssst laughed, and as a joke handed him
(ic'ot ge bush’s sc hedule' for the follow
ing dav.
Copyright l9S(i. Los Angeles Times Syndicate
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U.S. adopts Khrushchevian ^
attitude toward Soviet Unior
MOSCOW —In
a statement that
s h o c k e d even
manv Russians,
Nikita Khrush
chev once said of
the L’nited States,
"We will burv
vou.” Much has
changed since
then. I he Rus
sians no longer
talk that wav. Now
Politicians and
Richard
Cohen
Americans do.
commentators alike
describe the Soviet Union as being a
Third World country straining to sup
port a First World military establish
ment. T hey sav that it simply cannot
compete with the United States, that it
has hoisted itself on its own petard — an
inefficient economy in which doctrine,
and not performance, is paramount.
Plodded bv the United States, Russia,
we are told, will collapse into history’s
ash heap. In short, we w ill bury it.
A met/can Khrushchevians have
sei/ed upon the accident at Chernobyl
to prove their point. It was supposed to
be a typical Soviet performance — clods
placing with nuclear energy like kids
with matches. Here was supposed to be
proof that the new information policy
proclaimed by Mikhail Gorbachev was
just another meaningless slogan.
Not quite. The Soviets were tardy in
reporting the accident and characteristi-
callv hard of hearing when queried by
nearbv European countries. But it
seems that the information eventually
released was correct — two deaths at the
outset, not 2.000, and no second melt
down. As for candor, no American
would be satisfied, but correspondents
were kept busy running from one gov
ernment press conference to another.
Bv American standards, none of this
is exceptional — and certainly it remains
impossible for a reporter to simply lift
the phone and ask a Soviet government
official a question. Bv Soviet standards,
though, the floodgates of information
hav e been opened — press conferences,
inspec tions of Chernobyl by non-Sovi
ets. even film of the site and, ultimately,
a speech on the subject by Gorbachev
himself. In the old days, no Soviet
leader would think himself accountable
to either Soviet or world public opinion.
It is not surprising then that the Sovi
ets are both stunned and angered at the
ref usal in the West to take them at their
word. I hey seem especially stung by the
American reaction. 1 hey see themselves
as criticized and belittled. T his, they say,
is typical of the Reagan administration.
Thev are being treated as if they don’t
matter, as if the Cold Wat will end not
with a win or truce, but by the air simply
going out of the Soviet tire. We will
leave them bv the side of the road.
"Arrogance" is what one Russian for
eign-policy specialist called the new
American attitude. He cited some spe
cifics — t/te bombing of pro-Soviet Li
bya, the inv asion of Grenada, aid to the
Nicaraguan Contras and to anti-com
munist forces in Angola and Afghani
stan. T he United States, he said, was
twilling (he Soviet C/mon — even run
ning destroyers into the Black Sea. T he
Soviet Union was not being accorded
the respect due a superpower: “We are
not Guatemala, you know.” Reagan’s
"arrogance,” he said, could lead to a “b-
lunder" in which the Soviet Union fi
nally would be forced to assert itself.
So fat that has not happened. It may
be because the Soviets are overextended
in Afghanistan and, for the moment,
distracted bv Chernobyl. So far the
| The h
l nited States and the' Soviet Fnionl '
been careful to spar only throughf between rl
icw — our Contras, theii S,md» a&M soc’n
oui UNIT \ gun i illas in Angola.tlfcbshrimf
pro-Sov iet regime. But the .spiritoil Associai
so-called Reagan doiiime u,ilia: , The shr'n
balism" bv the Soviets) might ntfkgSP t ! ie , v
easv to contain. At its cote is thefei
belief that, like a winning are forbid
we have momentum in both h": facing ser
the f ree-enterprise system andvicic the territo
assured. Lot the other side, deft U.S. officii
onlv a mallei of time. Compai
Certainlv a v isitor here finds an
... . • . . Mexican w
disjunction between what he sees on W
ground — poor housing, shabbvd|B
vug. veUvUveh few cars— uni tin iBl'
titic and tec /tno/ogica/ triumphsihmgii,
reported from space. Of course,(kf
miJitart apparatus is not seen at
the' measure of the Soviet Unionsfit
not he taken onlv by goods produfflfj
the dankx sound of the plum bind
also bv patriotism and nationaffl
These are resources, too. I hesetkf
Lnion has in abundance. Itsenf
I
m
viet
Ivistovv proclaims and ovevvidugffi
to consolidate its empire and sliecj
image ol a backward land — ar/.^
.spare nothing toward thoseemk
Americans who dismiss the'
Union as nothing more thana|
get |ntffed up w it ft Marxist-f.ewffiS’P
air. shackled by a fearsomely ineffioj
economy and doomed to sinkintoil
t ass of five-year plans, are asdreair|
their own wav as those people idiot
came here and pronounced Jfusi
utopia. T his place is not the futurei|
it doesn’t quite work. But it is notj
past, either. American Khrushchej
not withstanding, Russia is a
from the grave.
Copyright 1986, Washington Post Wrilersb
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