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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1987)
i Tuesday, February 10, 1987AThe Battalion/Page 11 World and Nation Economists: interest rates to stabilize WASHINGTON (AP) — In terest rates, which fell dramati- lly last year, are likely to show much less movement in 1987 ;amid concern by the Federal Re serve Board over a weaker dollar and rising inflation, economists predicted Monday. I During 1986, a variety of inter- st rates, including home mort age rates, fell to their lowest lev- [1s in nine years as the Fed E ursued an aggressive policy of >wering rates in order to stimu- I late a sluggish U.S. economy. Fed policy-makers convene ■gain today for their first strategy ssion of the new year, a key meeting at which they will estab lish money growth targets for 1987. I While the results of the session will not be revealed until Fed Chairman Paul Volcker testifies «fore the Senate Banking Com- erema'Jiittee on Feb. 19, many private :onomists are looking for a ore cautious Fed approach. While these analysts don’t be- jeve the central bank will try to push interest rates higher, they don’t expect an effort to pull fetes lower either. . He and iummiu': ms to | id half. igher leu place 1 let itbr ling out quarter or IJpoi nance nu >r being i! interested occasion?: oorsoair! s me a I: imben. .“I also erSonics ed John: ir direr :tory. national had eight Moses llil' e my tvith Magt id. “It» d of." The Reagan administration, facing political heat because of he record $170 billion U.S. trade Jeficit last year, has allowed mar- get forces to push the value of the lollar lower, contending that a reaker dollar is needed to stem trotectionist pressures in Con fess. A lower-priced dollar theoreti- ;ally makes imports more expen- jive while making American 'Yu products more competitive on '""Overseas markets. But a weaker lollar also carries a threat of higher inflation and loss of the foreign capital America needs to finance its huge federal budget deficit. The belief is that foreign- > 20 l rs wou ^ l ess willing to invest this country if a dollar devalua- ion cuts into their profits. Releases of Soviet prisoners don’t clarify Kremlin policy MOSCOW (AP) — Dissidents and the West have praised the release of dozens of political prisoners, but those freed are only a small fraction of the total held and it remains un clear whether Kremlin policy toward dissent is changing. The action in the past week may have been a gesture’to deflect accu sations of human rights violations as the Soviets prepare for an interna tional peace conference in Moscow later this week and seek to host a hu man rights meeting in the spring. Whatever its purpose, the release is far short of the amnesty for dissi dents that has been rumored since Andrei Sakharov and his wife, Ye lena Bonner, were freed from inter nal exile in Gorky just before Christmas. Those said to have been freed by decree of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal national parliament, rep resent the range of Soviet dissent — from a Latvian nationalist to a tea cher of Hebrew and a Catholic activ ist. Dissidents and diplomats say they are not sure of the Kremlin’s reasons for releasing this particular group while leaving others in prison for similar offenses, and they hesitate to predict a softening of its attitude to ward organized political opposition. The crackdown of the late 1970s and early 1980s destroyed the net work of political opposition groups and religious activists in the Soviet Union. Releasing some imprisoned dissi dents does not mean the govern ment will tolerate resumption of the activities for which they were sen tenced, particularly if they try to re vive the political organizations. Bringing those groups back to life would be difficult in any case be cause many leaders now live in the West. Most estimates of the number of dissidents in Soviet jails and labor camps put the total at about 1,500. Anatoly Shcharansky, released to the West a year ago, said in an inter view published Sunday in the New York Times that he believed the to tal was 5,000 to 10,000. The mass release fits a pattern of gestures by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev that appears designed to quiet Western criticism and demon strate that some previously forbid den subjects such as religion and em igration now can be discussed. In keeping with past secrecy, how ever, no public announcement of the release has been made. No common bond is apparent among those freed and even their exact number is not clear. Sakharov and Bonner said over the weekend that 42 prisoners were affected, but Sergei Grigoryants said a warden at the Chistopol prison, where he was serving a term for anti- Soviet agitation and propaganda, showed him a list of 51 people cho sen for early release. Grigoryants was among those freed. Alexander Sukharev, president of the Soviet association of lawyers, said Monday in Vienna that about 50 people were set free. He said they asked the Supreme Soviet for par dons, “disassociated themselves from their past crimes (and) pledged to follow Soviet legislation.” Some of those freed, however, said they made no such request and were not required to sign any docu ments. Western diplomats, who com mented about the mass release on condition of anonymity, said they were perplexed by the selection. Book: U.S. atomic weapons system important target for Soviet strike WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. atomic weapons command sys tem has become one of the largest, as well as one of the most important, targets for a possible Soviet strike, says a book published Monday. An attack on any of more than 1,500 key points in the system might be misinterpreted as an attack on the whole, triggering a devastating American response, said Ashton Carter, a Harvard professor who helped edit the book and contrib uted two chapters. “The distinction between initia tion and retaliation would probably become blurred,” Carter said at a news conference. The book, “Managing Nuclear Operations,” finds good and bad in the intricate systems devised to man age superpower nuclear arsenals. The good news, contributor Don ald Cotter said, is that in 40 years of handling nuclear arms, neither the Soviet Union nor the United States accidentally has launched an inter continental ballistic missile or ex ploded a nuclear bomb by mistake. The bad news, and the heart of the issue, the book says, is that al though the weapons can be tested underground without breaking trea ties or endangering lives, the operat ing systems cannot be tried out in conditions resembling war. More bad news is that the 750- page book, written by 22 govern ment and academic experts who are supposed to understand nuclear is sues, raises more questions than it answers. One contributor, Paul Bracken, wrote that the superpowers have not woven ideas on how to end a war “into the fabric of military organiza tions.” ai points e l-ll-IO-WM'* 1 aksfonlono Premier drug trafficker’ held without bond Bcord 3-1 ?-2 0-2 1-2 0-1 3-2 3-3 ?-3 9-3 9-4 8- 5 1-2 6- 4 7- 4 9- 4 6-4 8- 5 : 19-4 8-5 i6-5 5®JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A man prosecutors say is among the , world s leading and most dangerous ^ cocaine traffickers was ordered held ^Without bond Monday on drug wlharges at a hearing where security I was so tight the nails in people’s 84i shoes set off an alarm. tfllHnnocent pleas for 1 1 drug-smug- $ gling counts were entered by U.S. Magistrate Harvey S. Schlesinger on : : hehall of Carlos Lehder Rivas, 37. ’"■KThe drug ring authorities say he operates is responsible for 80 per- ceni of the cocaine imported into the country, prosecutors said. Lehder is ItyHiong the premier — if not the premier drug trafficker — in the world,” U.S. Attorney Robert **Merkle said at the detention hear- Merkle said he had received re- cilman was injured, not killed, by ports of the weekend assassination two men trying to steal his car and of a Bogota, Colombia, councilman has since left the hospital, who belonged to the political party In Coral Gables, near Miami, the “I have been hounded by the Colombian army for the last four years. I’ve been in the jungle . . . disconnected from civilization.” — Carlos Lehder Rivas, charged with drug trafficking. responsible for approving the treaty under which Lehaer was extradited last week. But Merkle did not tie the inci dent to Lehder. 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Schlesinger scheduled a March 23 trial and appointed counsel for Lehder, who said he was broke. “I have been hounded by the Co lombian army for the last four years,” Lehder said. “I’ve been in the jungle for the last four years discon nected from civilization.”