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.
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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
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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. And Bogota Mayor
Julio Cesar Sanchez said the coun-
Colombian Consulate received two
telephoned bomb threats during
Monday’s hearing, forcing a two-
hour evacuation of the building, po
lice Sgt. Bob Robkin said. But dogs
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found no bomb, and he would not
say if the threats were related to
Lehder.
Lehder has admitted to “unprece
dented violence,” said Merkle, who
called him “the personal embodi
ment of a narco-terrorist.”
A private army of 80 Lehder gang
members had “cleaned out” Nor
man’s Cay in the Bahamas of other
landholders so Lehder could use it
as a way station for U.S.-bound
drugs, Merkle said.
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.”