Page 10
The Battalion
Tuesday, February 28,1989
Judge adjourns North trial
after classified info dispute
WASHINGTON (AP) — The judge in Oliver L.
North’s Iran-Contra trial abruptly adjourned the pro
ceedings today during a dispute that arose during a
bench conference over the use of classified information
during cross examination of witness Robert W. Owen.
U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell sent the jury
home for the rest of the day and cleared the courtroom
to hold a closed hearing on the classified information at
issue.
The adjournment came after a heated bench confer
ence during which the judge was overheard telling
prosecutors, “My ruling is the name must come in,” in
dicating the dispute involved disclosing the name of a
secret source.
The dispute arose as Owen, who was North’s courier
to Central America, was being questioned about a 1985
trip he took to Costa Rica to view the site of an airfield
for rebel resupply operations.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” a H^Tr-lv angry Gesell told
jurors as he cleared the courtroom, “I am going to ex
cuse you for the day and try to get this roadblock
straightened out.”
The dispute arose before the noon lunch break when
the attorney for the defense, Brendan V. Sullivan Jr.,
proposed introducing a document into evidence as part
of his cross-examination of Owen.
The judge asked to see the document over the lunch
hour.
When the trial reconvened, Gesell apparently ruled
during a bench conference that the information was
relevant to the case, prompting a half-hour recess while
prosecutors consulted with government security ex
perts.
Another bench conference ensued when court re
convened after the recess.
Gesell spoke to prosecutor John W. Keker so angrily
that his voice could be heard at times in the rear of the
courtroom.
Pentagon orders construction of war blimp
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP)
— When most people think of
blimps, they imagine gently float
ing giant balloons advertising ev
erything from tires to film to co
las.
The Department of Defense
has another picture: protector of
warships, able to remain nearly
invisible to radar while providing
early warning of approaching
enemy aircraft.
Blimps played this role in
World War II but the Navy aban
doned its airships as outdated in
the early 1960s.
Now, the Pentagon has or
dered construction of a 425-foot-
long blimp that will be the largest
non-rigid airship ever built, more
than twice as long as a conventio
nal blimp. The blimp will be
equipped with powerful radar
and will be capable of patrolling
for several days without refuel
ing. It will fly as high as 10,000
feet, and up to 92 miles per hour.
“Everyone has been doing
these paper studies of the airships
ever since they stopped using air
ships,” said Ron Hochstetler of
Airship Industries, a British
blimp maker that is building the
military blimp in a joint venture
with Westinghouse Electric Corp.
Airship Industries sees a new
generation of blimps being used
not just for military surveillance,
but for spotting drug-smuggling
planes, monitoring ocean pollut
ion and taking tourists on sight
seeing flights.
Nixon advises world leaders
to deal warily with Gorbachev
WASHINGTON (AP) — Richard
M. Nixon, volunteer adviser to just
about every president he has known,
has some foreign policy counsel for
President Bush: deal warily with
Mikhail Gorbachev or risk “being
taken to the cleaners.”
“His toughness and intelligence
will more than compensate for his
country’s economic weakness,”
Nixon says of the Soviet leader, “and
his consummate ability in diplomacy
and political maneuver will guar
antee that he seldom winds up with
the short end of a deal.”
The former president, who made
his imprint in foreign policy before
he was driven from office by the Wa
tergate scandal in 1974, has been of
fering counsel on his specialty ever
since.
His 1989 installment is in an essay
written for the weighty magazine
Foreign Affairs.
In it, he seconds Bush’s slow and
cautious approach to Moscow.
“President Bush should continue
to reject the advice of those who
urge that he schedule a quick sum
mit with Gorbachev in order to have
a foreign policy ‘victory’ early in his
term,” Nixon writes. “Gorbachev
needs a summit far more than the
president.
“Only when the Bush administra
tion has agreed on a strategy with
our allies and has a definite program
for making significant progress on
maior issues should President Bush
schedule an American-Soviet sum
mit.”
Nixon says that having met twice
with Nikita Khrushchev, three times
with Leonid Brezhnev and with Gor
bachev in 1986, he considers the cur
rent Soviet leader “in a class of his
own.”
If Western leaders want
to avoid being taken to the
cleaners, they must
understand what
Gorbachev wants and how
the West should respond.”
— Richard Nixon
“He is their match in tenacity and
forcefulness, but outstrips them in
realism, quickness and intelligence.”
Nixon writes that “if Western lead
ers want to avoid being taken to the
cleaners, they must understand what
Gorbachev wants and how the West
should respond."
Nixon says the new administra
tion should link strategic arms con
trol negotiations with economic rela
tions, Soviet involvement in places
like Nicaragua and Angola, conven
tional arms reductions and other is
sues that divide the super powers,
and take a package approach in
dealing with Moscow.
“Without linkage, Gorbachev will
string together a series of easyvicto.
ries at the bargaining table," he says,
Nixon says that Europe and tlij
Western alliance should be the top
foreign policy priority for the net
administration.
“It should call for a major wort
ing summit — no black tiesandiio
spouses — to hammer out a strategi
for enhancing our collective seen,
rity,” he writes.
Europe was Nixon’s first overseas
stop as president 20 years ago, A
though black ties and spouses were
included on that journey to five al
lied capitals.
Then, as now, there were strains
on the NATO alliance. In Nixon)
time, it was the decision of Charles
de Gaulle to pull France out of lire
military side of the alliance. The cur
rent problem is in West Germans,
and the issue is modernization of
short-range nuclear weapons based
there.
Secretary of State James A. Baker
111 handled the new administration)
first mission to Europe, covering IS
nations in eight days. He returned
saying that the nuclear moderniza
tion question can be worked outand
resolved over the next three months
Nixon also sees a new relationship
with China as a major item on the
Gorbachev agenda. He said the
United States should welcomedoser
relations between the two comnui
nist giants.
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