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WORLD & NATION
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A
ederal contractor who reported
roblems in the so-called
[Doomsday Project,” a top-secret
Program designed to keep the
[overnment running after a nu-
lear war, asserts in a sealed law-
” uit that the Federal Emergency
Management Agency burglarized
is offices.
The alleged break-ins occurred
ifter the contractor, retired
rmy Maj. Fred Westerman, re
acted a demand by FEMA to
urn over all his corporate re-
ords to a business competitor,
iccording to the suit filed in fed-
:ral court.
Westerman, who still refuses to
urn over the documents, was
icked out of the secret program
;ss than two months after the ini-
raven't Jf a! refusaL
An Army counterintelligence
ifficer for 20 years, Westerman
tarted telling superiors about se-
urity and management problems
n the Continuity of Government
rogram in 1986, according to
overnment sources, speaking on
ondition of anonymity.
COG is the nation’s contin-
ency plan for reconstituting the
overnment in the event of a nu-
tlfofpii [pear attack. While almost all de-
ails are secret, it is known to in-
olve mobile communications
ictworks, supply depots and a
ystem of underground bunkers.
The program was dubbed the
sand tel fDoomsday Project” in a recent
J.S. News & World Report arti-
le. The magazine reported that
he Pentagon, the Justice Depart-
w car, ifl [lent and the House Armed Serv
es Committee all are conducting
avestigations into security and
lerformance problems in the
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FEMA and the justice Depart
ment both refuse to discuss the
COG program or Westerman’s
lawsuit. In addition, the govern
ment obtained a gag order to pre
vent the contractor from dis
cussing his case.
Westerman and his lawyer,
Frank Mroz, both declined to
comment when asked about the
suit.
Under a contract with the
Army Corps of Engineers, West
erman’s small company provided
security and other services to
FEMA for portions of the COG
program in five states.
Westerman reported that
alarm and security systems at
highly classified locations were
faulty and that his employees
were exposed to dangerous
chemicals that had leaked from
containers at several facilities,
according to the sources.
Westerman also reported that
water had seeped onto high-volt
age electrical lines in one area
and that engine parts were falling
off emergency vehicles parked at
several facilities, the sources said.
In ope instance, Westerman re
ported that the government re
moved an alarm system and in
stalled a new one that provided
less security than the one it re
placed, the sources said.
Westerman was frequently
pressured by his superiors not to
make any complaints at all,
sources added.
NORML, Bennett combat war on drugs
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just across the street
from the building where drug war director Wil
liam Bennett sits at his desk in a two-story suite,
the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws carries on its own quest from a
small, warren-like office.
NORML, which opened its first storefront of
fice in a run-down section of Washington in
1970, is emerging as one of the most vocal critics
of President Bush’s anti-drug campaign.
“The simple question is whether marijuana
should be included in the war on drugs,”
NORML’s incoming national director, Donald
Fiedler, told reporters at a National Press Club
press conference following Bennett’s outline of
the Bush plan this past week.
“If it is, the price of a drug-free America is an
America that can no longer be free,” Fiedler said.
NORML wants legalization of marijuana but
supports continued prohibition of cocaine. Al
though it has had its ups and downs, Fiedler said
he believes harsh attempts to penalize the na
tion’s millions of marijuana smokers eventually
will bolster NORML’s diminished strength.
“When Bush went after the ACLU, it helped
their membership, when the recent Supreme
Court decision on abortion came out, it helped
NOW, and we fully expect the Bennett drug war
plan will help NORML,” Fiedler, a lawyer from
Omaha, Neb., said.
In its early days, NORML gained attention by
defending youngsters facing prison terms for
lighting up. Its efforts helped spark decriminali
zation moves in many state legislatures.
As the marijuana laws changed, NORML’s
$25-a-year membership roll shrank from a high
of 20,000 people in 1978 to about 5,000 now.
To support its annual budget of $250,000, the
organization now holds seminars for criminal de
fense lawyers. In an article published in 1986,
Washington Monthly said one third of NORML’s
budget came from such conferences, which it
claimed were “geared toward helping lawyers de
fend mid-level mobsters.” Some members told
the magazine that the drug defense seminars had
caused dissension within the organization.
When asked about the article, Doug McVay,
activist coordinator for NORML, said, “The law
yers who are interested in this issue tend to do
drug defense work.”
Prison population statistics reveal
record-breaking increase of inmates
j WASHINGTON (AP) — The na
tion’s prison population jumped by a
record 46,004 inmates in the first six
months of 1989 for a total of
673,565 men and women behind
bars, the Bureau of Justice Statistics
! said Sunday.
The six-month leap broke the re
cord not only for half-year increases
but was also higher than any annual
| increase recorded during the 64
years that the government has
counted prisoners, the bureau said.
The largest annual increase ever
recorded was in 1981-82, when the
national prison population grew by
41,060 inmates, from 344,283 to
385,343, Tom Hester of the bureau
said.
Attorney General Dick Thorn
burgh said the increase was “an indi
cation that more criminals, many
convicted of drug-related offenses,
are being caught and punished.”
“The criminal justice system is
working,” Thornburgh said in a
statement. “People who break the
law do pay the price.”
The figures dramatize the need
for almost 1,800 new prison beds a
t week, the bureau said.
i “Congress needs to act swiftly on
President Bush’s violent crime legis
lation, which provides for the con
struction of more than 24,000 new
federal prison beds,” Thornburgh
said.
The national drug control strat
egy, announced by Bush last Tues
day, echoed the crime legislation
Bush called for in May in seeking
$1.2 billion in 1990 budget authori
zation for additional federal prison
space.
Most of the increase from Dec. 31,
1988, to June 30, 1989, occurred in
i the state prison systems, where the
| population grew by 41,214 or 7.1
j percent, from 577,633 at the end of
j 1988 to 618,847 at the end of June.
During the same period, the federal
prison population expanded by
J 4,709, a 9.6 percent increase from
149,928 to 54,718.
During the six-month period,
nine jurisdictions reported double
digit growth in their inmate popula
tions: Rhode Island, 20.3 percent;
South Dakota, 19.9 percent; Con
necticut, 18.4 percent; Utah, 13.2
percent; the District of Columbia,
12.1 percent; Idaho, 11.3 percent;
Mississippi, 10.6 percent; Missouri,
10.4 percent; and Kentucky, 10.2
percent.
Two states experienced declines
in prison populations — Tennessee,
down 2.3 percent, and North Da
kota, down 2.1 percent. And Texas
had such a small increase, only 2
risoners more, that the change was
isted as 0 percent.
g
Romanian ship
hits tugboat; 150
reported missing
VIENNA, Austria (AP) — A
Romanian ship collided with a
Bulgarian tugboat and sank ir>
the Danube River Sunday, leav
ing 151 people missing, Roma
nia’s official Agerpres news
agency reported.
The collision occurred up
stream of the port city of Galati,
about 125 miles northeast of the
Romanian capital of Bucharest,
the report said. The ship sank “in
conditions of poor visibility,” it
said.
A total of 169 passengers were
aboard the Romanian ship. Only
18 of them and the ship’s 13 crew
members had been rescued,
Agerpres said. It did not give the
nationality of the passengers.
There were no reports of cas
ualties aboard the Bulgarian tug
boat.
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SEASON TICKET S
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Hotline: 847-8478
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Fletch...AT THE GROVE Sept. 14 8:30 PM .... $2.00
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The Man From Snowy River... Sept. 16 3:00 PM $2.00
Matinee only: Children under 13 $1.00
Tickets may be purchased at the MSC Box Office. TAMU ID
required except for International features.
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