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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 1990)
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Offering Summer Rates Syrian troops planted their flag beside the American in the defense of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, and Arab harbormasters in the Persian Gulf kept embargoed Iraqi freight ers at bay, turning up the heat in the simmering showdown with Bagh dad. In Washington, the United States and the Soviet Union conferred on putting a United Nations umbrella over any anti-Iraq naval blockade. The new middleman of the Mid dle East, Jordan’s King Hussein, headed for the United States and a meeting with President Bush, carry ing with him a private message from Iraq’s Saddam Hussein — reportedly the offer of a deal. But Bush said he sees no short-term hope for a diplo matic solution to the gulf crisis. As peace efforts and economic pressures were stepped up, U.S. mil itary forces continued to pour across a 7,000-mile air bridge into the Ara bian desert. It was the seventh day of “Desert Shield,” the operation de signed to face down an Iraqi army that seized Kuwait and could threaten Saudi Arabia. Out in the sand wastes, paratroop ers of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Air borne Division found friendly Sau dis and tastes of home like delivery of fast-food burgers, according to reports from journalists in a U.S. media pool. But the young Americans also had to deal with 115-degree summer heat and the potential for chemical warfare with Iraq. Said one GI, “We’re trained and ready.” North across the desert, hundreds of other Americans remained trapped in Kuwait and Iraq. One Iraqi spokesman, the ambas sador to Greece, told reporters in Athens the Americans and thou sands of other foreigners stranded when Iraq invaded Kuwait could leave “as soon as the threats from the United States and its allies are elimi nated.” The takeover of Kuwait gave Iraq control of 20 percent of the world’s oil reserves, and the crisis has driven up world oil prices sharply. The Voice of America radio, in a message beamed toward the trou bled upper gulf, cautioned the trapped Americans — an estimated 2,500 in Kuwait and 500-600 in Iraq — not to try to flee across the Kuwait border into Saudi Arabia, “due to the danger involved.” “The desert is full of people try ing to find their way,” said a Dutch journalist who escaped from Kuwait into Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Under all the pressure, Iraq sounded unyielding. In Baghdad, the state newspaper Al-Jumhuriya said Iraq knows how to “foil” U.S. measures. If it is at tacked, the paper said, Iraq can “move the battlefield to where (the United States) does not want or ex pect it to be.” Iraq said it launched its lightning strike Aug. 2 against Kuwait because of disputes over oil and money. Liberian rebel declares death U.S. troops of rival; Johnson denies claim MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Rivals said Tuesday they had killed Prince Johnson, who leads one of two rebel factions fighting the government, but he met with journalists hours later and laughed at the claims. Charles Taylor, Johnson’s rival in the yearlong battle to oust President Samuel Doe, claimed Tuesday morn ing his fighters had killed Johnson in an ambush. Before Johnson turned up, a man identifying him self as the rebel leader called the British Broadcasting Corp. in London by radiotelephone and shouted, “Tay lor’s a liar! I am alive!” Taylor’s spokesman and defense minister, Tom Woewiyu, announced Johnson’s death and said the body would be exhibited. It was not. At the State Department’s daily briefing in Washing ton, spokeswoman Margaret Tutweiler said, “We have a reliable source this morning that told us they have seen him today... alive.” After the call to the BBC, Woewiyu was asked about it during an interview and said anyone who spoke with Johnson was “talking with a corpse.” About the State Department report, he said, “They must have a different Johnson.” Rebel officers at Taylor headquarters on the Fire stone Rubber plantation 37 miles southeast of Monro via said a commander named Oliver Varney led the al leged ambush. Woewiyu, who speaks for Taylor’s National Patriotic Front, told reporters in Abidjan, capital of neighboring Ivory Coast, by telephone that Johnson was killed on Bushrod Island while trying to leave Monrovia. He said Johnson’s body had been taken to Taylor headquarters and would be shown to reporters. Taylor and Johnson fell out three months ago in their mpaign against Doe. Since then, each has threatened to kill the other. face snags with desert Johnson’s men have held Monrovia since launching an attack from a swamp north of the city several weeks ago that caught Doe’s troops by surprise. They took over the port area and several residential districts. An African peacekeeping force appeared Tuesday to be meeting further delays. Troops from Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, Sierra Leone U' aylor’s a liar! I am alive!” — Prince Johnson, Liberian rebel and Gambia have gathered in neighboring Sierra Leone, but there was no sign of an early departure. Woewiyu said Taylor would fly to Banjul, Gambia, this week to talk with President Sir Dawda Jawara, head of the African mediation committee trying to end the civil war, which began Dec. 24. That seemed likely to delay arrival of the peacekeepers. Intervention without the approval of the National Patriotic Front “would be a mistake,” Woewiyu told the Associated Press. “We will meet it with all our might and force.” Johnson, 31, was among original rebels who invaded Liberia from Ivory Coast before Christmas, say rebel sources and his friends. NEW YORK (AP) — Try moving a medium-sized city 7,000 miles across an ocean within days to a de sert where thousands of people need to eat, sleep, bathe and defend themselves against a million-man army. That’s what the Pentagon is up against in Operation Desert Shield, its largest military operation and most taxing logistical problem since Vietnam. “You have two things against you — geography and time. And as soon as it gets there, you have to resupply right away,” said Duane Cassidy, a retired four-star general who until last year commanded the United States Transportation Command, the logistical arm of the military. “This operation is something no one else in the world can do. Nobody else knows how to do it or practices it,” said Cassidy, now a vice presi dent for CSX Corp., a transporta tion company in Richmond, Va. The Pentagon refused to specify which air carriers are involved. But Cassidy estimated 90 percent of the troops and 50 percent of the cargo are being flown on commercial air liners. Government still sends checks to deceased vets WASHINGTON (AP) — The De partment of Veterans Affairs has paid benefits to more than 1,200 de ceased veterans, including about 100 dead a decade or more, the General Accounting Office says. The agency pegs the potential annual loss due from the erroneous payments at $5.7 million. Auditors for the congressional in vestigating agency said the depart ment could have reduced the erro neous payments by matching VA benefit payment files with death in formation maintained by the Social Security Administration. The department, agreeing with the GAO’s findings, said it now in tends to follow that procedure. “We found that in April 1989 VA paid compensation or benefit pay ments for 1,212 veterans whom So cial Security Administration records reported had died at least four months earlier,” the GAO said in a report to the Senate Veterans Af fairs Committee. “About 100 had been dead 10 port death to VA in a timely man ner, substantial erroneous payments can result.” The agency said the department has relied on voluntary reporting of deaths as a basis for ending benefits. But investigators said the Social Security Administration goes much further, receiving reports of deaths from many sources and buying death certificate information from years or more. The Veterans Affairs Department pays out more than $14.7 billion a year in disability compensation and pension benefits to more than 2.8 million veterans and nearly 1 million surviving spouses and other depen dents. The GAO said that while benefits should be ended when a beneficiary dies, “if surviving relatives or other knowledgeable persons do not re states. Federal agencies such as the VA are authorized to obtain this infor mation, the GAO said. The congressional agency said that by matching VA’s benefit pay ment file with Social Security files containing information on 39 mil lion deaths “we identified 1,212 vet erans who were reported dead as of December 1988.” The GAO said it first found 1,065 veterans that Social Security data showed were dead but who were still receiving VA benefits. “Erroneous payments to these vet erans’ accounts could amount to $5.1 million annually,” it said. The GAO said it then matched the VA payment file with a Social Se curity file containing about 450,000 death certificates purchased from the states. That search added an additional 147 deceased veterans whose bank accounts were continuing to receive payments. The GAO said it esti mated these erroneous payments at $638,000. Ex-Cowboy faces new verdict in second trial for 1987 murder GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A jury is once again preparing to deliberate on whether former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Ralph Donnell Coleman is guilty of murder. The prosecution and defense finished presenting their cases Tuesday afternoon. Both are scheduled to make closing argu ments Wednesday before the jury begins its deliberations. Coleman, 39, was originally tried, found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison in March 1988 for the June 1987 beating death of a Greenville nightclub bouncer, Ronald Mor gan Taylor. The verdict was overturned by the state Supreme Court, which ruled that the trial judge erred in allowing certain testimony and that a portion of the prosecutor’s closing argument unfairly preju diced Coleman’s right to a fair trial. At the time. Solicitor Joe Wat son called Coleman’s “the most circumstantial case I’ve ever had.” Monday, a customer at The Pits lounge the night Taylor was killed testified that Coleman was with the bouncer just before the 5 a.m. closing time. “He was sweating profusely, his eyes were wide open, and he was gritting and grinding his teeth back and forth,” testified Teresa Shipman, as she described Coleman’s appearance when she saw him a few hours earlier. In the first trial, prosecutors argued that Coleman might have been high on cocaine the morn ing of the slaying. Shipman, who described Tay lor as a “very dear friend of mine,” said she saw Taylor and Coleman leave the club together. “They were both being very se cretive about something, or Ralph Coleman was being secre tive and Ron was being more anx ious than anything,” she said. As the two men walked out, Taylor was saying, ‘“Come on, show me,’ or ‘Let me see it,’ ” she said. A pathologist testified Monday that Taylor, 44, suffered “massive brain trauma” from several blows to the head. His body was found on the side of the street behind the lounge about 6 a.m. His wallet was miss ing and his pockets had been turned inside out, Sgt. Frank C. Ward testified. Prosecutors in the first trial emphasized Coleman’s large size and athletic prowess, claiming he used a softball bat to kill Taylor. Partee has argued that the two were close friends and Coleman had no motive for killing him. During the first trial, Coleman was acquitted of an armed rob bery charge and he cannot be re tried for that. Philadelphia faces economic problems PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The nation’s fifth-largest city faces a cash crunch that could add another junk- bond rating to its debt, hold up city employees’ paychecks and force an emergency tax hike. The administration of Mayor W. Wilson Goode is preparing to bor row as much as $450 million in tem porary loan notes, but critics say that won’t ensure it can meet payroll through May 1991. Without major corrections, the $2.1 billion general fund budget could have a $200 million deficit by June 30, the end of the fiscal year. City Controller Jonathan A. Saidel said. Asked if the city could wind up in default, he said, “If everything stays the same and no one cares and we don’t as a city face the tough deci sions, yes. I refuse to allow that to happen.” City Councilman John F. Street, chairman of the council’s Appro priations Committee, said he also doubted the city would end up in de fault. “I think it will all get straightened out before the end of May,” he said. “But I don’t think it would ever get straightened out unless you had at least the threat of a crisis.” Standard & Poor’s Corp. placed the city’s $1.3 billion outstanding debt on “credit watch” Monday, meaning it could drop below invest ment-grade level. The rating agency in June reduced the city’s bonds to the lowest level recommended to in vestors and the lowest of any major U.S. city. Moody’s Investor Services Inc. lowered the city’s rating to junk- bond level in June. The ratings mean the city must pay higher inter est to attract investors. Goode stonewalled reporters’ questions on the fiscal dilemma Tuesday. His spokeswoman, Karen Warrington, said the mayor would comment when a report on the notes has been prepared by bond under writers. It is expected no earlier than Thursday. Street said an emergency sales tax increase could be considered if Wall Street refused to buy the $450 mil lion in temporary notes. But he said he was optimistic the notes could be sold and an emergency tax averted. Tax revenues have been sluggish, police last week won a $20 million pay and benefits increase and courts nave said the city must refund $23 million from an illegal 1988 real-es tate transfer tax. The city of 1.6 million also has contended it pays too much fa state-mandated services to children the mentally ill and retarded. La« suits and political opposition half stymied attempts to raise taxes and make the state pay for local courts. “It’s a legitimate argument, bui they have to deal with the fact thai they’re not getting what they believf they should get from the state and federal governments,” said Hyman C. Grossman, a managing directoi for Standard and Poor’s. Vol. 89 N< Wl dei KENNEB White Hous< Iraq to nego demanding i dan Hussein White Ho Western nat cials about t Iraq and Ku' “But that’: U.N. deman tary. He dec the latest “lit dam. Iraq’s fore man, Jordan and “put all curity Count arate statem would be de war against I Filzwater give a U.S. d cans, and he little to talk a sponses. 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