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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 1999)
Page 2 • Thursday, June 24, 1999 News The 6 U.S. to review files on Oswald Power play WASHINGTON (AP) — Intelligence and de fense agencies will review KGB files on Lee Har vey Oswald that may detail Russia’s own in vestigation of Oswald’s role in the assassination of President Kennedy. Officials said yesterday there is no estimate when the public might see the material. The un certainty over timely access to the information troubles some advocates of public access to government documents. The documents — a surprise gift from Boris Yeltsin to President Clinton — will first be re viewed for material.sensitive to national secu rity concerns, while also taking into account privacy considerations. The interagency review set up by the White House will consist of officials from the CIA, the National Security Council and the State and De fense Departments, said David Leavy, NSC spokesperson. Kate Martin, a lawyer for the National Secu rity Archive, a private research group and library, believes the papers should go to the National Archives, which oversees assassination records and makes the records publicly available. “This procedure they are talking about is very troubling to us,” she said. “It’s very hard to imagine any real national security consider ations for withholding these documents from the American public. ” Leavy said the White House expects ulti mately to make the documents public. “/t's very hard to imagine any real national security considerations for withholding these documents from the American public” — Kate Martin National Security Archive lawyer “Our approach would be to declassify and make public as much as possible.” he said. He could not specify how long it would take. About 85 papers, all in Russian, were turned over by Yeltsin on Sunday when he met with Clinton during the Group of Eight summit. Oswald, a former Marine, defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and renounced his American citizenship. That move attracted the attention of the KGB, which bugged his apartment in the Belarus capital city of Min sk, paid neighbors to inform on him and kept Oswald and his Russian wife Marina under constant surveillance. The KGB amassed a six-volume file on Os wald’s activities in Minsk. It was sent to Moscow after the assassination but returned to Minsk after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The documents handed over by Yeltsin are thought to be the KGB files compiled in Moscow, said John Tlinheim, former chair of the government’s Assassination Records Review Board. Tlinheim said the documents could shed light on what the KGB knew about Oswald. “The KGB had sophisticated intelligence at the time. They could have uncovered facts that we didn’t get,” said Tlinheim, who was a mem ber of a board delegation that tried but failed to get the documents from Russia in 1996. Seeds Continued from Page 1 “Taste and nutrition are rarely, though sometimes, considered by modern breeders,” he said. “The new maroon carrot developed at A&M, for instance, has a high carotene content and so it is very nutritious. The breeder was work ing to obtain the maroon color, however, and the increased carotene level in the carrot was a happy side benefit,” Rowe said. Frank Dainello, a professor of horticultural sciences, said seed col lecting is an “interesting hobby” but has no practical applications. “From a scientist’s standpoint, it [seed collecting] not as important,” he said. He said before man decided to alter plants’ genetic material, plants were altered naturally by cross-pollination and this is one of the reasons some plants do not exist today. “These plants became obsolete because their quality was not ac ceptable and they were not disease resistant,” he said. Rowe said it is important to preserve seeds because of trends developing in the commercial seed trade. “[These trends] remind in formed gardeners of the impor tance of preserving the genetic ma terials and characteristics of the heirloom seeds,” he said. Rowe said “disturbing trends” have emerged from altering the characteristics of certain plants. One example is the development of a new corn seed which has been genetically altered to in clude the genes of the a natural ly-occurring microbe called Bacil lus thurengiensis. The microbe. which was incorporated into the seed because it is toxic to catap- illars, is also killing the threat ened monarch butterfly. Dainello said while the microbe may threaten the butterflies, it is also important to keep the needs of consumers in mind, and the bene fits of changes made to seeds usu ally outweigh the harm. “For example, Dr. [Leonard] Pike is working on increasing compounds in plants to combat heart disease and other dis eases,” he said. “It is important to research nutritional benefits through genetic alteration.” Zoning proposal to protect Alamo NUTZ SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The Alamo has no skyline behind it, and the city is taking steps to keep it that way. “Basically, when visitors take photos of the Alamo or stand in front of this historic site today, what they see behind the church is blue sky — well, gray sky, if it’s raining,” Ann McGlone, the city’s historic preservation officer, said. The idea of preventing signs or buildings from creeping into view at the famous battle site was among the recommendations for warded to City Hall by a 22-mem ber Alamo Plaza Study Committee in 1994, McGlone told the San An tonio Express-News. McGlone said she believes most visitors would rather not get home and discover a billboard or modern building in the back ground of their snapshots of the Alamo. “We really need to put some clear rules in place before some thing happens,” she said. City planners are working on a special city zoning proposal that would preserve the Alamo “view- shed.” “The view corridor is not as re strictive as one might imagine,” McGlone said, noting that even on Bonham Street, directly behind the Alamo, the proposed zoning would permit structures of six or seven stories. give up/ v 'fUWKS This mm BW pen / ... ct' W/iTTVicH The Tail K "WE f/E /)A)b 6/l/£ BACK- ClTuck’s Pizza. 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