Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1999)
Page 6 • Thursday, July 1, 1999 Nation The Bar. Senate committee backs Holbrooke nomination WASHINGTON (AP) — Richard Holbrooke’s long-delayed nomina tion to be U.N. ambassador won the unanimous backing of the Sen ate Foreign Relations Committee, but new obstacles emerged late yesterday. More senators are planning de laying tactics, fol lowing the lead of Sen. Charles Grassley, who an nounced last week he would block the nomina tion over an unre lated civil service dispute. HOLBROOKE While Grassley, R-Iowa, sug gested in an interview the im passe could be resolved by week’s end, other senators added their own “holds” to the nomi nation, said a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. Unlike Grassley, these senators did so anonymously, which is al lowed under Senate tradition, spokesman John Czwartacki said. He said he did not know who the senators were or whether their concerns were identical to Grass- ley’s, but said their objections to moving ahead this week with the nomination appeared “irreconcil able.” Czwartacki did say the situ ation could change quickly. Grassley is protesting a State De partment decision to transfer a se nior staff member from a U.N. of fice in New York to a lesser post in Washington after she informed members of Congress about alleged waste and mismanagement within the United Nations. He contends the transfer and demotion violated a law that he sponsored protecting whistle-blowers. The new delays are the latest in a series of obstacles to Holbrooke’s yearlong effort to win Senate con firmation. Now an investment banker, the veteran diplomat was the architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace agreement and more recent ly served as the administration’s envoy for Kosovo. The committee vote was anticli- mactic. Holbrooke’s nomination was one of more than two dozen diplomatic nominations approved unanimously, by voice vote, with out debate, and sent to the Senate floor. Afterward, the chairman. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., joked with State Department official Barbara Larkin that the vote was one of the quickest ever for the panel. Holbrooke supporters hoped the Senate would approve the nomination before its July Fourth vacation. But the hold by Grassley, who is not a committee member, remains in the way. By Senate tradition, any senator can block — at least for a while — any nomination for any reason. P&G to limit animal testing CINCINNATI (AP) — Procter & Gamble Co., the maker of Crest, Tide, Pampers and Ivory soap, said yesterday it will immediately stop using animals to test many of its household products. P&G made exceptions for its current food and phar maceutical products and for any new products. In some cases, animal testing is required by law, and P&G said such practices will continue. Animal-rights activists have made the company a tar get for years, with the boycott of P&G products beginning in 1989. They have thrown cream pies at P&G’s chair, been arrested at the Cincinnati headquarters and spoofed P&G’s Tide detergent-sponsored race car with a similarly decorated auto with the logo “Died.” Larry Games, P&G vice president of global prod uct safety, said the new policy is effective immedi ately in the more than 140 countries in which P&G operates. Science has advanced to the point that non-ani mal testing methods can be relied on to ensure that these products are safe for people, Games said. P&G said, for example, if it were to reformulate a prod uct, it could do so by relying on previous animal data. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, one of the organizations that have tried to get P&G to end an imal testing, said the announcement is a small step forward, but more needs to be done. When it choices no one stacks up like FIRSTCARE Some like vanilla. Some prefer chocolate, Some rave about tutti-frutti. But everyone likes to have a choice. ThaTs why FIRSTCARE offers you more choices than any other Health Maintenance Organization. On top of that, the dollars spent with FIRSTCARE stay right here in Central Texas. With FIRSTCARE, you can choose your Primary Care Physician from Bryan- College Station and Central Texas' largest network of doctors. You also have direct access to your designated OB/GYN for gender-related problems, and there are many other referral specialists ready to serve you. To top it off, FIRSTCARE has no claim forms to fill out, no annual deductibles to meet and minimal out-of-pocket expenses. If this all looks good to you, call (254) 202-5300 or 1-888-817-2273 for more information. With so many choices, FIRSTCARE is a whole new flavor of HMO. FIRSTCARE suuinw««i Heaiin Anranes'S" The HMO of Choice. A Service of Hillcrest 4547 Lakeshore Drive, Suite 4 • Waco, Texas 76710 • (254) 202-5300 • (888) 817-2273 Holding court —— ^ ANTHONY DISALVO/THE BatiaI) James Donbavand (right), a senior management information systems major, pulls up for a jump shot against John Readyhough, a senior community health major, during a basketball game Wednesdays! the Student Recreation Center a Officials locate more gap in labs’ security measur Bf In j igrial orosst md 1) /ersiij >as in ty art WASHINGTON (AP) — Even af ter an uproar over espionage and poor security, investigators found troublesome security gaps at a ma jor nuclear weapons laboratory in California, officials said yesterday. The shortcomings, discovered in a review in early May at the Lawrence Livermore National Labo ratory, included inadequate moni toring of access to the unclassified computer system and deficiencies in the security force’s response to po tential terrorists. The findings by an Energy De partment security oversight team are to be presented in a classified brief ing to the House Commerce Com mittee on today. While not giving details, Glenn Podonsky, who headed the internal DOE investigation, said the security weaknesses did not put any top-se cret information at risk, but showed some “sensitive” information need ed to be better protected. “It’s serious because from our standpoint it needed to be correct ed,” Podonsky said. “These are holes that need to be plugged.” Meanwhile, the Senate Intelli gence Committee heard for the first time Wednesday from Sandy Berger, the president’s national security ad- exic viser, on security and espionage ate a„ cerns at the nuclear weapons:. p reSi; | Questions about security clear weapons facilities aro; March as details from a congre al investigation began to surfa and | >yst;!| ura ( scribing loss of nuclear secrets if na in the 1980s and into the 19 2c The controversy intensified Energy Secretary Bill Richardso } evt rected the firing of a scientist i Los Alamos lab in early Marcli he had been under investigatic possible espionage since 199(5 scientist. Wen Ho Lee, has i charged with any crime and h^oly nied giving nuclear secrets toar' Tarr:ij Air Force defends B-2 bombc mpi: Ir onoi Military lauds plane’s performance in Kosovo campd WASHINGTON (AP) — The B-2 “stealth” bomber performed well over Yugoslavia, despite recent con gressional reports of weaknesses and technical flaws. Air Force officials told a House panel yesterday. The $2 billion planes flew through bad weather and hit “everything we aimed at,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Leroy Barnidge, commander of the B-2 bomber force, said. “The B-2 exceeded all our expectations for durabili ty, reliability and overall performance,” he told a House Armed Services subcommittee. While some of the B-2s required maintenance after returning from a bombing run in NATO’s 78-day air war against Serb forces, others were able to take off on a new mission after only loading replacement bombs and re fueling, Barnidge said. The testimony comes two weeks after a General Ac counting Office (GAO) report questioned the durability of the special materials that make the bat-winged B-2 nearly invisible to enemy radar. Jy i soy. “These problems remain the primary cause for maintenance times and a reduced pace in flights P r O'j ations,” the report by the investigative branch otf gress said. theiii The GAO said that while the Air Force has taken! tRai; to address the problems, the 10-plane fleet suffers; sai!, down times for repair of its delicate stealth parts rat* GAO completed the report, the sixth in fiveyearsot B-2, before the 11-week Balkan air war ended Jun^ Some lawmakers questioned the Air Force’s def; to back up the B-2 with extensive support aircraft radar-jamming planes — protection against theert that the plane’s designers claimed wouldn’t be net for stealth missions. “We think it’s prudent to provide as much buffet coverage” as possible, Lt. Gen. Marvin R. deputy chief of staff for Air and Space Operations.! But under the right circumstances, he said, theB-2tf “go in alone.” Initj f es A& ln &l c oij II( S h<| !: me, Te:,,