The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 21, 2003, Image 8

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8
Friday, February 21, 2003
THE BATTALION
Pakistani plane crash kills 17
By B.K. Bangash
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KOHAT, Pakistan — A
Pakistani military plane crashed
into a mountainside in dense fog
Thursday in a remote region of
northwestern Pakistan, killing
all 17 people on board, includ
ing the chief of the air force.
The Fokker-27 turboprop lost
contact with the control tower at
the Kohat Air Base shortly
before it was to land there,
Pakistani officials said.
“This was an accident,” Air
Commodore Sarfraz Ahmad
told reporters in the Islamabad,
ruling out the possibility that the
plane had been shot down on the
edge of Pakistan’s lawless tribal
region. He said a board of
inquiry will determine what
caused the accident.
The crash killed air force
chief Mushaf AM Mir. 57, who
was traveling from Islamabad to
Kohat to conduct an annual
inspection of the air base. He
was accompanied by his wife,
seven other air force officials
and eight crew members when
the plane went down about 16
miles from the base, Ahmad
said.
“This is a national tragedy,”
Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan
Jamali said, according to the
Information Ministry.
Investigators were already at
the site of the crash, about 120
miles northwest of Islamabad.
Kohat, a town of 100,000 people
ringed by mountains, is less than
50 miles from the border with
Afghanistan.
A large piece of the plane’s
tail hugged the side of a 3,000-
foot mountain. Strewn across
the slope were other pieces of
the aircraft, witnesses said.
The air force plane took off
from Islamabad at 8 a.m. local
time and was last heard from 27
minutes after takeoff. There
were no distress calls from the
aircraft, Ahmad told reporters.
Residents of the area said fog
was heavy Thursday morning
when the aircraft went down.
The vice chief of the Pakistan
Air Force, Syed Qaiser Hussain,
has been appointed acting air
force chief, Ahmad said.
Mir was bom in the eastern
city of Lahore and joined the air
force in 1967. A decorated for-
Air Force man convicted
of attempted espionage
By Jonathan D. Salant
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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ALEXANDRIA, Va. —
Former Air Force Master Sgt.
Brian Patrick Regan was con
victed Thursday of offering to
sell U.S. intelligence informa
tion to Iraq and China. He was
acquitted of attempted spying
for Libya.
The U.S. District Court jury
deliberated 24 hours over five
days before returning the ver
dict. Regan showed no emotion
as the verdict was read.
The jury resumed delibera
tions on whether Regan offered
Iraq documents concerning
nuclear weaponry, military
satellites, war plans or other
major U.S. weapons systems.
If the jury finds that he
offered those secrets, he could
be subject to the death penalty.
Jurors would hear a second
round of testimony to consider
such a sentence.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
were the last Americans put to
death for spying. They were
executed in 1953 for conspir
ing to steal U.S. atomic secrets
for the Soviet Union.
Regan, a 40-year-old mar
ried father of four from Bowie,
Md., was arrested Aug. 23,
2001, at Dulles International
Airport outside Washington
while boarding a flight for
Zurich, Switzerland.
He was carrying informa
tion with the coded coordinates
of Iraqi and Chinese missile
sites, the missiles that were
stored there, and the date the
information was obtained. He
also had the addresses of the
Chinese and Iraqi embassies in
Switzerland and Austria in his
wallet and tucked into his right
shoe.
Regan had worked at the
National Reconnaissance
Office, which operates the gov
ernment’s spy satellites, first
for the Air Force and then as a
civilian employee for TRW, a
defense contractor.
It was unusual for the case
to even reach trial. The govern
ment, wary of disclosing clas
sified material in public, nor
mally agrees to plea bargains in
espionage cases.
It also was surprising that
the government sought the
death penalty in a case where
prosecutors acknowledged sen
sitive material never was
passed. In cases much more
damaging to the government,
the CIA’s Aldrich Ames and the
FBI’s Robert Hanssen were
sentenced to life in prison.
"We choose to serve
as the designated drivers.
CARPOOL (693-9905)
The Choice Is Up To You
h 11 p: / / st ude n 11 i fe dam u .cd u / adc p
Plane crashes in
Pakistan
A Pakistani air force plane
crashed Thursday in
northwestern Pakistan, killing all
17 people on board.
AFG.
Islamabad
Kohat' 1
PAKISTAN
OJOm
0 2501m
SOURCES: ESRI, Associated Press AP
mer fighter pilot who
in Pakistan’s 1971 waragainsi
India. Mir took command of
the air force in Novemta
2()()(). He had two sons and i
daughter.
“He was an excellent com
mander, and a hard core profes
sional,” Air Commodore Tali
Butt - said of 57-year-old Mk
"He was very considerate.Al
times he would be very info-
mal in wanting to know aboui
the problems of his men.”
NEWS IN BRIEF
Sean Astin attends
Texas Film Festival
Actor Sean Astin, costar of "Lofd
of the Rings," will attend the
Texas Film Festival Saturday al
Rudder Theater.
Astin will be appearing
Saturday at noon during the festi
val's "Sean Astin Tribute."
Thirty-two-year-old Astin gained
stardom in 1985 after his role in
'The Goonies" and then later as a
Notre Dame football legend in
"Rudy."
The tribute will include dips
from Astin's movies, a speech by
Astin, a viewing of his directorial
debut short film, "The Long and
the Short of It" and a question
and answer session.
Tickets will cost $6 and
dance at the Sean Astin 1
will be limited to 750 people,and
tickets are still available at the
Rudder Box Office.
Gas prices soar
across the U.S.
(AP) — The middle of
looks more like the heart of sum
mer at gas stations nationwide,as
fuel prices surge past $2 a
in some places and motorists
grumble about being gouged,
Political instability in Venezuela
and the prospect of war in
are triggering price hikes that nor
mally don't kick in until the peak
driving season. And experts warn
prices could shoot up even
as the political situations
weather heat up.
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Friday, February 2Y
The Rev. Kathy Russell
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