NATION AND WORLD
University Daily Kansan, January 18, 1984 Page 10
Gunmen nab Saudi Arabian consul in Beirut after firev ambush of limo
By United Press International
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Three carloads of gunmen kidnapped the consul of the Saudi Arabian Embassy yesterday in a daylight attack on his chauffer-drive丹加 and a Lebanese army patrol came under fire during the night in West Beirut.
Christian Phalange radio blamed the kidnapping of Hussein Farraj on the Hizbullah, a fundamentalist Lebanese Shiite Muslim group suspected of involvement in attacks against the multinational keeppers in Beirut.
Gummen opened up with automatic rifle fire on Lebanese government troops who tried to question them around midnight, four hours after curfew, in the Zeitoune district, official Beirut radio said.
THE ARMY FIRED back but the unidentified gunmen escaped, an army spokesman said. He said there appeared to be no casualties.
In southern Lebanon, radio reports said between two and four bombs exploded in the port of Sidon. Beirut radio said one blast damaged a house on the edge of an occupied city and another hit near Israeli troops, who sealed off the area
and fired flares in search of the attackers.
The private Christian Phalange radio reported four explosions in Sidon.
Shite Muslims had staged a demonstration earlier in the day against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Saudi Arabia is deeply involved in mediating efforts to end the violence in Lebanon, but has made enemies in the Middle East because of its ties to the United States.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on the Saudi official, but an official from the Saudi Justice Ministry who requested anonymity said a man calling himself a member of Hizbullah had threatened other Saudi diplomats in a telephone call a month ago.
Police said three cars without license plates surrounded the green Buick embassy car and 10 men swarmed to the attack, firing submachine guns.
While some of the gunmen roughed up the Lebanese driver and the Saudi guard in the front seat, others pulled from the back seat and disappeared.
Beirut radio said the driver, Izazat Assaf, drove on to the embassy a mule and threw it into the street.
THE MORNING ATTACK occurred in the Rawsheh area of west Beirut, a crowded neighborhood of high-rise apartment buildings.
hospital for a bullet graze on the head and brought back to the embassy for questioning. He spent the night under observation in a hospital.
A reinforced guard of uniformed soldiers with rifles and plain-clothes security agents with submachine guns protected the Saudi Embassy against further attack. Farraj was responsible for issuing visas there.
The Lebanese government denounced the attack and Sunni Muslim leader Saeb Salam, who has strong Saudi ties, called on the government to use an "iron hand" to prevent any more kidnappings.
away with blood running down his face.
Police said Assaf was treated at a
POLICE said Nabib Berri, the head of the main Shiite militia Amal, sent a delegation to the Saudi ambassador "denouncing the incident and expressing readiness to help in gaining the freedom of the diplomat."
The Hizbollah movement, and the related Islamic Amal that broke away from Berri's group, are radical Lebanese Shite groups based in the Syrian-controlled city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A man inspects the damage done to the bank of Syria and Lebanon in the eastern part of Beirut by Druse shelling. The consul of the Saudi Arabian Embassy was kidnapped during recent violence in Beirut.
Soviet aircraft in Vietnam called a threat to U.S. bases
By United Press International
MANILA, Philippines — The stationing of Soviet assault aircraft in Vietnam gives Moscow the ability to attack two U.S. military bases in the Philippines and major Southeast cities, a U.S. officer said yesterday.
The officer, who declared to be identified, said Soviet TU-16 Badger bombers have ranges of 1,000 miles and could carry cruise missiles that are capable of hitting targets which are 100 miles away.
The planes could also carry nuclear weapons, he said.
concerned about."
The Badgers, based in southern Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay since mid-November, are within striking distance of Southeast Asian cities and the U.S. Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base on the northern Philippines island of Luzon, the officer said during a briefing aboard the 27 Fleet flagship, the USS Blue Ridge.
"If the question is 'can they hit Clark Air Base,' the answer is yes," said the officer. "That's what we're
He said the Soviets probably moved the squadron to Cam Ranh Bay because the sophisticated new Backfire bomber had replaced anti-aircraft carrier weaponry in the Pacific.
The officer estimated the Badger squadron at nine to 12 planes and said four Bear-class aircraft, capable of reconnaissance and antisubmarine warfare, were also stationed there.
Cam Ranh Bay also serves as a base for 20 to 26 ships of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, the officer said.
"It gives them a tremendous increase in their flexibility."
He said that with 800 ships, 445 aircraft and 140 submarines, the Soviet naval forces greatly outnumber those of the United States.
The Soviets are adding 11 ships a year to their Pacific forces while the U.S. Pacific Fleet stays at about 300 ships, he said.
But he said that the Pentagon is replacing its old ships with sophisticated new vessels, giving it the edge in quality.
Reagan said to know of missile plans
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — The CIA has given President Reagan hard evidence that the Soviets have in place or under construction the elements of a nuclear defense system, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported this week.
In addition, the Soviet news agency Tass announced yesterday in Moscow that the Soviet Union had begun stationing nuclear missiles controlled by Soviet forces in East Germany in response to NATO's deployment of new U.S. cruise and Pershing-2 missiles in western Europe.
Tass said the missiles were controlled by the Soviet personnel as part of an agreement with the East German government. He said president Yuri Andropov in November,
ANDROPOV AT THE time warned that nuclear weapons would also be stored there.
The magazine quoted a White House official as saying, "The CIA's position on Soviet ballistic missile defense activities is unusual in its strength and clarity — an alarm bell that we must watch the situation very closely."
A CIA spokesman had no comment on the report.
House official was quoted as saying, "is that there is in progress a pattern that places their activity very close to the line in terms of a breakout" from the research efforts which allows for research and development of such weapons but not deployment.
"It appears that the Soviets are close to that point, but that they are positioning themselves to withdraw from the treaty and then deploy a layered system," the official told the magazine.
"What seems clear," the White.
Though Moscow says that the East German missile site marks the first time that nuclear weapons are being deployed in Warsaw Fact countries, many Americans believe they have long been in place in the Soviet Union's East bloc satellites.
THE TASS REPORT mentioned only one missile unit. It did not say if any others were in place or give details of what weapons were denounced.
Press International Monday that Reagan was preparing to ask Congress for money to develop a multibillion-dollar "star wars" defense against nuclear
But Western diplomats said the weapons were likely to be medium- or long-range.
THE SPACE-BASED system could ultimately cost $25 billion, but the source said Reagan would seek only a fraction of that in the budget he sends to researchers for research and development of lasers and other high-technology weapons.
The government is now spending about $1.8 billion a year on space-age weapons. Administration sources said the military would add another $250 million to that in 1983.
An administration source told United
The existing ABM treaty allows the two countries to have ABM systems protecting their capitals. The Soviets are the only country and six radars protecting Moscow.
One of the most recent Soviet developments was the construction of new phased-array, anti-ballistic missile defense battle management radars.
Nicaraguan: rebels getting U.S. supplies
By United Press International
The insurgent supply center is less than two miles from the Nicaraguan-Honduran border, on a large tobacco farm a half-mile north of La Troisiere.
LAS TROJES, Honduras — An officer at an anti-Sandinista Nicaraguan rebel supply depot in Honduras said yesterday that the insurgents regularly received American supplies from a banker with American forces or are improving an airstrip.
Las Trojes is less than eight miles from where Nicaraguan troops last Wednesday reportedly shot across the border at a downed U.S. Army helicopter, killing the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Jeffery Schwab.
The dirt road on which Schwab died, which runs between Las Trojes and Cifuentes, another border town, is used by rebels to transport supplies.
Agapito Leon Timoco Ruiz, the rebel officer in charge of the supply base.
The supplies are stored in huge barns that were formally used for drying tobacco. A few of the barns are still used for tobacco.
"This aid is originally from the United States, but it is brought by the Honduran armed forces," he said, pointing to the stockpiles.
"They (the Americans) are our friends." he said.
Schwab was taking two Army engineers to El Aguaguate to work on the airstrip the day he was killed.
"Many of the supplies comes from El Aguaguate where they (the Americans) are improving an airstrip to benefit us."
The U.S. Army says the improvement at El Aguaguate base, which will allow large transport planes to use the dirt strip, is for the Honduran army.
Honduras denies it aids the insurgents.
Seven residents of the town told reporters that American personnel were frequent visitors to the town. Two officers were seen in the center of the Americans dressed in uniforms.
Col. James Strachan, spokesman for the U.S. military maneuvers in Honduras, denied they had any contacts with the rebels; they had sent any soldiers into the area.
The Topeka Capital-Journal
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A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT "THE FORTUNATE," THE FATIOUS AND FREE SPEECH
A December 21st Journal World editorial entitled "Christmas Perspective" notes that it would be well for the fortunate to reflect on their blessings rather than dwelling on their alleged denials by fate and society" just before Dolph Simons, Jr., in his December 24th Saturday Column, claims because "People living in the United States have so much more to be ... thankful for ... it is unfortunate that there are a certain number of citizens who seem to delight in finding fault with this country ... (and) difficult to understand why some of these perpetual critics don't leave the U.S. for some other part of the world if this nation is so wrong, unfair, and uncaring as they continue to proclaim."
Mr. Simpson then says: "Such critics should not be allowed to diminish the joy of this season of the year. Perhaps even their criticism should help point out just how important it is that we keep this country truly a land of the free, so even the critics, malcontents and know-it-alls can continue to have their say."
As one of those vituperative few who, according to Mr. Simons, indict for pleasure, please allow me to answer this animated attack.
While most of this country's inhabitants do indeed have much for which to be thankful, a growing minority is being forced to endure governmentally-tolerated abuse as despicable as that for which the governments of, say, the Soviet Union, South Africa, Iran, Syria and El Salvador are responsible. Even as public funds here are used to maintain profit-makig athletic stadiums, construct privately-owned shopping malls and imprudently enlarge small town airports, innocent individuals are subjected to violence in our mental institutions, nursing homes, public schools, abortion clinics and city streets.
One such group is, in the words of Franciscan priest and Conventan House (a New York home for homeless and runaway youths) president Bruce Ritter, the "quarter-million children and adolescents every year... effectively left with no parent but the street: abandoned buildings, video arcades and subway cars..." The conclusion of a 1980 Senate report that between 240,000 and 500,000 children and adolescents become homeless each year only confirmed the persistence of a deep-seated social tumor..."
"An article that was written by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan has instructed us, moreover, that before their 18th birthday, one-quarter of all American children born in 1965 will have lived in a one-partment household that receives welfare; for those born in 1979 the figure climbs to one-third. The 'real' (after inflation) income of American families has declined by more than $8% since 1979: during the last decade, the number of persons living in poor families has grown by 35 percent..."
"However, economic factors are less important in creating homelessness than others less measurable. Traditional outside supports for the family—most important extended family and long-term neighborhood relationships — have severely eroded as Americans have become more and more transient . . .."
Extraordinary divorce rates are undoubtedly both a cause and a reflection of crumbling social integration . . . but one fact does seem clear: the plight of homeless youth . . . (and) the apparent rise in child abuse and adolescent suicide . . . is inextricably tied to the disintegration of their families."
Although Mr. Simons is but one of many who feel that this country's freedom can be gauged by the number of disaffected decrying the status quo, it is the chance offered the downtrodden which has made us the leader of the free world. Without flexible public agencies helping the fortunate and dependent in their hour of need, our polarization and decline can only continue.
William Dann
2702 W. 24th St. Terr.
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