8
University Daily Kansan
Campus/Area
Monday, Nov. 4, 1985
'Star Wars' defense may be complicated
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Scientists working on President Reagan's controversial "Star Wars" defense shield are leaning toward a complex system of thousands of space satellites to probe the universe. In United States, it was reported yesterday.
The New York Times said the Pentagon's Strategic Defense Initiative Organization discussed the results of a yearlong study and concluded "the preferred missile defense design is more intricate and immense than previously suggested."
According to the report, the design has seven distinct layers which would provide "redundant" or complementary weapons systems in three broad phases. It would use groups of lasers and door directors to attack ground-based targets that fire high-speech projectiles and ground-based rocket interceptors.
The plan to furnish "a nearly perfect nationwide shield" is to be presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week, the newspaper said.
Government officials said the Pentagon was not committed to any system as yet and John Gardner,
systems director of the SDI Organization, said five companies would continue to work on a design with "a considerable increase in effort."
The plan has two layers of boost-phase defenses — directed-energy weapons and kinetic-energy weapons
- designed to attack nuclear weapons soon after their liftoff. Another similar two layers would attack weapons in mid-course.
A fifth layer would consist of small pellets and aerosols to destroy decoys so the missiles themselves would be easier targets. And the final two defensive layers would consist of two kinds of ground-based rocket interceptions to attack incoming missiles in their terminal phase, the Times said.
The study suggests that each of the seven layers would permit as many as 20 percent of the missiles to slip through. But Gardner said it was hoped the cumulative effect, as the final tiers destroyed those missiles the first tiers missed, would provide a very high level of protection for U.S. territory.
Alternative schemes using four, five and six layers of defenses also have been considered.
Court to review case on affirmative action
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court begins its review of affirmative action this week in the face of a Reagan administration campaign to wipe out all forms of racial preference in the workplace.
The justices will hear arguments Wednesday in a case from Jackson, Mich., which has a contract clause giving black public school teachers special protection during layoffs.
The federal government has asked the court to nullify the clause, which it considers a form of reverse discrimination.
The plan casts aside the constitutional principle of "equal treatment for all persons regardless of race," the Justice Department said in legal briefs. "The history of the 14th Amendment does not support the constitutionality of measures discriminating against whites."
The Jackson plan, adopted by the school board and approved by the teachers' union, is being challenged by eight white teachers who were
laid off in a budget crunch. Seven have been rehired and one left town, but they are trying to recover lost wages.
The court's ruling will reach beyond Jackson to at least 12 school districts with almost identical layoff plans. It also could extend to communities that have adopted racial preferences in hiring aimed at increasing the ranks of minority workers.
National Education Association attorney Robert Chanin said racial preferences were necessary to ensure schools had a diverse faculty. "Merely equal treatment is not going to do it," he said. "You're not going to overcome years of discrimination just by saying we're not going to discriminate anymore."
The conservative Mid-America Legal Foundation said it hoped the court would use the case to settle confusion over "how far an employer can go in discriminating against somebody else" to protect members of a minority group.
Marcos may call January election
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos, acting after weeks of pressure from the United States and months of demands by opposition leaders, announced plans today to call an early presidential election in January.
United Press International
In a television interview broadcast in the Philippines and the United States, Marcos invited members of the U.S. Congress to observe a demonstration by former President would "determine the future of democracy here."
Marcos, 68, said he would call a caucus of his ruling New Society Party to discuss the plan before Nov. 11, then submit to the Assembly a proposal apparently designed to sidestep constitutional requirements that he resign in the event of an early, or snap, election.
Marcos, first elected in 1965, will seek another six-year term.
In recent weeks, Marcos has been under pressure from the United States to implement
political, economic and military reforms in the face of a growing communist insurgency seen as a threat to his government and U.S. air and naval bases north of Manila.
"He finally succumbed to American pressure," said opposition member of Parliament Homobono Adaza after Marcos' announcement.
Cecilia Munoz Palma, a Parliament member and head of the National Unification Committee, said a convention of all opposition parties would be held this month to choose a single candidate to run against Marcos.
About a dozen candidates are seeking the nomination. Adaza said the choice would be either Corazon Aquino, 52, the immensely popular widow of slain opposition leader Benigno Aquino, or former Sen. Salvador Díaz, the country's largest coalition of opposition parties.
Marcos' term will not expire until 1987. But, asked during an interview on the ABC News program "This Week With David Brinkley" whether he might hold an earlier election, Marcos replied. "I understand the opposition has been asking for an election.
"In answer to their request, I announce that I am ready to call a snap election, perhaps earlier than eight months, perhaps in three months or less than that, if all these childish claims to popularity on both sides have to be settled," he said.
A statement issued later by the presidential palace said Marcos planned to call the vote in January, "primarily to resolve fundamental issues which have been raised and which may affect the effectivity of the institutions of government, including the armed forces."
Jose Concepcion, a businessman who heads a national citizens' election watchdog group, said the elections "will determine the future of democracy here."
Ban on riot coverage draws criticism
From Kansan wires
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Opposition politicians, newspapers and trade unions yesterday condemned the government ban on television, radio and photographic coverage of rioting in South African cities.
Alex Boreaine, a spokesman for the liberal opposition Progressive Federal Party, said the government had brought down an "iron curtain" on news reporting and called it a blatant violation of press freedom.
"The blinding of the television camera and the gagging of radiomen is a flagrant violation of press freedom." Boraina said.
"These steps give unlimited license to the security forces to abuse their already too extensive powers," said Sheena Duncan, the head of the anti-apartheid Black Sash movement.
Also yesterday, jailed black leader Nelson Mandela underwent successful prostate gland surgery at a hospital in Cape Town and was in stable condition, his doctors said.
Plan for balanced budget still locked in Congress
The Department of Prisons issued a statement on behalf of three urologists who conducted the surgery on Mandela at the Volksk hospital (People's Hospital), saying Mandela's inflamed prostate gland was removed "and no complications are expected."
WASHINGTON — Congress begins this week where it left off last week — stymied by sharp differences between House and Senate versions of a plan to force a balanced federal budget by the end of the decade.
The Senate resumes work today on omnibus legislation setting farm policy. The House, after considering routine matters today and tomorrow, will begin work at midweek on legislation authorizing hundreds of new water projects.
The Associated Press
Arguments over the budget proposals have delayed final action on legislation needed to raise the government's borrowing authority, the national debt limit, to more than $2 trillion. The budget plans are being considered as an amendment to the debt legislation.
Congress' failure to raise the debt limit has forced the Treasury Department to dip into Social Security trust funds.
Family lawyer Ismail Ayob said the 67-year-old Mandela, widely regarded by blacks as the most important black leader in South Africa, entered the hospital yesterday morning from Pollsmoor Prison for the operation
Officials of the Treasury Department have said the move to shift money from the trust funds would provide enough money for the government to continue operating until Nov. 14.
Both Houses of Congress have passed stopgap measures to ease the credit crunch until Wednesday and avoid the loss of interest on the trust bonds.
Three weeks of negotiations between the House and Senate to draft a compromise on the balanced budget plan collapsed last Thursday.
Mandela was jailed for life in 1964 for plotting sabotage for the armed wing of the African National Congress, a black civil rights group which was outlawed in 1960 and began a guerrilla movement to overthrow the white-led government a year later.
International campaigns have repeatedly called on the government to release him unconditionally, but President P.W. Botha has said Mandela would be treed only if he renounced violence as a method for political change. Mandela replied in
February that he would not accept conditional release.
The media blackout was published in Saturday's government gazette, giving it the force of law. It remains in effect as long as the state of emergency declared July 21 remains in effect.
The gazette said, "It is an offense under the emergency regulations to take a recording (sound or visual) of any riot situation."
Maximum penalties in terms of the wide emergency powers are a fine of $7,000, 10 years in prison or both.
The Black Media Workers of South Africa, a trade union for black journalists, condemned the ban and called for reporters and editors "to stand up to the government" and ignore the measures taken by Journalists said the ban meant complete state control of the flow of news from the segregated townships.
Police said five people were arrested overnight in township violence with no reports of serious incidents.
The country's main newspapers all condemned the government action.
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