2A
The Inside Front
Monday October 6,1997
News
from campus, the state, the nation and the world
STATE
WICHITA: George Tillier, one of a few doctors in the United States who perform late-term abortions, has invited a group of lawmakers on both sides of the abortion issue to visit his clinic.
NATIONAL
WASHINGTON: Fresh from a gathering of hundreds of thousands of believers in Washington, D.C., Promise Keepers founder Bill McCarthney said yesterday he was enlisting foreign nationals to help spread his movement around the world.
CAPE CANVERAL, Fla.: After years of the most severe testing possible, the Energy Department says the shielded plutonium for NASA's soon-to-be-launched Saturn probe, Cassini, is almost indestructible. A group of anti-nuclear activists and pacifists have protested the use of plutonium in the probe.
INTERNATIONAL
PARIS: Iran's $2 billion natural gas contract with a French oil company is Europe's strongest signal yet that it doesn't care about Washington's unilateral trade sanctions.
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government broke its silence yesterday on the botched assassination attempt against a Hamas leader, defending Israel's right to fight terrorism "without compromise."
PODGORICA, Yugoslavia: Montenegro, Serbia's smaller partner in the Yugoslav federation, could mean big trouble for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosev.
CLARIFICATION
On the Friday, Oct. 3 feature page, a reporter did not obtain comments from David Gage prior to publication in a story regarding student-landlord relations. The "Kansan" recognizes Gage's differing point of view and apologizes for the oversight. The "Kansan" has no evidence to support any irresponsibility on Gage's part as a landlord.
In a statement given to the "Kansan" Gage stated: "My goals in management have been to give all my tenants the very best and quickest service I can on maintenance and other problems."
STATE
State legislators to visit late-term abortion clinic
WICHITA — Six years ago, Mike Farmer protested outside of George Tiller's abortion clinic and was one of many people hauled away by police during the "Summer of Mercy" demonstrations.
Today, Farmer, a state representative, is visiting the clinic again. This time, though, he's been invited by Tiller, one of a handful of doctors in the United States who perform late-term abortions.
Tiller, who was shot in both arms by a protester in 1993 and whose clinic was bombed in 1986, wants Farmer and other lawmakers to understand his practice so he's planning to treat them like patients, assigning them nameless profiles of real women who have come to the clinic.
"This is an invitation to reality," Tiller said earlier this year.
Farmer's profile is a 32-year-old pregnant woman from Texas whose fetus suffered from dwarfism. When he scheduled his appointment, he was asked if he would be bringing any weapons — and instructed on how to deal with the possibility of protesters.
Farmer doesn't believe his opinion, or anyone else's, will change on abortion.
"I really don't know whether Dr. Tiller and I can find common ground on this issue, but I've always welcomed the opportunity to discuss it," the Republican legislator said. "As far as will I feel comfortable in that clinic, no, absolutely not, because of what goes on there."
At least six state lawmakers are expected to tour the clinic today. Others will take tours later this month.
Just like the patients, the legislators will receive informed-consent forms and a booklet on terminating a pregnancy because of fetal abnormalities. They can even talk about "separation encounter," when a patient can ask to hold the aborted fetus or have it baptized after the abortion, said Peggy Jarman, a clinic representative.
Kansas law allows late-term abortions in the case of severe fetal abnormalities or to save the life of the mother. But several Kansas lawmakers would like to limit late-term abortions, and Tiller decided it was time to open his clinic so that legislators knew the process behind the security system, thick concrete walls and tall fence.
WASHINGTON — Fresh from a gathering that drew hundreds of thousands of believers to Washington D.C., Promise Keepers founder Bill McCarthney said yesterday that he was enlisting foreign nationals to help spread his movement.
Men's group goes global to seek Promise Keepers
NATIONAL
"The gathering is not a period at the end of a sentence. It's a nice paragraph in the middle of a book," said Joseph Scott, 36, an audio engineer from New York, N.Y.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," McCartney described Saturday's six-hour assembly as a tremendous display of hunger for God that exists in men today.
To appease the hunger, McCartney plans to replicate the experience across the country on Jan. 1, 2000, with rallies at every state capitol to "take roll call" for Jesus Christ.
"I believe God is showing us now that he wants us to go global," he said. "How that unfolds is anybody's guess."
He also wants to take his ministry worldwide.
But he said his movement has already started doing research and is bringing in people from around the world to "teach us how to be culturally sensitive so that we can communicate effectively and advance the gospel of Jesus Christ."
Space probe's protective box draws controversy
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A frighteningly poisonous substance contained in a box in a box in a box, it's been bombarded by explosions and shrapnel, torched by burning fuel, slammed against steel and concrete and drenched in sea water.
And after years of the most severe testing possible, the Energy Department says the shielded plutonium for NASA's soon-to-be-launched Saturn probe, Cassini, is almost indestructible.
Not completely indestructible. Almost. Not impossible to burst and leak. Nearly impossible.
"Impossible is not something you can say here," said Beverly Cook, the Energy Department's program director for plutonium power systems.
"The worst that can happen is a 1-mile-in-diameter asteroid could hit Florida right when we hit the launch button. That's not impossible. But I don't think anybody is worrying about an asteroid when we launch Cassini."
Asteroids aside, Cassini is safe whether the rocket blows or not, Cook and other government officials said. Any release of plutonium would be minute, they insisted.
But in a scene straight out of a conspiracy thriller, anti-nuclear activists, pacifists and even a retired NASA safety officer have joined forces to expose what they
It's the biggest, loudest crusade against a nuclear-powered space shot ever. Then again, it's the most plutonium for a space shot ever — 72 pounds of the highly radioactive, highly carcinogenic stuff, compressed into a nonpulverizing ceramic form so it cannot be inhaled in the event of a launch accident.
believe are government lies. They want to stop Cassini's Oct. 13 launch, which they fear could kill or maim thousands.
By mail, by phone, by rally and especially by Internet, the anti-Cassini crowd is gaining attention, if not momentum, as the launch date nears. A march near the launch site Saturday drew an estimated 500 protesters.
INTERNATIONAL European Union displays disdain for Iran sanctions
PARIS — Iran's $2 billion natural gas contract with a French oil company is Europe's strongest signal yet that it doesn't care about Washington's unilateral trade sanctions and that other similar deals are on the way.
What isn't as clear is whether the United States and the European Union are headed for a showdown over trading with Iran. Officials on both sides note they are in talks over the U.S. effort to use trade to pressure Iran about its alleged ties to terrorism.
The Europeans, however, are strongly critical of the United States trying to impose its policies on others by threatening sanctions against non-American companies that do business with Iran.
U. S. law authorizes President Clinton to impose sanctions on any company that invests more than $40 million in Iran. He could hamper U.S. bank loans to the company and ban the sale of its products in the United States.
The Total contract, signed Sept. 28, came ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline that the EU has set for reaching a compromise with Washington over sanctions. Without a deal, the EU is threatening to challenge the U.S. law at the World Trade Organization.
Total's deal to develop Iranian offshore gas fields provoked the first test of the sanctions act, but France is far from being Iran's top trading partner. Germany leads with 19 percent of Iran's foreign trade, followed by Italy at 9 percent. The French share is about 5 percent.
Analysts said the Total deal emphasizes that business interests are going to test Washington's boycott effort.
"It's a blow to U.S. policy and will make it increasingly difficult, because if Total goes ahead, others won't want to be left out of other deals," said Terence Taylor of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Attack on Hamas leader draws fire to Netanyahu
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government broke its silence yesterday on the botched assassination attempt against a Hamas leader,
defending Israel's right to fight terrorism without compromise.
The bungled Sept. 25 attack on Khalid Mashaal in Jordan has damaged peacemaking and thrown relations with Israel's friendliest Arab ally, Jordan, into crisis. In Israel yesterday, there were calls for an official inquiry, and an opposition lawmaker demanded Netanyahu's resignation.
In the attack, two men carrying Canadian passports injected poison into the Hamas leader's ear as he entered his office in Amman. Mashaal was hospitalized with breathing problems but recovered.
In its first public comment on the attempt, Netanyahu's government stopped short of confirming that Israeli agents were responsible.
But in a Cabinet statement, Netanyahu called Mashaal "the No. 1 figure in Hamas, responsible for the murder of innocent Israeli citizens," and said "the government's obligation is to protect the lives of its citizens and to fight terror without compromise."
Netanyahu adviser David Bar-illan indicated that negotiations were taking place with Jordan over the return of the two attackers, now in Jordanian custody.
Yugoslavian elections to hinge on tiny republic
PODGORICA, Yugoslavia — Montenegro, Serbia's smaller partner in the Yugoslav federation, could mean big trouble for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Results of yesterday's presidential election in Montenegro — pitting a Milosevic protege against a Westward-looking opponent — will help decide the republic's future and the future of its alliance with Serbia.
The Yugoslav federation is made up of only two republics, Serbia and Montenegro, so without Montenegro there is no Yugoslavia for Milosevic to preside over.
Montenegro is about the size of Connecticut and has 600,000 people. Serbia's population is 9.4 million. Despite its size, Montenegro controls half the upper house of Yugoslavia's parliament, which has the power to choose and dismiss the federation's presidents.
No results of the vote were expected until today. However, judging by the streets, Dijukanovic looked to have the upper hand going into yesterday's voting.
If Milosevic proxy Momir Bulatovic wins re-election, Milosevic can breathe a sigh of relief and start maneuvering to get rid of Diukanovic.
Djukanovic posters were everywhere, urging voters to take "the path of economic prosperity." The unlined face of the 35-year-old prime minister gazed from walls, shop windows and hotel lobbies. Tough-looking young men in fancy cars zoomed past with his name plastered over their vehicles.
The Associated Press
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