Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, September 23, 1990
Nation/World
States not prepared for terrorist attacks on health systems, medical officials say
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Local public health systems remain ill-prepared to respond to potential biological or chemical terrorist attacks, emergency management and medical officials told a House subcommittee yesterday.
An administration official, acknowledging the situation, said the Department of Health and Human Services was working hard to improve it.
"Public health is a critical component of a comprehensive response plan, yet, collectively, we are far from where we need to be to have an integrated response capability in every state." Ellen Gordon, immediate past president of the National Emergency Management Association, told the House Government Reform Committee panel on national security, veterans affairs and international relations.
Gordon, also the administrator of Iowa's emergency management division, said state emergency management directors thought there were a variety of reasons why most state public health systems were unprepared. Among them, she said, are lack of coordination among medical, emergency management and law enforcement agencies and little capacity to detect a potentially deadly biological attack soon after it occurs.
"States need the immediate help of Congress and the federal government to bring the public health system up to an appropriate level of readiness." Gordon said.
A Senate committee heard similar testimony at a hearing in June 1998.
testimony a hearing in-house. Rock Joseph Waeckerle, chairman of the American College of Emergency Physicians' Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Task Force, said many plans were based on a model that does not address biological agents, which require a different response from than a chemical spill or attack.
Emergency health care personnel should be trained to recognize and respond to such attacks, he said.
Militias showing defiance in E. Timor
Hungry refugees loot food in Dili; 1 journalist killed
DILI, East Timor — Struggling to keep the situation in East Timor under control, peacekeepers stopped crowds of hungry refugees from looting yesterday, collected weapons from pro-Indonesian militias and sent an advance team into the territory's second-largest city.
But in the first show of defiance toward the international force,armed men killed one Western journalist and attacked two others, raising fears that the peacekeepers
The Associated Press
themselves could come under attack as they deploy into more areas outside Dili.
Many Indonesians accuse the foreign media of stirring up problems in East Timor and conspiring with the United Nations to rig the outcome of an Aug. 30 referendum, in which East Timorese voted overwhelmingly to become independent from Indonesia.
"It would appear that the militia have attempted to step up some activities as a show that all is not yet secure. Well, I would agree with that," said Australian Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove, commander of the peace-keeping force.
Cosgrove said he did not have enough soldiers to protect all of the residential areas in East Timor's ravaged capital, Dili.
Thousands of East Timorese descended from the hills yesterday morning and stormed a government warehouse, looting 110-pound sacks of rice, sugar and tins of
cooking oil. Indonesian guards were overwhelmed, but peacekeepers soon arrived and brought the crowd under control without using force.
Ellie Hajek / KANSAN
Relief efforts, which began again yesterday, were expected to pick up today. Food drops had been suspended since Monday in favor of airlifting peacekeepers and supplies for the multinational force.
Less than half the force, expected to number 7,500, was in the territory by yesterday.
Despite the paucity of troops, 150 peacekeepers flew in Blackhawk helicopters to East Timor's second-largest city, Baucau, to secure the airport, said Brig. Mark Evans, land forces commander.
The airstrip in Baucau, 80 miles east of Dili, could be useful in bringing supplies to desperate refugees hiding in the thickly forested mountains. The refugees had fled rampaging pro Indonesia militias, angered about East Timor's vote for independence.
Justice Department sues tobacco industry for fraud
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department sued the tobacco industry yesterday to recover billions of dollars taxpayers have spent on smoking-related health care, accusing cigarette-makers of a coordinated campaign of fraud and deceit.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court alleges the cigarette companies conspired since the 1950s to defraud and mislead the American public and to conceal information about the effects of smoking.
"Smoking is the nation's largest preventable cause of death and disease, and American taxpayers should not have to bear the responsibility for the staggering costs," Attorney General Janet Reno said. "For more than 45 years, the cigarette companies conducted their business without regard to the truth, the law, or the health of the American people."
The suit names Philip Morris Inc.; Philip Morris Companies; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; American Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.; British-American Tobacco P.L.C.; British-American Tobacco
(Investments) Ltd.; Loriillard Tobacco Co. Inc.; Liggett and Myers Inc.; The Council for Tobacco Research U.S.A. Inc.; and the Tobacco Institute Inc.
In the complaint, the U.S. government alleges that for the past 43 years, the companies that manufacture and sell tobacco have waged an intentional, coordinated campaign of fraud and deceit. The long-anticipated lawsuit alleges the companies engaged in a conspiracy in violation of the federal law against civil racketeering.
President Clinton issued a written statement declaring that the Justice Department is taking the right course of action. It is time for America's taxpayers to have their day in court, he said.
Reno announced the department was formally closing, without charges, a nearly 5-year-old criminal investigation of whether tobacco companies lied to Congress or regulatory agencies about the addictive nature of tobacco.
"We are moving forward." Reno, joined by acting Assistant Attorney General David Ogden, told a news conference yesterday.
Senate panel finds Y2K problems
Short-term disruptions such as higher gas prices power outages may occur
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The world won't end on Jan. 1 with a Y2K-related computer crash, but Americans should be ready for short-term disruptions ranging from higher gas prices to local power outages, a Senate panel said yesterday.
With 100 days left before computers run up against the year 2000 date, federal agencies and the national infrastructure are in solid shape, but seven states remain in the danger zone with less than 70 percent of computer systems ready, the Y2K panel said in its final report.
The situation is similar in the private sector, with big businesses, particularly in the banking and investment industry, confident their computers are ready while many smaller businesses could run into trouble.
"There will not be a horizontal, systematic failure," said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, who heads the Senate panel with
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
Bennett's committee has held nearly 30 hearings since spring of last year on the consequences of the Y2K glitch, in which computers programmed to read only the last two digits of a year might mistake the year 2000, or "00," as 1900.
He noted that the federal government would have spent some $8 billion to fix its computers and the nation as a whole from $50 billion to $150 billion.
This investment appeared to have paid off, he said. National power grids, phone systems, ATM machines and air travel should work fine on Jan. 1.
"I do not expect the four horsemen, armed with flood and catastrophe, to be riding on Jan. 1, 2000," said Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., one of the first lawmakers to raise the Y2K issue.
But the report also warned against complacency. It cited an August survey that concluded that seven states — Alabama, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Wyoming
— had fixed less than 70 percent of systems affecting such programs as child nutrition, food stamps and unemployment insurance.
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