UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, September 7, 1995
Ancient mining law filters U.S. revenue
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt reluctantly approved the sale of 110 acres of federal land in Idaho Wednesday for $275, saying "my hands are tied" by a century-old law. It may contain $1 billion worth of minerals.
The land was conveyed to Faxe Kalk Inc., a Danish company, under an 1872 law that requires the government to sell federal mining rights for as little as $2.50 an acre.
Congress has sought for years to change the law, but under strong pressure from the mining industry, Western lawmakers repeatedly have blocked the legislation. Supporters
of the law argue it helps to promote mining and preserve jobs.
But Babbitt, in conveying the federal tract in idaho, said he finds making such deals "increasingly distractive" and
Bruce Babbitt
called the law outdated and a rip-off of the taxpaver.
Under the law, mining companies receive title to the surface land and mineral rights for $2.50 to $5 an acre and pay no royalties on any hardrock minerals they find.
The 110 acres in Clark County, Idaho, are believed to contain an estimated 14 million tons of highquality travertine, a mineral used to whiten paper.
Last year, when American Barrick Resources Inc., a Canadian mining company, used the law to buy a mine with $10 billion in gold deposits for about $10,000. Babbitt called it "the biggest gold heist since the days of (outlaw) Butch Cassidy."
He said that the government was losing $100 million a year in royalties from hard-rock mining.
Jack Gerard, a representative for the Mineral Resources Alliance, a mining industry trade group, said Babbitt's news conference was ignoring efforts to reform the law.
Babbitt called an industry-supported mining reform bill before Congress "only cosmetic" and criticized a Senate proposal that would require the department to speed up approval of mining claims.
The industry-supported mining reform bill would require a 2 percent royalty on net profits on minerals taken under the 1872 law. Other proposals before Congress would require companies to pay "fair market value" for the surface land, but nothing for the mineral rights.
Babbitt said the 2 percent royalty was far below what is charged on private and state-owned land.
Prosecution rests in terrorist bombing
Congress put a moratorium on issuing mining patents, or purchasing agreements, this fiscal year, but many applications that already were in the pipeline — including the Faxe Kalk applications — were exempted.
Recently the House voted to continue the moratorium into next fiscal year, beginning Oct. 1. The Senate wants to lift the moratorium and directed Babbitt to speed up consideration of applications.
The Associated Press
The mining industry argues that the companies should not be required to pay excessive royalties. The industry contends that while title to the land may be obtained for only a nominal price, companies often invest tens of millions of dollars in mining claims and in finding and developing the minerals.
Philip Hocker, president of the Minerals Policy Center, a watchdog group on mining issues, predicted that if Congress does not extend the moratorium, "There will be a flood of patent applications ... for mineral-rich lands."
After Fitzgerald completed his closing arguments yesterday, 10 defense lawyers are expected to spend two weeks on their presentation.
"It was jihad with a sword, with a cannon, with a grenade and with a missile," Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said, referring to the religious struggle waged by some Islamic fundamentalists led by Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman.
He continued outlining the government's case yesterday morning, telling jurors that the evidence was overwhelming. "You get lost in the evidence in this case sometimes, but so much of it is so compelling," he said.
NEW YORK — A blind Egyptian cleric regarded America as "the No.1 enemy of Islam" and inspired his followers to plan surprise terrorist attacks against the United States, a prosecutor said.
Fitzgerald on Tuesday began delivering his closing arguments to jurors who will decide the fate of 10 men, including Abdel-Rahman, charged with plotting terrorist acts in New York City. If convicted, they could face life in prison.
Fitzgerald argued that Abdel Rahman directed a war of urban terrorism that included the Feb.
26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured more than 1,000.
The prosecutor discounted defense claims that the defendants were merely training for missions to aid Muslims in Bosnia or Afghanistan when FBI agents photographed them with weapons as early as 1989.
"When you look back at those photographs, you will see that more people in those pictures participated in the bombing of the World Trade Center than ever set foot in Afghanistan." Fitzgerald said.
Although none of the 10 defendants is directly charged in the bombing, Fitzgerald said the attack was part of an overall conspiracy to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, kill or kidnap political figures and set off bombs.
In the most spectacular plot, the followers planned to bomb the United Nations, FBI headquarters in Manhattan, two tunnels and a bridge connecting New Jersey and New York, Fitzgerald said. Those attacks allegedly were planned for a single day in 1993.
ritzgerald warned jurors not to be deceived by the jovial cleric.
"He referred to America as the No.1 enemy of Islam," the prosecutor said.
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