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University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Wednesday, July 16, 1986
News Briefs Congress confirms loss of top-secret documents
WASHINGTON — Congressional investigators have confirmed that up to 800 Lockedheel Corp. documents relating to top-secret U.S. weapons programs, which were leaked in the wake of or have been叛骗ed, staff aides said yesterday.
The missing documents include blueprints, films, photographs, and classified papers related to weapons projects known as "black programs," so secret that they were from Congress, investigators for a house panel said.
Earlier this year, Lockkee corporate investigators, who expressed concerns about national security, told a House subcommittee on investigations and oversight that up to 800 documents could not be accounted for.
The General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, has confirmed the Lockheed employees' allegations, according to a subcommittee report, identified. The panel has scheduled a July 24 hearing.
Senators urge S. Africa embargo
WASHINGTON — Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, and Lovell Weierker, R-Com., said yesterday that Congress should order severe economic sanctions against South Africa to prevent the carriage of a black-white
Kennedy and Weickner called for Senate passage by Aug. 15 of a House bill calling for a U.S. trade embargo against South Africa. The measure is intended to shock the United government into negotiating an end to apartheid.
"I think we are at the very end of the possibility of achieving peaceful change." Weicker told a Senate banking subcommittee. He said a holocaust could engulf South Africa.
"That is why we should have the strictest sanctions imposed now," he said, "it 'is the last chance.'"
President Reagan asked lawmakers at a meeting yesterday for their ideas on how to shift U.S. policy toward South Africa without yielding his constructive engagement stance. The president remains
opposed to further economic sanctions and to the House bill, a spokesman said.
Soviets await U.S. response
MOSCOW — Mikhail S. Gorbachev said that the Kremlin wanted an American response to Soviet disarmament proposals before deciding whether to extend its moratorium on nuclear testing.
The Soviet leader said a decision on whether to resume testing depended to a large extent on whether the United States was going to "set about disarmament." The Soviet unilateral ban on testsAug. 17.
Gorbachev spoke Monday to a group of scientists meeting in Moscow to urge an end to nuclear testing. His remarks were reported yesterday by the Soviet news agency Tass.
"We have not yet received satisfactory responses to our proposals on medium-range missiles and on strategic arms either," Gorbachev said. "The only thing we have received is the declaration that SALT II is dead."
A U.S. Foreign Ministry spokesman yesterday said he supported a U.S.-Soviet meeting in Geneva next week to discuss President Reagan's decision to abandon the 1979 treaty. But spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov said Moscow attached much more importance to Washington's response to Gorbache's proposals for reducing strategic and medium-range nuclear weapons.
Company indicted in fraud case
PHILADELPHIA — Litton Systems Inc. was indicted on yesterday on charges of defraughting the induction of $6.3 million over a decade by inflating costs to $30 million with what company names called "chicken fat."
Litton Systems, a division of Litton Industries Inc., the nation's 10th-largest defense contractor, agreed to plead guilty to the charges and pay $15 million in penalties in what U.S. Attorney Edward Dennis said was the largest settlement ever by a defense contractor guilty of such misconduct.
Two former company employees, including a vice president who faces up to 125 years in prison, also were
"The charges of fraud revolve around what is technically called defective pricing." Dennis said. "The contract prices were determined on cost estimates that were grossly inflated by the company intentionally. That inflation was known by the employees involved as 'chicken fat.'"
charged in the 325-count indictment.
The charges against Litton include mail fraud, presenting false claims to the government and concealing material facts from the government.
EPA's asbestos proposal debated
WASHINGTON - Victims of asbestos-related lung alliments asked the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday for an immediate ban on asbestos, a building material linked to cancer.
But the head of a major trade group complained that the health risks of the substance had been exaggerated and warned that the EPA would "destroy the industry" if it did not stop the production and imports of asbestos over the next 10 years.
Asbestos is used in building insulation, fireproofing, automobile brake linings and other products. It is dangerous when it crumbles into fibers that can be inhaled and has been linked to lung cancer, mesothelioma, a cancer of the chest and abdominal lining and other respiratory diseases.
The EPA proposal, introduced in January, would prohibit asbestos in various roof and floor materials; cement pipes and fittings and clothing. It also would limit the use of insulating and imports of asbestos over a 10-year period.
"We knew this product was dangerous more than 50 years ago and it should have been banned then," Paul Safchuck, a 73-year-old retired Baltimore shipyard worker with asbestosis, told EPA officials yesterday during the first in a series of public hearings on the agency's proposal.
Group wants organ-sharing plan
WASHINGTON — A federal task force urged Congress yesterday to create a national system of organ-sharing because the current approach is plagued by an over-reliance that includes the illegal selling of organs for transplants.
The 25-member Task Force on Organ Transplantation reported a number of abuses: the sale of organs; transplant centers ignoring waiting lists; and centersigning nurses to receive transplants in the United States.
The panel said it learned of the abuses through officials' testimony at public hearings and through news
The task force recommended a national procurement network to match organs with patients. The network would collect data related to transplants, linking about 110 organ procurement centers nationwide.
The commission also recommended that public funds be made available for liver transplants for those who cannot afford them. Last month, the Reagan administration changed its policy to allow Medicare to begin paying for a limited number of heart transplants.
U.S. pledges aid to Pakistan
WASHINGTON — The Reagan administration is sticking to its pledge to help Pakistan in its fight against outside aggression, but will cancel a major attack on Iran and use atomic weapons, a senior official said yesterday.
The administration also is seeking to crack down on Pakistani opium production, the source of a substantive burden on health care in Pakistan.
"The United States has, on many occasions assured the government of Pakistan that it the remains fully committed to Pakistan's security in the face of continuing military threats from the Soviet Union and the Afghan regime." State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said.
At the same time, the high-ranking administration official, speaking on condition he not be identified, said that if Pakistan produced an atomic bomb, the com­mander should appoint a President D. Wright Eisenhower, would be cancled.
A portion of the U.S. support consists of economic and military aid, which under administration proposals will climb to $4.2 billion in aid during the six years, beginning in October 1987.
From Kansan wires