University Daily Kansan / Friday, February 12, 1988
7
NationWorld
Appeal expected on ruling against railroad drug tests
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Federal transportation officials said yesterday that the government would appeal a federal judge's ruling striking down drug and alcohol testing requirements for railroad workers involved in serious accidents.
But the leaders of unions representing the 200,000 rail workers subject to the tests said the court ruling in a case filed against them for "the rights of working people."
The 2-1 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco struck down 2-year-old Federal Railroad Administration requirements that railroads perform urine or blood tests on all members of train crews involved in serious accidents.
"Other appeals courts have upheld mandatory drug testing programs for customs officials, prison guards,
bus drivers and jockeys," Transportation Secretary Jim Burnley said in a statement. "We are convinced of the constitutionality of the FRA drug and alcohol testing program."
He said workers tested positive for drug or alcohol use in 37 of the 179 railroad accidents in 1987.
Riley also said the percentage of railroad employees who failed drug tests after post-accident testing was up by more than 30 percent last year.
Federal Railroad Administrator John Riley said, "We're going to appeal this case. And I'm optimistic that this program will be upheld on subsequent appeal."
Chairman Jim Burnett of the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates serious transportation accidents, said the board had been concerned for years about the threat drug and alcohol abuse posed to rail safety.
The Associated Press
Panamanian drug scheme described
WASHINGTON — A Colombian drug cartel made $200 million a month in profits in the United States, laundered the cash through Panamanian banks and spent some of the money to bankroll the U.S.-backed contras in Nicaragua, an imprisoned accountant testified yesterday.
"I am a capitalist," Cuban-born Ramond Milian Rodriguez said as he detailed a far-flung, intricately organized drug empire he said paid him $2 million to $3 million a month for his ability to make the money appear to be of legitimate origin.
Rodriguez also told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on terrorism, narcotics and international communications that his money-laundering operation had ties to both the CIA and the contrasts fighting Nicaragua's Sandinista government. Neither connection was pursued in open session by the panel, which is investigating Panama's involvement in drug smuggling.
Rodriguez, 37, was arrested in 1983 at a Miami airport, and $5.4 million in cash was seized from his Lear jet. He was convicted of racketeering, and he is serving a 43-year sentence.
California earthquake causes a death
The Associated Press
WHITTIER, Calif. - A strong earthquake rocked a wide area of Southern California yesterday, injuring at least 25 people and triggering a fatal heart attack but apparently causing little damage.
A 57-year-old Hacienda Heights man died at Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina after suffering a heart attack at his home during the quake, spokesman Cathleen Rodman said.
The quake, measured at 5.0 on the Richter scale, struck at 7:25 a.m. in
the Whittier Narrows area, 15 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, said Jacquelyn Dreher, a spokeswoman for the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
She said the location meant it was another aftershock of the powerful Oct. 1 quake that measured 5.9 on the Richter scale and was followed by a 5.2 quake on Oct. 4. The combined quakes caused $358 million in damage in Los Angeles and Orange counties and were blamed for at least seven deaths. Yesterday's was the 35th aftershock to measure above 3.0 on the scale.
Public material called secret
WASHINGTON — The FBI assigned a "secret" classification to material circulated publicly by a conservative group and sent it to more than 30 field offices in an investigation of opponents of Reagan administration Central America policies, according to an FBI document and interviews.
The Associated Press
The conservative group aide who compiled the information said yesterday that he found it "somewhat humorous" that the material was classified and "became part of a major investigation."
The aide, Mike Boos of the Young America's Foundation of Reston, Va., said he sent the same material to about 500 conservative individuals and organizations in the Washington D.C. area and published it in a conservative newsletter, the American Sentinel.
FBI spokesman Ray McElhaney said that the material contained allegations of criminal wrongdoing over which the FBI has criminal jurisdiction and that the bureau was "duty bound to check it out."
McEhlaney said he did not know why the public material was classified when it was received in 1984 even though Boos told the bureau in his cover letter that it would be published in the newsletter.
The July 12, 1984, FBI letter accompanying Boo's material and sent to 33 field offices was declassified in September and released recently to the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to obtain the material.
The center had been representing the Committee in Solidarity With the People of El Salvador (CISPES), which was the focus of the FBI investigation.
The bureau said that its full-blow investigation began March 30, 1983, and ended June 18, 1985.
McEhaney said the FBI inquiry was conducted under guidelines on international terrorism investigations, most of which are classified. No charges were filed.
He said the investigation was "predicated upon information from several sources that certain leaders and key members of CISPES were involved in covertly furnishing funds and materials to a foreign terrorist organization," the Frene Farabundo Marti Para La Liberacion Nacional (FMLN).
CISPES spokesman Beth Perry said yesterday, "The entire FBI investigation, which took five years, went on too long to prove there was no criminal or terrorist activity. The investigation was a political investigation, because we oppose U.S. policy in Central America."
Spy investigation slow, legislator says
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The State Department failed to seek further investigation of more than 500 infractions by Marine security guards at U.S. embassies at a time when Soviet spies apparently were mounting a worldwide effort to recruit them as agents, a House subcommittee chairman said yesterday.
Rep. Dan Mica, D-Fla., said a preliminary investigation by the General Accounting Office, a congressional watchdog agency, indicated that there might have been a
KGB worldwide effort to recruit Marines at U.S. embassies for the last decade.
The GAO found that over the last six to 10 years, State Department officials collected in their files over 500 cases of Marine guards in Asia, Eastern Europe and Western coun- tries, and black marketering or fraternizing with Soviet bloc personel, Mica said. His staff put the number at 587.
The belated investigation of such incidences had produced half a dozen cases which have major potential
problems of espionage, he added.
Mica, who is chairman of the House subcommittee on international operations, said that it was a standard Soviet technique to try to get U.S. personnel involved in such prohibited behavior as a means of later forcing them into espionage.
Nevertheless, Mica said, the State Department departed from standard procedure by not relaying these cases to the Naval Investigative Service for further investigation when they came up.
ber of last year when NIS demanded them as part of its probe of allegations of Marine spying in Moscow, Mica said.
Naval officers familiar with the investigation confirmed Mica's account and said that even in November, the cases only came over piecemeal. The naval officers declined to be identified by name.
The cases were referred in Novem-
The NIS declined comment because of its ongoing investigation.
Phyllis Oakley, a State Department
military aide that she had no immediate comment.
News Roundup
SHULTZ T TO MIDEAST: Secretary of State George Shultz is expected to announce today that he will go to the Middle East at the end of the month to try to promote peace talks between Israel and Jordan on Palestinian self-rule. The short visit is designed to demonstrate his commitment to a negotiated settlement and to ending violence on the Israeli-held West Bank and in Gaza, said an official who demanded anonymity.
WALDHEIM UNDER FIRE: Government sources in Vienna, Austria, said yesterday that both parties of the coalition government were discussing a replacement for President Kurt Waldheim, but Waldheim has said he won't step down. Last night, thousands of people demonstrated outside the Opera House, where Waldheim was an honorary guest at the social event of the year, the Opera Ball.
HOWARD BEACH SENTENCE: A white teenager convicted of chasing a black man to his death in the Howard Beach section of Queens was sentenced yesterday to five to 15 years in prison after apologizing in court to the mother of his victim. Jason Ladone was the last of three youths to be sentenced for manslaughter and assault in the Dec. 20, 1986, death of Michael Griffith and the beating of one of Griffith's companions, Cedric Sandiford.
MISSOURI PLANT FINED: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration yesterday levied its third-largest fine ever. $2.78 million, against a Missouri smelting plant accused of exposing workers to high levels of lead and then firing them to sidestep government medical leave requirements. The agency cited the Doe Run Co. for 177 health violations at its Herculaneum, Mo., lead smelting plant about 30 miles south of St. Louis.
SHUTTLE BOOSTER TESTED: A redesigned booster for the space shuttle was test-fired with a deliberate flaw yesterday, and NASA engineers said the test appeared to show that the new rocket could withstand the leak that destroyed Challenger. NASA plans another test in March and a final full-scale firing in Utah on April 1 before the scheduled August launch. Six other tests are planned after shuttle flights resume.
AFGAN TO ORBIT: The Soviet Union said yesterday that it would launch an Afghan cosmonaut into space with a Soviet in August to work aboard the Mir orbiting platform — the first time an Afghanistan has been in space. The official news agency Tass said the two cosmonauts would conduct medical studies in space and use instruments to observe natural resources in Afghanistan.
Don't Miss This Masterpiece of Comic Opera.
"A calvalcade of glorious melody..."
The New York City Opera National Company Returns to KU
8:00 p.m. Thursday, February 18, 1988 Hoch Auditorium
Tickets on sale in the Murphy Hall Box Office All seats reserved, for reservations, call 913/864-3982
Public: $18 & $15; KU and
K-12 Students: $9 & $7.50;
Senior Citizens and Other
Students: $17 & $14
Partially funded by the Kansas Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts; additional support provided by the KU Student Activity Fee, Swarthout Society, and the KU Endowment Association.
HALF PRICE FOR KU STUDENTS
How to run your own show.
1998 American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
The American Express® Card can play a starring role virtually anywhere you shop from Tulsa to Thailand Whether you're buying a TV or a T-shirt. So during college and after, it's the perfect way for pajast for just about everything.
How to get the Card now.
College is the first sign of success. And because we believe in your potential, we've made it easier to get the American Express Card right now. Whether you're a freshman, senior or grad student, look into our new automatic approval offers. For details, pick up an application on campus. Or call 1-800-THE-CARD and ask for a student application
The American Express Card
Don't Leave School Without It™
TRAVEL RELATED SERVICES