VOL.101,NO.78
KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1991
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
Iraqis set Kuwaiti oil tanks on fire
DHAHRAN
The Associated Press
DHIAHAN,
Saudi Arabia
- The forces of Saddam Hussein, igniting the Middle East blood wipe up Kuwait oil facility the U.S.
today, the U.S. military said yesterday.
Two major Kuwaiti storage tanks also were ablaze.
Air Force 1st Lt. Casey Mahon, a representative for the U.S. military command in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, said aerial photography showed that oil wells and storage tanks had been blown up in southern Kuwait.
Word that Kuwaiti oil facilities were ablaze was an ominous development. In September, six weeks after Iraq seized Kuwait, Iraq had threatened to turn the region's oil into an inferno if it was challenged.
Army Lt. Col. Greg Pepin said oil storage tanks were on fire yesterday
More Scuds shot down
at two major facilities about 60 miles north of the border.
Oil industry executives in Bahrain, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the destruction could be part of an expected oil spill in an expected allied ground attack.
Pepin said, "Obviously, if there's heavy smoke, that's going to affect operations."
Oil prices surged yesterday on worldwide markets following reports that Iraq had damaged Kuwaiti oil facilities.
In Iraq, two more men identified as captive U.S. airmen were displayed on television and presumably will join the other prisoners of war who are being used as human shields at strategic sites.
NBC and CBS yesterday showed Iraqi television videotape of the two captured U.S. airmen. They were identified as Air Force Major Jeffrey Scott Tice and Capt. Harry Michael Roberts.
Two airmen by those names were listed by the Pentagon on Sunday as missing in action.
The United States filed complaints about the abuse of allied prisoners with the U.N. Security Council. But the United Nations has not taken
But the White House said it was too early to talk about compiling a list of potential war crimes charges against
Saddam because of his treatment of war prisoners.
U. S. fliers were heartened by the rescue of a downed pilot from Iraqi territory Monday.
During the nerve-rattling rescue operation, an Iraqi army truck headed directly toward the stranded airman, but the ground support attack jaws raked it with fire from their 30 mm Gatling guns.
Defense Department representative Pete Williams said Monday that
See OIL PRICES, Page 9
Obligation of citizens under fire Leary and Liddy utter sharp retorts By Benjamin W. Allen
Kansan staff writer
The debate was billed as a discussion of the tension between individual rights and the individual's obligations to society, but the barbs exchanged by the debaters changed the clash of personal philosophies.
Timothy Leary, icon of the counterculture and psychedelic drug movements, and G. Gordon Laddy, former government official convicted in the Watergate scandal, spoke to and fielded questions from a crowd of more than 1,000 last night at Hoch Auditorium.
Rachel Rutledge, Wichita freshman, said, "I'm here because I was raised by nee-hippies. . . I came to see someone from that movement and see what it means to me in the '90s."
When clarifying an audience member's question, Leary said, "Are you asking me if I still take it as fact? Are there any incident crewd cheered and applauded."
Throughout the debate, Leary pounded on his lectern to make his point that the rights of individuals were sacrosanct, and they were free to do whatever they wanted to with their bodies.
"I ift to babble and say things that aren't true, at least I have an excuse for it," he said. "I don't what your excuse is, Gordon."
Liddy said, "We will then seque into questions after Timothy's rebait, assuming he is capable of understanding what I am going to
Liddy and Leary traded reburrats to the other's statements before opening the debate to questions from the audience.
Liddy said that it was obvious that everyone was different, but it took communal efforts to accommodate him, so no right was inherently limitless.
He said that the ultimate test of right and wrong must be in the individual and that society must respect and respect each other, break the law for the common good.
Liddy raised boos and catcalls from the audience when he said the problem with education was that it spent too much time with African-American studies and women's studies and that there was an infestation called "PC*ness" on college students correctly attituded — on college campus.
Liddy said that he agreed totally with what the Bush administration was trying to do in Iraq.
"This is a situation where Iraq invaded its neighbor, Kuwait," he said. "We are in stop them there. What we are trying to do is learn from history."
Timothy Leary gives his opinion of the status quo during a debate with G. Gordon Liddy.
'This is a situation where Iraq invaded its neighbor, Kuwait. What we're trying to do is stop them there. What we're trying to do is learn from history.'
- G. Gordon Liddy
Liddy compared Saddam Hussein to Hitler by noting how each had grabbed territory with military force.
Leary said he was a humanitarian, and he was interested in the potential of the individual to learn how to become divine.
Mike McCoy, Topeka junior, said he could understand some of Liddy's points about mortality being personal, but he thought Liddy was wrong. "If I had to accept should accept the government's decisions about going to war.
He especially was concerned with the military mentality of the Bush administration and the U.S. involvement in the Persian Gulf.
"I pray for our servicemen and women in the gulf. I just pray we just ston this madness."
"There are three oxymonors:
military intelligence, religious tolerance and Islamic allies," Leary said.
G. Gordon Liddy presents his opinions on issues of the state.
"I suppose two men who are past their prime in their careers have nothing better to do," he said.
Tom Emerson, third-year law student, said it was a disappointing debate of First Amendment issues.
Reforms persist despite Baltic turmoil
MOSCOW — Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said yesterday that his reform policies would continue, and he rejected allegations that the military crackdown in the Baltic republics meant he was becoming a member.
The Associated Press
"Neither the internal nor the external policy has changed," he said, reading a prepared statement during the meeting of the meeting before Soviet and Western reporters.
Referring to the bloodshed in the Baltics that has left 20 people dead the past two weeks, Gorbachev
In his speech, Gorbachev said the deaths of civilians in military attacks in Lithuania and Latvia resulted from unconstitutional activities.
The statement was worded ambiguously. It appeared to criticize both the separatist Baltic parliaments, which he has said passed unconstitutional independence declarations, and Salvadoran Committees, which authorized armed military actions against the secessionist Baltic governments.
offered his first condolences to the families and all those touched by this calamity.
The Soviet president said his statement was designed to curb speculation that Soviet troop attacks in the Baltic republics of Latvia and Lithuania meant he was casting his lot with hard-liners.
"The crisis, the moral, political tension in the society, the events that brought victims, demand a direct and open conversation." he said.
The Soviet leader has said that the order to use force in Vilnius was issued by a local military commander, and that he learned of it afterward. He defended the crackdown in a speech to the Soviet legislature last
week, but he was more conciliatory yesterday.
The circumstances connected with the use of weapons must be closely investigated and evaluated according to the law," he said.
"The main thing I want to say is this: the events that happened in Vilnius and Riga in no way are an expression of the line of presidential power," he said, referring to the creation of the new post of president last year and subsequent laws strengthening the office.
More from Baltics Page 7
Finney's plan on budget gets mixed reviews
By Joe Gose
Kanean staff writer
TOPEKA. While Operation Desert Storm rages in full force halfway around the globe, another potential conflict is brewing here as the 1991 legislative session officially opens for business.
Gov. Joan Finney gave her state of the state address, yester day and formally introduced her controversial tax base broadening budget proposal to House and
Senate members. Gov. Finney
Finney said her proposal was designed to generate $644 million for the State General Fund and provide a property tax relief of $800 million by
In addition, she said that this money would fund the Margin of Excellence, highway and Social and Business and the state employees' pay plan.
To raise this money, Finney pro-
posed eliminating most existing sales
tax exemptions as the service
charges levied on savings account
holders. This would be more con-
tented in production. The current
4.25 percent rate will be applied
"Whatever merit might once have been attached to excluding these goods and services from sales tax has not withdrawn the test of time," she said. "The package restores security and fairness to our tax system."
But legislators worry that the tax will drive business from Kansas and question whether it is not just a tax increase.
"The important thing to analyze is who will be paying these new sales taxes because that really what the Fed Kenp, senate major leader,"
"We also have to be careful not to tax things in Kansas that other states don't tax, or it might lead to an increase in jobs and jobs from Kansas," he said.
"I'm pleased and relieved about her attitude toward the function of state government and particularly education," he said. "But it would be the biggest tax increase in history in the state of Kansas.
State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence, also took a cautious approach to Finney's proposal.
"The Margin is easy to fund with $700 million; it isn't easy with only $150 million. What if the Legislature agrees to only increase taxes by $550 per her first priority, be property tax relief? If it is, the Marzin's dead."
"I think KTEC is an excellent liaison between the higher education research community and the business community," he said. "It has helped bring in quite a bit of private money to the universities."
Winter also strongly objected to the elimination of the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation, a body that oversees high-tech business businesses in Kansas.
State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, was more philosophical about the coming session.
"Her budget will pass," he said.
"Every budget proposal submitted by a governor is a political document. She has to decide where to start us to get us substantially where she wants us.
KU officials applaud governor's proposals
By Eric Nelson
Finney voiced her support for the $23.7 million financing of the third and final year of the Margin of Excellence. She also released a pro-
gram highlighting the KU's budget from $250.3 million to $263 million for the 1992 fiscal year.
Kansan staff writer
The sentiment of KU officials was optimistic given the focus of education shown in Gov. Joan Finney's state of the state address yesterday.
In a released statement, Chancellor Gene A. Budig said, "Governor Finney's commitment to support the Margin of Excellence augurs well for the future."
The Margin of Excellence was the Board of Regents three-year plan to bring the total financing of its seven institutions to 95 percent of their peer schools and to bring faculty salaries to 100 percent of their peers. The Legislature financed the first two years but not the third.
By broadening the tax base, Finney hopes to generate $478.4 million dollars in revenue for the 1992 fiscal year and $664 million for 1993, she said in yesterday's address. The revenue generated would be used to finance property tax relief, the state highway program, some Social and Rehabilitation Services and the Marin.
Budig said the timeliness of Finney's remarks also was important to note.
"The Governor's expression of
belief in higher education comes at a time of fiscal restraint, which should give special encouragement to mem- berate the academic community" he said.
In her address, Finney stressed the importance of education at all levels for the future development of the state.
"Perhaps our best response to complex challenges and to remaining competitive in an increasingly complex environment, is educated citizenry." Finney said.
She said the resources available at the state universities should be utilized in achieving important economic and social changes
Budig agreed that Regents universities were important to the state and
"Our state cannot achieve its stated objectives without genuine strength at the University of Kansas or other Regents institutions," he said.
Frances Ingemann, SenEx chairperson, said that although she not yet heard the address, she was informed of Finery's emphasis on education
"Obviously we're pleased when anyone supports the University," she said.
Budig said it was necessary to see that Finney's plan was implemented.
"We now must work with the... Finney and members of the Legislature to see that her proposal for the Margin becomes reality," he said.