12
Tuesday, December 6, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
The Associated Press
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — PLO chairman Yasser Arafat is to meet a group of prominent U.S. Jews today, a Foreign Ministry spokesman announced.
Members of the group asked that their names remain secret until after the talks with the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the spokesman, Martin Hall-qvist.
"They represent a significant part of Jewish opinion in the United States." Halliwell said.
The Foreign Ministry said the meeting was part of Sweden's effort to help the peace process in the Middle East.
A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy said the Foreign Ministry had informed the mission of the planned meeting shortly before the announcement was made. Hallquist said the meeting was planned two weeks ago when Khaled Hassan, the chairman of the PLO foreign affairs committee, met representatives of a Jewish group in Stockholm.
In Paris, Sweden's Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson said he was cutting
short his visit to France and canceling a meeting with President Francois Mittertler to be in Sweden for the Arafat visit.
"This is a meeting between two parties which have had difficulties talking or in communication. The Swedish government has been able to help them to meet," Carlson said.
Israeli officials refused to meet members of the PLO, which they say is a terrorist organization, and they are being held in U.S. Jews from holding such talks.
In Jerusalem, a Foreign Ministry statement said Israel "expressed sugestion that Arafat would be received by high-ranking Swedish officials, and warned it would be sent back home. He went ahead. It voiced "astonishment" over the likely meeting with U.S. Jews.
Swedish Foreign Minister Sten Andersson has condemned Secretary of State George Shultz's decision to deny Arafat a U.S. entry visa so he could address the U.N. General Assembly during its debate on Palestine.
The Associated Press
Grand jury indicts Bakker, aide Charges are mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — PTL founder Jim Bakker, forced to quit his multimillion-dollar television ministry after admitting a sexual encounter with a church secretary, was indicted Monday along with three former aides on charges of fraud and tax evasion.
a second, 11-count indictment charged David Taggart and his brother, James, with tax evasion and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service in the collection of taxes. David Taggart is former PTL vice president and special assistant to Bakker, and James is a former interior designer for PTL.
U. S. Attorney Thomas Asheraft declined to comment or say whether other indictments were possible. "There has been too much publicity on this already and we don't want any
A federal grand jury charged Bakker, 48, and former aide Richard Dorch, 57, with mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the public in a 24-count indictment. The charge of defrauding the public stems from the sale of lifetime partnerships in the ministry's Heritage Village theme park in Fort Mill, S.C., south of Charlotte.
If convicted, they could face up to five years in prison and $250,000 fines on each count. Bakker's wife, Tammy, also a target of the grand jury, was not indicted.
The defendants were ordered to appear in federal court Dec. 15.
The Bakkers founded their ministry as Trinity Broadcasting in 1972. Through the show "The PTL Club," which combined a talk-show format with evangelism, Bakker became one of the country's most popular television evangelists and the head of a multimillion-dollar organization.
But he resigned from PTL in March 1987 after admitting money was paid to buy the silence of former church secretary Jessica Hahn about a bombing that killed six people in the room model. The payment totaled $363,700.
more," he said.
re admitted the tryst with Hahn but denied her charge that she was an unwilling participant, as well as other charges that quickly surfaced, including financial mismanagement and homosexual encounters.
Bakker's Pentecostal denomination, the Assemblies of God, dismissed him and Dortch in May 1987, and in June, PTL filed for protection under federal bankruptcy laws.
Hahn was one of the first witnesses called to testify before the grand jury, which began work in August 1867. Former U.S. Postal Service employees also testified behind closed doors before the panel.
Monday's indictment alleged Bakker and
Dortch divert PTL funds for their own use.
Bakker and his wife were given bonuses totaling nearly $3.5 million and Dortch obtained bonuses totaling $550,000, the indictment said.
The indictment also accused Dortch of authorizing a payment of $265,000 to Hahn, saying that he asked a contractor to supply the funds. The contractor, Roe Messner, was instructed to get his money back by overbilling PTL by the same amount by inflating construction costs on a PTL project., the indictment said.
The indictment charged that in 1984, Bakker announced the sale of lifetime memberships for the purpose of financing construction of a large hotel at Heritage USA. More than 152,000 fully paid partnerships were sold, producing at least $158 million in revenue, the indictment said.
The indictment alleged that Bakker and Dortch made false statements to induce people to buy partnerships and that the partner funds the contractor to install the lodging facilities that were promised.
At the same time, Bakker and Dorch were concealing the true financial condition of PTL from the ministry's board of directors, the indictment said.
The Taggarts were accused of diverting $1.1 million in PTL funds to pay personal bills and expenses while failing to report the funds as income on their 1983 through 1987 tax returns
Ortega cancels out Visas and restrictions pose problems
Ortega said he had been planning to fly to New York to discuss the latest Central American peace initiatives, but he also wanted for his hurricane battered country.
The Associated Press
"The United States has violated international norms and its promises to the United Nations and has broken the treaties." Ortega told a news conference.
MEXICO CITY — Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega canceled a trip to the United Nations yesterday, saying the United States had placed unacceptable restrictions on his travel and on the size of his party.
U. S. officials noted that the United States had issued expedited visas for Ortega, his wife, his son, and 15 other Nicaraguaners. The United States did not subdue 4 subjugated people because they were not submitted 15 days before the trip.
"Now we guaranteed his right to
come to the United Nations, but we did not guarantee his right to bring unlimited numbers of people with him, nor did we guarantee his right to keep us out of the United States," said Vernon Wailers, U.S., ambassador to the United Nations.
He said the United States had no right to decide "when, how and with whom a chief of state can visit an international organization like the United Nations."
Ortega said he had hoped to describe the extensive damage done in Nicaragua by Hurricane Joan in October and plead for international help.
Ortega said the United States limited his travels to four boroughs of New York City, which he would prevent him from visiting the home of the Nicaraguan ambassador to the United Nations, who lives outside that area.
Israeli president calls for coalition
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Israel's president gave Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir another three weeks to form a government, urging him yesterday to forge a coalition with the Labor party and reform a complex system that has produced two statalemated elections.
President Chaim Herzog sai Israel's political parties are bargaining for position while political and economic problems approach crisis proportions.
39.
His appeal for national unity came after three weeks of political jockeying by Shamir's rightful Likibl bloc, the rival center-left Labor Party of major Minister Shimon Poros and ultra-orthodox religious parties.
Shamir and Peres have been equal partners in a "national unity" since inconclusive 1984 elections, and traded jobs two years ago. In the Nov. 1. elections, Likud won 40 of the 121 parliament seats and Labor got
Hierzog also invited Peres to a breakfast meeting Tuesday in an attempt to convince Labor to join a government with Likud.
Speaking at the ceremony at his residence, Herzog said the new government should change Israel's electoral system, which resulted in parliament seats for 15 parties Nov. 1 but left no party with a majority.
"There is no parallel in the democratic world for our odd and inconprehensible system." Herzog said
"I believe that I speak for the great majority of Israel's people when I express a sense of instruction, help and guidance and shame, as well as grave concern."
He recommended another Likud-Labor coalition, although Shamir has been edging in recent days toward a narrow government with small right-wing and Orthodox factions. Religious parties won a total of 18 seats in the Knesset, Israel's parliament.
Official denies compact between U.S. and Israel
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Reagan's chief spokesman Monday denied a claim that a secret U.S.-Israeli agreement existed that authorized covert counterterrorist operations by the two governments.
"There is no document or umbrella agreement that authorizes those kinds of things," spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said when asked about statements attributed to Amiram Nir, a former Israeli official who died in a plane crash in Mexico last week.
Nir, who had been linked to the Iran-Contra affair, said in June
that a compact allowed such covert operations, which he said he supervised with then-National Security Council aide Oliver North, the Washington Post reported in Sunday's editions.
North has been charged with a variety of offenses related to the clandestine sales of U.S. arms to Iran in 1985-86 and with the contrabands to the contra rebels in Nicaragua. He is scheduled to go on trial in late January.
Nir told the Post last summer that the agreement authorized strict operations that he and North supervised in 1985-86, the newspaper said.
One computer every student can afford
Win me free
Demonstration Pal is engine for the drawing.
Getting this machine at our special student discount will make you feel like a winner, even if you're not. This Model 25 is packed with a big 640 Kb memory, advanced graphic capabilities, a mouse, and lots of software, including Microsoft Windows 1.04, Write, Paint, Cardfile and IBM DOS 3.3.
With exams only one week away, you can put the IBM Personal System/2 Model 25 to the test. You can also test your luck at winning one. Because every qualified student who attends a PS/2 Demonstration Fair is eligible for the drawing.
So Give the Model 25 a close examination during IBM's "KU PS/2 Campus Sale" days. It's one exam you can't afford to miss.
Entry blanks for the drawing, limited to one entry per qualified KU student, are available at the Jayhawk Bookstore. Drawing will be at the University of Kansas on December 6, 1988 at 3:00 pm in front of the Jayhawk Bookstore. See entry blank for details.
Textbook buyback begins next week!
Sell your used books to us at either location... The gallery on level four of the Kansas Union, or at our Burge Union Store. Come in between December 12th and the 23rd for the best prices possible. You'll also receive a coupon to help you with your holiday shopping. Buyback hours are: Monday-Friday 8:30a.m.-5:00p.m. Saturday 10:00a.m.-4:00p.m. Sunday Noon-3:00p.m. (Sunday-Kansas Union Location Only)