The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 21, 1984, Page 2, Image 2
digest
A a # m
World s largest drug raid
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Airborne Colombian police, in
the "largest drug raid ever in the world," raided a jungle
cocaine processing plant operating under Communist pro
tection and seized 12,500 kilos of cocaine, U.S. Am,
bassador Lewis Tambs said.
Tambs told reporters that the Colombian police, accompanied
by a U.S. Embassy observer, began the raid March
10 and arrested 40 people?including an American pilot?at
10 remote processing sites.
Tambs said the cocaine operation was under the protec- 1
tion of the armed wing of the Colombian Communist Par- '
ty, which U.S. officials called "the largest, oldest, bestequippe^
^st-trained and potentially most dangerous .
suoversiv ip in v^oiomma.
Tambs sai*. .me site contained 44 wooden structures and
five runways, some equipped with lights for night landings.
Seven aircraft, including two twin-engine planes and a
helicopter, also were seized, he said.
"It's the largest drug raid ever in the world," Tambs
said. "Never has anyone been found with that much
cocaine."
"It's the largest drug arrest ever by any standard?money
value, product, the amount seized," Tambs said.
By contrast, he said, a recent intensive crackdown on cocaine
smuggling by the U.S. Customs Service produced only
250 pounds of the drug.
Verdicts upset community
FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) ? As members of the Portugese
community vowed to protest the conviction of two
immigrants in a barroom gang rape, one of four others on
trial separately in the attack testified the woman "was willing
to do it with me, so I did it."
John Cordeiro, 24, on Monday acknowledged touching
the woman and attempting oral sex with her at Big Dan's
tavern in New Bedford, but claimed she instigated the sex
ual contact and was "enjoying herself."
"She never cried, not in my presence," Cordeiro said as
attorneys for him and co-defendant Victor Raposo closed
their cases.
The woman has testified thai she went to the bar for
cigarettes and a drink when she was dragged to the pool
table, held down screaming and raped while patrons
cheered.
Judge William Young told jurors that he expects closing
arguments today in the case against Cordeiro, Raposo and
Jose and Virgilio Medeiros, who are not related.
With the end of the trial nearing, and in the wake of
Saturday's conviction of Daniel Silva and Joseph Vieira, a
Portugese-American group has called for marches in two
cities to protest the guilty verdicts.
Alda Melo, a spokeswoman for the Committee For
justice said the erouD Dlans to staee a candlelieht march in
New Bedford tomorrow evening and hold a vigil near the
Fall River courthouse on Friday - the day Young is scheduled
to sentence Silva, 27, and Vieira, 28, for aggravated
rape.
Decision hurts news media
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court handed
the news media a double defeat yesterday by making nationally
distributed publications, and the people who work
for them, more tempting targets for libel lawsuits.
First tV?i? inctirpc rnlfH nnanimAiiclv that aMroct CUirlou
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Jones may sue a National Enquirer reporter and editor for
$20 million in her home state of California. She does not
have to pursue her lawsuit in Florida, where the newspaper
and its employees are based, the court said.
In a separate decision, the court ruled unanimously in a
case involving an $80 million libel suit against Hustler
magazine that people who sue a nationally distributed
publication may shop for the state offering them the most
favorable laws and filing deadlines.
The court refused to let publications and their employees
shield themselves behind the free-press rights contained in
the Constitution when trying to fend off libel suits because
of where they are filed.
"We reject the suggestion that First Amendment con
cerns enter into the jurisdictional analysis," said Justice
William Rehnquist, who wrote the court's two opinions.
lUSC today
STUDENT SENATE - meets at 5:30 p.m. in Caicott auditorium.
nor _i - ??: _ -r _ _ l n . ... .1 r? r
I Pfiac9#u.&. ? UuU piays Virginia lecn m j p.m. m oarye rrye ,
Field.
TENNIS -USC's men's team plays. Louisville at 2 p.m. \
*
SPUR - The Swimming Pool Q's perform at 9 p.m. with $2.50
admission charge.
HEARING - Public hearing on parking near USC to ir held at
9:30 p.m. at Columbia City Mall.
- t - - - - , t
TV . It |
Visit to strengt
PARIS fAP) ? President Francois
Mitterrand begins an eight-day state
visit to the United States today to
strengthen an "old and solid friendship"
which, despite numerous differences,
has been at its warmest in recent
months.
France's Socialist leader has made
four trips to the United States since his
election three years ago and has met
President Ronald Reagan six times.
Rut thic u/ill hp thp first ?tatp visit hv a
French president since conservative
President Valery Giscard d'Estaing's
trip in 1976.
Ironically, ties between the two nations
have strengthened under the
leadership of two men at different
ends of the political spectrum.
Monkey business |||jjff!
Five-year-old Emily McCrary en- ' 5t
joys the warm weather by climbing t
a tree at her Columbia home. r
Barnwell nuclc
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The issue
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nuclear reprocessing plant is too sensitive
politically to settle before the upcoming
presidential election, owners
vii inw lauuijr oay
A top official of Allied General
Nuclear Services, a consortium that
owns the $500 million mothballed
facility, said any lobbying effort in
Congress or the Reagan administration
to save the plant will be delayed until
after the election.
Jim Rur.kham. nresirient of thf* rnn.
sortium, said the issues surrounding
the future of the Barnwell plant are so
"politically sensitive" that the Reagan
administration has expressed no immediate
interest in discussing the
plant's revival.
Late this past year, the owners of the
plant and the California-based Bechtel
Corp. submitted a proposal to the
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paved the way for the sale of the facility
and its eventual operation.
BUT BUCKHAM said the deal
poses too many political risks to tackle
before the election.
"Nobody formally admits it, but I
?
hen friendshi|
Mitterrand has nationalized mucl
of French industry and has four Com
munist ministers in his 43-membe
cabinet. His proposal to tightei
government control over Romai
Catholic schools has sent more than
million protestors into France'
streets.
All this is in contrast to Presider
Reagan's crusade against governmer
interference in private enterprise, hi
repeated attacks on Communism an
his campaign to legalize prayer i
public schools.
However, Mitterrand's untailin
support for the deployment of U.5
cruise and Pershing 2 missiles i
Western Europe has bridged th
ideological differences and warme
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think we can all surmise (that) frc
some ways of looking at it, i
politically sensitive/' Buckham said
4,I don't think anybody really wai
to do anything in an election year
confuse?everything," he added.
pnil Keith, a spokesman for t
federal Department of Energy, se
Monday the AGNS proposal is "si
on hold" in his agency. Keith said
did not know when a decision woi
be made.
BECHTEL, AN internation
energy consulting and constructs
operation, has offered to buy t
Barnwell plant in exchange for fede
guarantees that would assure the fii
of a market for the plant's nuclear pi
ducts, according to Allied General a
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v.. k.a.VIIV V/I 1 IV1UIO.
If the administration agreed to
along with the guarantees, Buckh*
said the way would be cleared for I
plant to begin reprocessing nucl<
fuel. That would involve hu
shipments of spent nuclear fuel bei
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refashioning into plutonium fuel !
shipment out of state.
The total outlay by Bechtel if I
p, leader savs
m
h relations between the White House
and the Elysee Palace.
r His missile stand has also overn
shadowed differences about high U.S.
n interest rates, the strong dollar, East1
West trade and Washington's policies
s in Central America.
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it race for progress and in collaboration
it with the United States," said pre. idenis
tial spokesman Michel Vauzelle.
d "France is determined to make an
n old and solid friendship with
Washington more effective by renewg
ed cooperation and the opening of new
>. perspectives" in economic, scientific
n and cultural areas, he said,
le No headline-making agreement is
d expected to emerge from the visit.
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Photo by Bryant Smith
sitive issue
>m deal were approved, said Buckham,
t's would be about $800 million in a purchase
price and future revisions to the
us piani.
to The assurance that Bechtel is seeking
from the administration, according to
he Allied General and energy department
lid officials, would involve the federal
till government turning over to the Barnhe
well plant spent fuel rods from nuclear
ild power reactors that the government
will take control of under the Nuclear
Waste Policy Act of 1982.
\ o I
on THE RODS, considered nuclear
he waste, will fall under federal control
ral for permanent burial at high-level
rm nuclear waste dump.
o- Under the Bechtel proposal, said
nd Buckham, the rods would be delivered
to the Barnwell plant for reprocessing
go into plutonium fuel that [would be sold
im to the government for resale to lighthe
water reactor operators and for use in
jar the federal breeder reactor program.
ge ALTHOUGH THE plant was virng
tually completed, it never opened for
for reprocessing operations because of a
for 1977 presidential moratorium on commercial
reprocessing issued by Preside
dent Carter.