Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Tht (Bamccock Panel says UN needs maj or overhaul by Edith M. Lederer Associated Press UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations will face more peacekeeping failures in the 21st century without a major overhaul, according to an inter national panel that called Wednesday for the equivalent of a U.N. ministry of de fense to bolster the world body. The panel of experts was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to look at U.N. peacekeeping operations after highly critical reports on the U.N. performance in the 1994 Rwanda geno cide and the 1995 fall of the U.N.-pro tected enclave of Srebrenica, which led to the massacre of thousands of Bosn ian Muslims. The 10-member panel did not en dorse a United Nations army, but it did encourage the 188 U.N. member states to form several brigade-size forces of 5,000 troops each that could deploy in 30 to 90 days, depending on the com plexity of the U.N. peacekeeping oper ation. The United Nations must have “the tools” to address any conflict situation — from prevention to actual enforce ment — and at the moment it doesn’t have the headquarters staff, the troops, money, or the information to properly analyze and plan strategically, said for mer Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahinii, who chaired the panel. The 58-page report called for a sub stantially laiger, modernized, high-tech U.N. peacekeeping department in New York staffed by well-trained military professionals who use information tech nology and plan operations with a U.N. team including political, human rights, development and election experts. It did not give a price tag. At the moment, the panel said, just 32 officers at U.N. headquarters are re sponsible for 27,000 U.N. troops from 20 countries scattered across the globe in 14 peacekeeping operations—a staff that no national government would tol erate. Similarly, it said, more than 8,600 civilian police are deployed in U.N. mis sions with a headquarters staff of only nine civilian police. The report said the need for changes in U.N. peace operations has become even more urgent following the hostage taking of 500 U.N. peacekeepers by rebels in Sierra Leone in May, and the prospect of expanded U.N. peacekeep ing operations in Congo. Annan asked the panel to make rec ommendations to improve prospects for peace in the 21 st century, which he wants world leaders to consider at the upcoming Sept. 6-8 Millennium Summit at U.N. headquarters in New York. ft Fires close more land in Montana I by Susan Gallagher Associated Press HELENA, Mont. — Weather threat ened to give a boost Wednesday to wild fires in Montana as federal authorities closed an additional 1.3 million acres of land in the state. Crews braced for another blowup by a fire that already had blackened 75,000 to 80,000 acres near Townsend, disrupted highway traffic and knocked out a ma jor power line that stretches across Mon tana 10 the West Coast. Humidity was extremely low Wednesday, and wind and dry lightning were forecast for the region. “Today's fire behavior could be sim ilar or worse than yesterday's,” said Amy Teegarden, information officer for the fire near Townsend. I That fire made a run Tuesday along d.S. 12, closing the highway during the night. It also burned underneath Montana Power Co.'s twin 500-kilovolt power lines that run from Colstrip in south eastern Montana to the Pacific North west, shutting them down for several hours. The lines were not damaged but ap parently just tripped offline, said utility spokesman Cort Freeman. The same lines were damaged b> smoke and soot from the same fire Fri day, and before that they were damaged by a fire near Boulder, south of Hele na. The Federal Bureau of Land Man agement’s decision to close more land to the public Tuesday followed orders last week shutting off access to some 6 million to 8 million acres of state, fed eral, tribal and private land in western Montana. The BLM shutdown extends to tfie east. Forest Service spokesman Ed Nes selroad said that agency also was prepar ing to shut more of its Montana land, and Gov. Marc Racicot was considering a recommendation to keep people off of state land in 16 counties from Wyoming to the Canadian border. On Wednesday, Montana had 27 large fires on nearly 630,000 acres, the Na tional Interagency Fire Center in Ida ho reported. More than a third of the blackened land was in the Bitterroot Val ley. Nationwide, there were 79 large fires burning in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, the fire cen ter said. Those blazes had already blackened more than 1.4 million acres. The agency said wildfires have burned nearly 5.8 million acres this year, or about 8,900 square miles, approximately the land size of New Hampshire. Meanwhile, in the Bitterroot Valley of southwestern Montana, officials said Tuesday that the fires have damaged or destroyed 210 buildings—including 65 homes, trailers or cabins — and about 75 vehicles. “These figures will continue to change" as firefighters get into additional areas burned, said Leanne Marten of the U.S. Forest Service. More than a third of the blackened land in Montana is in the Bitterroot Val ley. In California, residents of three com munities near the Plumas National Forest were uiged to evacuate as a pre caution. The fire, 70 miles north of Sacra mento, had grown to 26,000 acres Wednesday and fire officials warned that hot, dry weather was forecast. Investigators said the fire was likely started by railroad maintenance crews. Officials in Idaho worried about los ing help as many college students fighting fires return to class. Twenty-sev en laige fires are burning almost 629,000 acres in the state. In Wyoming, a blaze that closed a major route into Yellowstone National Park for four days was 20 percent con tained. --J--— Crews braced for another blowup by a fire that already had blackened 75,000 to 80,000 acres near Townsend, disrupted highway traffic and knocked out a major power line that stretches across Montana to the West Coast. Fuel-tank explosion downed TWA jet, according to NTSB by Randolph Schmid • Associated Press WASHINGTON — Investigators seek ing the cause of the fuel tank explosion that downed TWA Flight 800 focused, on aging aircraft Wfednesday and the prob lems that can accumulate in those com plex machines. “The longer an airplane is around, the more changes and modifications it needs,” said Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. He said it is not clear the industry is pay ing enough attention to these problems. His comments came as the board was concluding a two-day hearing into the July 17,19%, crash off the coast of New York’s Long Island that killed all 230 aboard. Board investigators said Tuesday they reached the “inescapable conclusion” that the wirig center fiael tank of the plane * exploded, probably because of an elec trical short circuit. In the years since the crash, specu i .* .i _ _i_j r_ ldUUll uu uiw uiux- iuu uu^ui uwin mam tenance problems to a bomb and even reports of lights in the sky that some wit i nesses thought could have been a mis sile. The Federal Aviation Administra tion and the aviation industry have launched aging aircraft programs to study the needs of older planes and how to deal with them. TWA Flight 800, bound from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport for Paris, was a 25-year-old Boeing 747. Board member John J. Goglia, a for mer aviation mechanic, stressed that the mere age of an aircraft does not mean it’s not safe. “A properly maintained air plane can last forever,” he said. Robert Swaim of the board’s avia tion engineering division said, however, that inspections of a number of com mercial aircraft showed increasing prob lems as the planes got older. Swaim said that although a solid body of circumstantial evidence points to an electrical short as the cause of the ex plosion, insufficient wire was recovered to know for sure. He added that the in vestigation led to discovery of damaged wiring in other older planes. “We looked at other planes from other carriers and other countries,”' Swaim said. Inspectors found worn in sulation, improper wiring repairs, opened splices that should have been sealed and - tint on circuit breakers. In some cases, he added, wiring had been damaged by chemicals such as anti-corrosion spray and overflow from lavatories. Wiring checks in 25 airlines—some old, some new — found that “all had some kind of foreign material except for one new 737,” Swaim said. Bernard Loeb, aviation safety di rector for NTSB, cautioned that inves tigators were no't saying the problem had reached the level of planes being unsafe. “We found problems and they need to be addressed,” he said. Joseph Lychner of Houston, Texas who lost his wife, Pam, a former TW\ flight attendant, and his two young daugh ters, Shannon and Katie, found little com fort at the hearing. “The presentation by the NTSB has been excellent but there have been no surprises. The center fuel tank blew up and killed my family, and the loved ones of the other family members. That is not supposed to happen, is it?” Lychner said. Michel BreistrofF from Paris, whose son Michel, 24, had been about to join the French Olympic hockey team, he is not convinced the plane was brought down by a mechanical problem. He said he had lingering doubts about a missile or some other non-mechanical means. “They have been explaining to me but inside my head I don’t fully be lieve what they are saying. I wish I could be convinced so I could be free,” BreistrofF said. Gore from page A8 whether Gore lied about whether he knew that a campaign event at a Buddhist tem $ 'e in California was a fund-raiser. That event has led to convictions of others on charges that the true donors were concealed. But Reno went to lengths to praise Conrad, saying “he is one per son who deserves a great deal of credit for the success” of the investigation. “I am impressed with his judgment ... and his knowledge of the law. He is an excellent prosecutor,” she said. A government official, requesting anonymity, said Conrad was the only pros ecutor in the department who recom mended a special counsel. Reno denied, however, that that Conrad was the lone voice in the Justice Department advo cating a special counsel. She said two oth er advisers had recommended a special counsel, but would not identify them l • name or job. Officials said FBI Director Louis Freeh made a recommendation, and Reno said Freeh is consulted on all matters involv ing the FBI. Freeh has consistently ad vocated an outside counsel for several years to handle the campaign finance in vestigation, and no official said his views had changed. 1 here will always oe disagreements among lawyers,” Reno said, “but I can tell you my regard for Bob Conrad has only increased as I have dealt with him on this issue.” When word got out in late June that Conrad was recommending an outside counsel, Gore immediately re used the 123-page transcript of his in T,rview. In that session, he wrestled with the definition of “fund raising” and in sisted there was no price tag on White House coffees with party supporters. After Reno’s announcement Wednes day, Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush issued a statement say ing: “While it’s clear that A1 Gore en gaged in a number of questionable fund-raising activities and gave the FBI statements that continue to raise the is sue of his credibility, the American people are sick and tired of all these scan dals and investigations. The best way to put all these scandals and investigations behind us is to elect someone new.” Reno said the-investigation will con tinue, adding that “we should be en ^i iraging candid, vigorous internal dis * ision as we determine how to proceed.” She lamented leaks of preliminary rec t ommendations in such probes, saying that “is not fair to those involved and it un dermines the fairness and credibility” of the undertaking. “I’ve carefully reviewed the tran scripts of the vice president’s interview (with investigators),” she said. “Because further investigation is not likely to re sult in a prosecutable case ... I have concluded that a special counsel is not warranted. The transcripts reflect neither false statements nor perjury.” In the earlier decisions, at least one of Reno’s senior Justice Department aides had dissented from her conclusions. The vice president has repeatedly maintained that he didn’t know he was attending a fund-raiser when he visited the California temple where $60,000 in illegal donations were funneled to the Democratic National Committee during the Clinton-Gore re-election cam paign. In June, Gore released the tran script of his April 18 interview with Con rad after word of Conrad’s recommendation was disclosed to the press by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. “You were aware in late February, were you not, that there was a goal of raising $108 million by the DNC?” Con - rad asked Gore. “Yes,” the vice president replied. “Then a couple of months later there is a DNC-sponsored event at the tem ple and it didn’t raise any fund-raising is sues in your mind?” “I did not know this was a fund-rais er,” Gore answered. “And I do not to this day know that it was a fund-raiser.” Gore also testified, “I sure as hell don’t recall having — I sure as hell did not have any conversations with anyone saying this is a fund-raising event. As to whether or not I had any follow-up con versations that said, were we able to set up this event or not, I don’t think I did. But I may have.” Conrad also confront ed Gore with an e-mail exchange with an aide in which Gore referred to a fund raiser in Los Angeles on April 29, the same day as the temple event. “It appears that, from this e-mail, that she has told me in this e-mail that we’ve confirmed the fund-raisers for Monday, April 29,” Gore also acknowledged deal ing with the White House coffees that both President Clinton and Gore hosted for big-money donors. -—-1 Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships A workshop will be held Monday, August 28,4 p.m. Gressette Room in Harper College USC faculty members will explain the similarities and differences between these two prestigious awards and outline the application process in order to help you decide if applying for either or both awards is right for you. Both offer study abroad at British Universities. 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