The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 14, 2001, Page 3, Image 3
Civilian was at controls
during sub’s fatal ascent
by Robert Burns
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A civilian guest
aboard the USS Greeneville was seat
ed at a helm position at the time the sub
marine sank a Japanese fishing vessel off
the coast of Hawaii, a defense official
said Tuesday.
However, there is no indication the
civilian played any role in the collision
Friday, said the official, who is familiar
with the investigation and spoke only
on condition of anonymity.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm.
Craig Quigley declined to discuss the
matter, saying no information about the
circumstances at the time of the acci
dent would be released until the Navy
has completed its investigation.
The National Transportation Safe
ty Board also is investigating.
The Pentagon said Tuesday that it
has not given up searching for nine peo
ple missing from the Japanese vessel, a
190-foot ship owned by Uwajima
Fisheries High School in southwestern
Japan. Twenty-six people were rescued
at sea an hour after the vessel was
rammed by the 360-foot submarine and
sank in 1,800 feet of water.
Investigators said they would begin
interviewing submarine crew members
and checking its sonar, periscope and an
anti-collision device. They want to know
whether everything was working before
the collision.
Japan has asked the United States to
salvage the sunken fisliing boat. The U.S.
Navy sent a submersible underwater de
vice equipped with sonar and video cam
eras to see whether that was possible.
Navy spokesman Cmd. Greg Smith
declined to comment on the Greeneville
incident but said civilians are routinely
allowed aboard U.S. submarines and it
would not be unusual for one to be at
one of the sub’s three main control
positions.
In any case, a civilian seated at a con
trol position would have a qualified
helmsman beside him or her in case
something went wrong.
“The civilian is not in control of any
actions that were not ordered by the
commanding officer,” Smith said.
*
The position occupied by a civilian
aboard the Greeneville would control
the submarine’s heading and angle,
one official said. The Greeneville was
conducting a drill in which the subma
rine dives to about 400 feet and then
makes a rapid ascent — known as an
“emergency main ballast blow.”
Normally, the sub’s commander
would ensure that no objects are in the
way before rocketing to the surface, but
the Greeneville somehow failed to de
tect the presence of the fishing vessel.
The Navy has declined to release
the identities of the 16 civilians report
ed to have been aboard the Greeneville.
It takes civilians aboard its sliips and sub
marines as a means of promoting its ser
vice, educating civilians about the Navy’s
missions and capabilities.
Quigley said the civilians, described
by another official as local community
and business leaders, had requested that
the Navy not reveal their identities. He
indicated that they are not members of
Congress, though politicians and jour
nalistic among those routinely taken
on brief submarine excursions.
U.S. troops locate, destroy
cocaine labs in Colombia
by Andrew Selsky
Associated Press
LA ESPERANZA, Colombia —
Buoyed by unexpected success in fu
migating coca crops, a U.S.-financed of
fensive is targeting clandestine jungle
labs in search-and-destroy missions in
the heart of the world’s main cocaine
producing region.
Colombian army troops, trained by
Green Berets and guided by spy-plane
and satellite technology, have had only
light skirmishes with leftist rebels and
rival right-wing paramilitary gunmen
who earn millions of dollars from “tax
ing” the cocaine industry in southern
Colombia.
U.S. officials say it is too early to
declare victoiy, but the Colombian com
mander of the operations says rebel vows
to combat the offensive have proved
empty.
'‘We had expected tough fights when
we went into these places. We thought
they would shoot down our helicopters
and planes. But the engagements have
been routine,” Colombian army Gen.
Mario Montoya told reporters Monday
at Tres Esquinas army base, where U.S.
intelligence experts interpret satellite
imagery for mission planning.
Montoya then flew into the war
zone to direct the demolition of a lab
that produced millions of dollars worth
of cocaine. After showing journalists the
lab — hidden in a stand of jungle growth
and containing packages of purified co
caine, processing chemicals, microwave
ovens and an electrical generator —
Montoya’s men placed explosive charges
inside it and retreated into the middle
of a coca field. *
“One, two, three!” Montoya called
out. At three, a soldier pressed a deto
nator, triggering a deafening explosion
that enveloped the drug lab in a fireball.
It sent a column of black smoke into the
air, where helicopter gunships circled
overhead like raptors seeking prey.
Rebels of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had over
seen the operation of the lab, which was
capable of refining 2,200 pounds of co
caine per week, Montoya said. But the
guerrillas were nowhere to be seen as
the heavily armed government soldiers,
their faces smeared with camouflage
paint, conducted sweeps into the sur
rounding jungle. One discovered a stash
of 1,100 pounds of “coca paste,” or un
refined cocaine.
Three men were arrested when the
troops first arrived.
Montoya strode through the coca
field, M-16 assault rifle in hand, bark
ing orders to his troops. After destroy
ing die lab, die chemicals and coca paste,
Montoya boarded a helicopter and took
off for the Tres Esquinas base.
“I am convinced that the military
capacity of the FARC is what we have
seen,” Montoya told reporters of the
rebel response to the counterdrug of
fensive, which began on Dec. 19 and has
resulted in the aerial fumigation of some
72,000 acres of coca, according to
Colombian and U.S. officials.
Couples engage in nude nuptials
by Matt Rosenberg
Associated Press
RUNAWAY BAY, Jamaica -
When you get married in die nude, where
does the best man keep the wedding
ring?
That question will be answered, and
little else will be left to the imagination
Wednesday when 11 couples tie die knot
in the buff on Valentine’s Day.
“We’re nudists because we’re com
fortable nude, so why not get married
the way we’re most comfortable?” said
Paige DeBell, a 34-year-old artist from
Hamburg, N.J., who will get married at
Hedonism III — a Jamaican resort
known for its wild ways.
The nuptials have sparked protests
from cleigy and the government, but
the weddings also highlight the growth
of a burgeoning nude travel industry, es
timated at $300 million a year world
wide. The amount is triple what it was
a decade ago, says the Trade Association
of Nude Recreation of Los Gatos, Calif.
“In the last five, maybe 10 years, it’s
become a very organized industry,” said
Donna Daniels, a nudist and owner of
Houston-based Castaways Travel, a com
pany specializing in “clothing-option
al” vacations. “This used to be a word
of mouth thing.”
Daniels, who also runs a more con
ventional travel company, stumbled in
to the nude travel business through a
chance encounter witli'a businessman
at a chamber of commerce meeting.
The man — whom she declined to
identify — came by her office a few days
later and politely inquired about nude
^travel options.
“I said come on in the back room... each trip averaging $3,000.
I started rattling off tilings with him and Over the past 30 years, the options
liis eyes just got as big as silver dollars, for American nudists have continued to
and I realized as I was talking with him grow. Their European counterparts have
(that) our hobby information might be traditionally had it much easier because
valuable,” she said. of relaxed laws on public nudity.
In 1995, the first full year Castaways And what do the couple’s families
was up and ninning, the company booked think about their nude nuptials?
around 200 nude vacations. In 2000, the Tliey’re “totally cool,” says DeBell’s
number jumped to around 5,000, with fiance, Ronald Sissman, 48.
‘Kournikova’ virus
slams U.S., Europe
■ Expecting a picture of a teenage
tennis star, eager computer users
download a self-replicating virus
by Regan Morris
Associated Press
SINGAPORE — Asia has back
handed the Anna Koumikova Comput
er virus.
With a day to prepare, companies
in Asia were ready Tuesday for the e
mail clogging virus that promised to de
liver an electronic photo of the blonde,
teenage tennis star. The virus failed to
infect as many computers as it did in
Europe and the United States.
Australia was hit hardest, with an
estimated 100,000 computers infected
by the e-mail. However, other govern
ments ill Asia reported little-or no im
pact.
“It was much worse in the U.S. be
cause by the time Asia came to work,
major companies had cleaned up the
systems,” said John De Riso, Taiwan
spokesman for California-based Trend
Micro.
The latest virus comes as an e-mail
attachment named “AnnaKourniko
va.jpg.vbs” and carries the message “Hi:
Check This!”
When the user clicks on the at
tachment, the virus is released, worm
ing its way into address books and send
ing itself to everyone on die list, clogging
e-mail servers.
The e-mail does not actually con
tain a photo of the tennis star.
The Anna bug originated in the
Netherlands, said Ben Guthrie,
spokesman for the antivirus company
Symantec Corp.
Security experts say die virus writer
is known as “OnTheFly” and used script
tools that allow anyone with minimal
programming skills to generate a virus.
I
On Tuesday, a person who goes by
“OnTheFly” posted a claim of respon
sibility, saying the vims was released as
a wanting to Internet users who are lax
about security.
“I never wanted to harm the peo
ple (who) opened the attachment,” the
person wrote. “But after all: it’s their
own fault they got infected.”
Though the message appeared au
thentic, there was no way to verify the
claim.
In the United States, the virus
slowed down e-mail systems and forced
Some companies to shut down their e
mail altogether wliile they cleaned out
the rogue program. Security experts
said the virus does not permanently '
damage computers.
uiaiuuii vauiey, senior tecnnoiogy
consultant at Sophos Anti-Virus Inc.,
said the virus writer skillfully exploit
• ed Koumikova’s sex appeal and “the
average fantasy of the guy who sits in
front of the computer terminal.”
“It is the laigest outbreak since the
Love Bug,” said Allan Bell, a spokesman
in Hong Kong for antivirus Company
Network Associates.
The Love Bug virus, released May
4 in the Philippines, overwhelmed e
niail systems worldwide and caused tens
of millions of dollars in damage.
McAfee’s World Virus Map, a Web
site that tracks infected computers, said
California was most infected by the
Koumikova virus, and Asia and Africa
were the least infected regions.
“Our computers are still working,”
said Maggie Tan of Singapore’s Char
tered Semiconductors. “We had been
warned not to open that file.”
World Briefs
■ One month after
major quake, new
tremor kills dozens
SAN VICENTE, El Salvador
(AP) — A powerful earthquake shook
El Salvador Tuesday, toppling hundreds
of buildings and killing at least 70 peo
ple. More than 800 people died in an '
even stronger quake exactly one
month ago. The quake flattened much
of the heart of San Vicente, 35 miles
east of San Salvador, and damaged
most of the homes and buildings in
four surrounding towns. Government
emergency services put the national
death toll at 70, with 200 injured and
hundreds — perhaps thousands — left
homeless. The earthquake struck at
8:25 a.m. and was centered halfway
between San Vicente and San Salvador.
■ U.S. marshals
seize Indiana church
after 91-day standoff
INDIANAPOUS (AP) — A church
that challenged the authority of the
IRS was seized by the government
Tuesday to satisfy a $6 million tax
debt, with federal marshals wheeling
the former pastor out on a gurney as
he prayed in protest. “I pray for you
that God will forgive you!” shouted
the Rev. Greg J. Dixon, pastor emeri
tus of the Indianapolis Baptist Tfimple.
“Welcome to communism, America!”
It is believed to be the first time the
federal government has ever seized a
church in a tax dispute. The move
peacefully ended a 91 -day vigil that
had drawn the attention of constitu
tional scholars and right-wing militia
members. Five church members were
inside when 85 federal marshals ar
rived, supported by 70 city police offi
cers. No one was hurt or arrested.
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