The Michigan Daily-Thursday, June 8, 1978-Page 9
Carter talk reflects policy shift
AP News Analysis
WASHINGTON (AP) - President
Carter's message to Moscow is that he
will not shrink from confrontation over
world trouble spots but is open to
peaceful settlements in Africa and
completion of arms-control treaties.
His policy speech at commencement
anonymously at the White House.
It would be hard to imagine all this
being news to Soviet President Leonid
Brezhnev and others who shape policy
in the Kremlin. They have tested Carter
in Africa and in the trials of the
dissidents, been met mostly with
rhetoric, and would not seem inclined to
"His policy speech . . . is
fairly hard line, reflecting
a gradual shift in stance
by an administration
frustrated over Soviet and
Cuban penetration of
Africa and a crackdown
on Russian dissidents."
"I suspect that they are simply
following one of the old edicts from
Lenin: Thrust in the bayonet until it
strikes steel."
CARTER, GUIDED principally by
Zbigniew Brzezinski, his national
security adviser and a skeptic about
Soviet intentions, is telling the Russians
if they keep probing they are apt to
strike steel.
. However, the range of responses open
to the United States in this post-
Vietnam era is narrow. The Russians
are no doubt aware of that.
Carter's speech has another purpose,
one more in line with the views of
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance than
the other advisers who submitted
suggestions.
IT IS TO counsel the American public
against "excessive swings in our public
mood - from euphoria when things are
going well to despair when they are
not..."
The Carter administration has had
some swings of its own. Overall, the
direction is toward toughness with the
Soviets. But the message has not
always been clear.
/At the White House there is no
acknowledgement that the speech was
partly designed to clarify internal con-
fusion. "I know of no differences in per-
ception," said the U.S. official who
briefed reporters on the speech.
Carter warns USSR
exercises at the U.S. Naval Academy in
Annapolis, Md., is fairly hard-line,
reflecting a gradual shift in stance by
an administration frustrated over
Soviet and Cuban penetration of Africa
and a crackdown on Russian dissidents.
HOWEVER, CARTER offers
cooperation as an alternative to con-
frontation. The choice, he suggests, is
one the Soviets will have to make - "a
choice not entirely up to us," said one of
his aides in briefing reporters
change course now.
Why Carter's speech then?
PROBABLY TO dispel any doubts in
Moscow about where the ad-
ministration stands. -
During the 1962 Cuban missile crisis,
President John Kennedy is said to have
asked Charles Bohlen, his Soviet affairs
adviser, why the Russians were
pushing the confrontation to the brink
of war.
Bohlen is understood to have replied:
Esmail convicted in
(Continued from Page 3)
and the other oppressed peoples of the
world."
Prosecutor Sara Sirotta asked for
maximum imprisonment, arguing
Esmmail expressed no regret for his
Palestinian. involvement with the
radical Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine and posed a
danger because of the mobility
resulting from his U.S. citizenship.
DESPITE Esmail's U.S. background,
she said another justification for a stiff
sentence would be the example it would
set for Arab residents of the occupied
territories who go abroad to study and
become involved with Palestinian
guerrilla groups.
Based on his statements under in-
terrogation and testimony from Israeli
security men, the court found Esmail
had distributed newspapers at the East
Lansing campus of the university for
the PLFP, contributed money to the
group and went to Libya in 1976 for
ideological and military training.
Israeli law gives jurisdiction over
crimes connected with terrorism to
local courts even if the actions are
committed-abroad..
THE. CASE caused protests in
America. There were allegations that
the FBI provided the Israeli gover-
nment with information on Esmail and
that he was tortured to make him sign a
confession. But his Israeli lawyer,
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Felicia Langer, failed in an attempt to
get the confession thrown out.
Michigan State University Prof. John
Masterson, co-chairman of the National
Committee to Defend the Human
Rights of Sami Esmail, said from the
facts available that, "it is very clear
the FBI played a very active role."
Masterson, who said he has read the
complete transcript of Esmail's case,
said Esmail testified that his in-
terrogator claimed extensive
knowledge of his activities in the PLPF
through the FBI.
MASTERSON said the National
Committee was "outraged" with
Esmail's conviction. He said Esmail
was convicted "without the prosecution
presenting one shred of substantive
evidence except Sami's own statement
obtained under physical and
psychological duress."
Abdeen Jabara, Esmail's attorney in
tle U.S., called the decision, "a
travesty of justice." He said, "there
(Continued from Page 1)
popularity to the point that Marxist
parties in oher countries "no longer
look on the Soviet Union as a model to
be imitated."
"WE IN OUR country are in a much
more favorable position," he said. "Our
industrial base and productivity are
unmatched; our scientific and
technological- capability is superior to
all others; our alliances with other free
nations are strong and growing
stronger; and our military capability is
second to none. We are surrounded by
friendly neighbors and wide seas."
Israel
has never been any proof that he has
conducted or intended to conduct," an
act of aggression against Israel.
"There has never been any question
that he went to Israel solely to visit his
dying father," said Jabara, who also
defended Sirhan Sirhan. In light of the
possible maximum ten year sentence
Esmail may receive, the acquital on the
more serious charge cannot be viewed
as a victory, he added.
Now that the verdict is in on Esmail,
further action will be taken to obtain his
release. Jabara said Esmail will appeal
the court's decision. According to
Masterson, State Rep. Robert Carr (D-
'Lansing) who has taken an active in-
terest in the case, "can and will be
pushing for deportation (of Esmail)."
Carr could not be reached for comment.
In a statement after the verdict,
Esmail said he harmed no one and did
not believe his sympathy for the
Palestinian cause to be illegal.
The President's address drew ap-
plause several times from the 956
graduating midshipmen and the
audience of several thousand at Navy-
Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
It was a sentimental occasion for
Carter, the first Annapolis graduate to
become President. Before the com-
mencement ceremonies, he and Mrs.
Carter went on a 25-minute tour of the
campus, visiting room No. 2315 which
he occupied at Bancroft Hall in his final
year before graduating in 1946.
"I FELT at home," Carter said as he
emerged. Later, in opening his address,
Carter reminisced about his own
graduation 32 years earlier.
"I was thinking more about leave and
marriage than I wasabout world events
or a distant future," Carter said. "I
would guess there are some among you
who feel the same." The midshipmen
laughed approvingly.
I
Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri., 7-9
Sat., Sun., Wed.,1-3-5-7-9
InnieI
HallI
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The Ann Arbor Film Coo erntive p ,resents at AUD A
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ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13
(John Carpenter, 1977) 7 & 10:20-AUD A
One of the best B-films in the last 10 years concerns a group of people
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HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD
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TOMORROW: Chaplin's "A King In New York" &
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