The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 24, 1991 - Page 7
State Dems chair: shift focus to Shiite group to release
domestic issues for "92 election
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -
Michigan Democratic Party Chair
Gary Corbin said yesterday his
party's chances in the 1992 presiden-
tial election will improve dramati-
cally when Americans turn their at-
tention to domestic issues.
Corbin said a Democratic
National Committee meeting in Los
Angeles over the weekend, where
several of the party's presidential
hopefuls made their pitches, showed
the party will field a strong oppo-
nent for President Bush.
He declined to name any front-
runners, but said all the Democratic
candidates will put the spotlight on
problems such as unemployment
and lack of health insurance.
So far, he said, Iowa Sen. Tom
Harkin and Arkansas Gov. Bill
Clinton have the best organizations
in Michigan. But he said that could
change swiftly as new entrants into
the race begin visiting the state.
The press secretary for the
Michigan Republican Party said
Americans recognize they have a
stake in world affairs, especially
since instability in the Soviet Union
could threaten that country's con-
trol of its nuclear arsenal.
"To say that world events at this
point don't matter and George
Bush's success on the world scene
will not matter is ridiculous," said
Bryan Flood.
Corbin said Democrats can de-
flect questions about their own for-
eign affairs abilities by pressing the
theme that Bush ended the Gulf War
with Saddam Hussein still in
power.
"The issues surrounding the
Gulf War have not been tied up in a
tidy bow at this time at all," he
said.
Corbin said the party is better
off with the late start to the 1992
presidential campaign.
"Our cycles the last two times
have been bloody, have been costly
to Democrats and have worn out, I
think, the public's welcome. This
time four years ago, people were
ready for the presidential campaign
to be over. Now they're ready for it
to begin," he said.
British
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Pro-
Iranian kidnappers said early today
that within 48 hours they will re-
lease British hostage Jack Mann, the
oldest of the Western hostages, who
was abducted more than two years
ago.
The move by the Revolutionary
Justice Organization appeared to in-
dicate that a logjam in the complex
negotiations by U.N. Secretary-
General Javier Perez de Cuellar for
a comprehensive exchange of
Western captives for Arab prisoners
held by Israel, and possibly
European countries as well, had been
broken.
A handwritten communique
from the Shiite Muslim group said
the decision to free Mann was the
ho stage
result of "immense efforts" by
Perez de Cuellar. He has been seek-
ing to negotiate an overall prisoner
swap between Israel and its Muslim
foes for more than a month.
Today's communique, written in
Arabic, was delivered a few minutes
after midnight to Beirut's An-
Nahar daily and a Western news
agency in the Lebanese capital.
It was accompanied by an authen-
ticating photograph of American
hostage Joseph Cicippio, who is also
held by the Revolutionary Justice
Organization.
Cicippio, 61, of Norristown, Pa.,
was kidnapped in Beirut Sept. 12,
1986. The poor-quality photo, the
same one the hostage-takers had re-
leased before, showed him from the
Mann
waist up, sporting a bushy beard and
without the spectacles he usually
wears.
"The United Nations has inter-
vened in the person of the secretary-
general and other intermediaries
with immense efforts to salvage the
situation," it said.
"They sought to narrow the gap
and reachssolutions satisfactory to
all parties," the 33-line commu-
nique said.
The Arabic language commu-
nique was delivered to the Beirut
newspaper An-Nahar along with an
authenticating photograph of
American hostage Joseph Cicippio.
Revolutionary Justice is reported to
be holding both Mann and Cicippio.
IRAQ James Baker said. Iraq has denied its nuclear pro-
"We saw earlier the tragic con-
Continued from page 1 sequences of the failure to comply gram is intended to develop
tions that call for inspections are with Security Council resolutions,"
unconditional," Secretary of State he warned. weapons.
Two top Chilean police arrested
for plottin
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The
two top commanders of the secret
police under the military regime of
Gen. Augusto Pinochet were ar-
rested yesterday and charged with
plotting the 1976 car-bomb assassi-
nation of former Cabinet minister
Orlando Letelier in Washington.
The 14 1/2-page indictment by
Supreme Court Justice Adolfo
Banados ordered retired Gen.
Manuel Contreras and his deputy,
Gen. Pedro Espinoza, brought to
trial "as authors of the crime of
homicide."
According to the indictment, the
two men plotted the murder and
provided false passports for two se-
cret police agents involved in the
murder of Letelier and his American
aide, Ronni Moffitt.
g minister's murder
Acting Foreign Minister
Edmundo Vargas said yesterday's
indictment was a step forward in re-
lations with the United States,
which under law could not request
the extradition of the two men a
second time, and had favored
Chilean prosecution.
"All the hurdles stemming
from the Letelier case have been re-
moved," Vargas said.
Moffitt and Letelier, who was a
Cabinet minister and ambassador to
Washington under the leftist gov-
ernment of President Salvador
Allende, were killed by a remote-
controlled bomb attacked to their
car as they drove in downtown
Washington on Sept. 21, 1976.
exile after Allende was overthrown
in a bloody military coup on Sept.
11, 1973.
Two DINA agents, including an
American, Michael Townley, and
two anti-Castro Cuban exiles have
been sentenced in the United States
on charges of participating in the
plot to kill Letelier.
The case was reopened here last
month when the Supreme Court ap-
pointed Banados as a special investi-
gator at the request of the govern-
ment of President Patricio Aylwin,
who suceeded Pinochet 18 months
ago.
Vargas said "this is a very im-
portant step and a decision that
Letelier was one of an estimated pleaeses us, because it is necessary to
1 million Chileans who went into know what happened."
I
How's the weather up there? ^" IE
Detroit Free Press sports columnist Mitch Albom interviewed Michigan football player Greg Skepanek for
ESPN's "College Gameday." The show will air Saturday morning.