Experts
*ink Iran
with NYC
bombing
WASHINGTON (AP) - Did
Iran play an indirect role in the
World Trade Center bombing?
Although the actual bombing ap-
pears to be the work of amateurs,
some experts feel Iran's radical anti-
Western regime inspired the Feb. 26
attack that killed six, wounded more
than 1,000 and caused $1 billion in
damage.
Vincent Cannistraro, former chief
of CIA counterterrorism operations,
said the Iranians had been financing
Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind
fundamentalist Egyptian cleric be-
lieved to be the spiritual leader for at
least four of the five Arabs charged
in the bombing.
Abdel-Rahman, who preaches in
New York City area mosques, has
denied getting money from Iran and
being involved in the bombing.
Tehran has not made any official
comment.
Some experts noted the method
of the bombing was consistent with
attacks by Iranian-backed groups in
the Middle East -especially in the
use of a van or truck to deliver the
explosive.
Iran has been able to expand its
influence in part because of a rela-
tively new ability to strike a com-
mon political cause with Sunni
Muslims, a sect which predominates
in the Arab world. The sect has been
at odds with Shiite Muslims, who
predominate in Iran, for more than
1,000 years over religious issues.
Asad AbuKhalil, a Lebanese
scholar at the Middle East Institute,
said Abdel-Rahman, in his taped
sermons, stresses the need for coop-
eration between Sunnis and Shiites
and supports Iran's revolution.
AbuKhalil suggested a new polit-
ical agenda is uniting frustrated Arab
youths and transcending traditional
sectarian differences.
But experts such as Cannistraro
see closer links between terrorism
and Iran. He said Iranian
Revolutionary Guards are training
activists of Abdel-Rahman's Islamic
Group at a camp in Sudan.
The Michigan Daily - Monday, March 29, 1993- Page 5
Congress lifts
restriction on
abortion funds
Speak out DOUGLAS KAN T ::1 a ly
LSA sophomore Eric Williams (right) reads from "Song of Solomon," which he received from Prof. Ralph
Williams' "Bible as Literature" class. There was an open microphone Friday on the Diag for a free-speech rally.
hclement weather provides roadblock
for fighting and supplies in Yugoslavia
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Michigan lawmakers split on a bill
that would lift restrictions on
abortion counseling at federally-
financed clinics.
The bill, passed 273-149, would
make law President Clinton's rever-
sal of the Bush administration's ban
on the counseling.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph)
was the only Michigan Republican
voting for the measure.
Before the bill was passed, the
House voted 243-179 against efforts
to prohibit any clinic that receives
federal money from performing
abortions on minors only if a parent
is notified 48 hours in advance.
Voting in favor of the parental
notification were Reps. James Barcia
(D-Bay City), Dale Kildee (D-Flint),
Dave Camp (R-Midland), Peter
Hoekstra (R-Holland); Joseph
Knollenberg (R-Bloomfield Hills);
and Nick Smith (R-Addison).
In other congressional action last
week, Senators Carl Levin (D-
Detroit), and Donald Riegle (D-
Flint), joined the Senate in approv-
ing the outline of Clinton's plan to
cut the deficit and stimulate the
economy.
The blueprint was approved 54-
45 Thursday and sent to a confer-
ence committee to work out an
agreement with the House, which
passed a similar bill the week before.
The actual budget cuts and the
spending and tax increases will fol-
low in later bills.
On Tuesday, the Senate approved
a non-binding amendment that said
military cuts deeper than those pro-
posed by Clinton could go only to-
ward reducing the deficit.
Riegle and Levin opposed that
amendment, which passed 56-43.
Also Tuesday, the Senate killed
an amendment that would have cut
in half Clinton's proposed $112 bil-
lion in military cuts over the next
five years.
Levin and Riegle voted with the
majority in killing the amendment.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted
52-47 to table an attempt to delete a
provision in the economic package
calling for increased taxes on Social
Security recipients.
Levin and Riegle voted to table,
the measure.
Minutes later, they voted to adopt
an amendment urging staff to find
another way to generate the money
the Social Security levy would raise.
The non-binding wording, seen as
political cover for Democrats who
had supported the tax increase ear-
lier, was adopted on a 67-32 tally.
Social Security recipients pay
taxes on up to half of their benefits
once their income exceeds $25,000
for an individual or $32,000 for a
couple. The president would raise to
85 percent the portion of benefits.
subject to the income tax.
Riegle and Levin also voted to
reject a GOP attempt at eliminating,
Passing 273-149,
the bill would lift
restrictions on
abortion counseling
at federally-financed
clinics.
new taxes and spending boosts that
Clinton wants. The vote was 55-44
against it.
They then defeated, 57-42, an al-
ternative budget-cutting plan offered
by Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole
(R-Kan). It would have eliminated
Clinton's tax and spending increases
and replaced them with deep reduc-
tions in social programs.
Riegle said Clinton is attempting
to put an end to the wealth in the
United States accumulating with the
top 1 percent of wage earners.-
"I hear this shopworn set of ar-
guments from the people on the
other side of the aisle - we tried
your plan for 12 years and it did not
work," Riegle told the Senate. "The
American people reached that judg-
ment last November. They sent that
crowd out."
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-
Herzegovina (AP) - Deep snow
apparently helped a cease-fire take
hold yesterday as U.N. officials
battled the elements in another
attempt to get food and medicine to
the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica.
Alija Izetbegovic, president -of
Bosnia's Muslim-led government,
said he would give Bosnian Serbs 10
to 15 days to accept the U.N.-
sponsored peace plan he signed last
week.
The truce - the longest in the
year-old civil war - followed two
of the quietest days of the year-old
war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, slightly
raising hopes that this cease-fire
might stick. Earlier accords
collapsed quickly.
"These have been the first six
hours of peace in a year," said
Manojlo Milovanovic, chief-of-staff
of the Bosnian Serb forces. "I'm
very satisfied."
Just five minutes before the truce,
three people were killed and five
were seriously wounded in brief
shelling near the presidency building
in downtown Sarajevo, Bosnian
radio said.
Seven shells hit the airport in
Tuzla just after noon, damaging two
helicopters, said British Maj. Martin
Waters, an officer with U.N. peace-
keeping troops based in that north-
eastern city.
The U.N. command in Kiseljak,
just outside Sarajevo, said it received
no other reports of cease-fire
violations.
Bad weather may have helped
quell the fighting. Snowfall abated
by midday in Sarajevo after 60 hours
without pause.
An aid convoy, led by Gen.
Philippe Morillon of France, U.N.
peacekeeping commander in Bosnia,
tried to reach Srebrenica on Saturday
but was blocked by Bosnian Serbs.
Yesterday, one truck crashed en
route because of the bad weather,
and the convoy did not get to the
Bosnian border until afternoon, U.N.
officials said.
On his way back from New York,
Izetbegovic said he reluctantly
signed the peace plan Thursday
because he saw no alternative. The
plan "is indeed a very bad one, but
other plans are even worse," he said.
The plan calls for the division of
Bosnia into 10 largely autonomous
provinces based on ethnic groups,
leaving the national government
little power.
Izetbegovic said he would
withdraw his signature if Bosnian
Serbs did not agree to the plan in 10
to 15 days.
The military commanders of the
Serb, Muslim and Croat factions are
to meet April 6 to discuss
demilitarization if the cease-fire
holds until then.
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