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The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 6, 1995 - 9

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Embassy-CIA conflicts
present in Guatamala

The Washington Post
GUATEMALA CITY-The tur-
moil over CIA activities in Guate-
mala has left the U.S. Embassy strug-
gling to establish a clear chain of
command to guarantee that the am-
bassador knows what the agency is
doing, according to U.S. and Guate-
malan sources familiar with CIA ac-
tivities here.
The embassy has begun an inter-
nal procedural review, prompted by
the CIA's failure to keep two succes-
sive U.S. ambassadors to Guatemala
informed about an investigation that
linked a Guatemalan army officer who
was a paid agency informant to the
abduction and subsequent killing of a
U.S. citizen in the Guatemalan
backcountry, according to the sources
interviewed here and in other capi-
tals.
While the reported CIA conceal-
ment is regarded as an isolated case,
analysts here said it puts a focus on a
more global interdepartmental con-
flict: Heads of embassies often are
kept out of the loop on activities of
CIA agents who, in theory, are re-

quired to report to their ambassa-
dors.
The sources here said existing U.S.
procedures require the CIA to pro-
vide ambassadors with intelligence
on a "need-to-know" basis. But the
CIA station in Guatemala appears to
have made a decision to keep senior
embassy officials in the dark about
the involvement of Guatemalan army
Col. Julio Alberto Alpirez - a CIA
informant - in the 1990 slaying of
the American citizen, an innkeeper
named Michael DeVine.
The case has exposed an embar-
rassing lack of coordination that sent
aconfusing, mixed foreign-policy sig-
nal to Guatemala's military leaders,
according to current and former offi-
cials here.
As a result of this lapse, U.S.
AmbassadorMarilyn McAfee and her
predecessor, Thomas Strook, publicly
condemned the Guatemalan govern-
ment and blocked aid for its failure to
prosecute DeVine's killers, while the
CIA was hiding key details of the
case. When an angry McAfee learned
in February that the CIA had withheld

information from her about Alpirez's
involvement, she arranged the with-
drawal of the CIA's station chief from
her embassy.
The Capitol Hill inquiry into this
and other unresolved killings linked
to Alpirez may raise more questions
than it answers, analysts here note -
such as why the CIA spent millions of
dollars in a country posing relatively
minimal national security concerns
for the United States.
U.S. diplomats say fewer than
1,000 leftist guerrillas are still bat-
tling government forces in
Guatemala's 34-year-old civil war.
And although the United States re-
gards Guatemala as a key transship-;
ment point for U.S.-bound narcotics,
the drug war is being fought by the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administra-
tion, not the CIA.
As the U.S. Embassy procedural
review begins, McAfee and other
embassy officials are refusing to dis-
cuss matters involving CIA activities
or even acknowledge publicly that
the agency maintains offices within
the U.S. diplomatic mission here.

Arrests follow window-smashing at courthouse PHOTO
Helmeted riot police arrest left-wing demonstrators in Copenhagen, Denmark yesterday, and a Judge extended
the arrest warrant for American neo-Nazi Gary Lauck, who was arrested on a German-Issued warrant March 20.
,6th Simpson juror excused

Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES - Superior
Court Judge Lance A. Ito excused a
sixth member of the jury panel in the
Q.J. Simpson murder trial yesterday
d replaced her with a 44-year-old
Aomputer technician.
Once the newly constituted panel
was seated, its 18 remaining mem-
bers heard a second day of cross-
examination of an important prosecu-
tion witness, police criminalist Den-
nis Fung, who supervised the collec-
tion of much of the blood and other
physical evidence in the case. In more
than five hours on the stand, Fung
Qonceded that investigators made er-
rors at the murder scene that had "pos-
sibly" compromised some evidence
in the case.
The latest dismissal of a juror -
tpis time a 38-year-old Black woman
from Inglewood - marked the sixth
since opening statements in late Janu-
ary and leaves six alternates for the
remainder of a trial that many predict
quld last through the summer. It did
not change the gender orethnic makeup
of the panel, however, as one Black
woman was replaced with another.
Although Ito gave no reason for
the latest move, sources said the ex-
cused juror had failed to disclose a
past incident of domestic violence on.
her juror questionnaire or during the
oral questioning of the panelists.
Defense attorneys had fought to
eep the juror from being excused.
In her questionnaire, the new juror
from South-Central Los Angeles said

she had watched the famous low-
speed pursuit of Simpson and his
friend Al Cowlings on the evening of
Simpson's arrest, but added that she
had no opinion about Simpson's guilt
or innocence. Simpson has pleaded
not guilty to the June 12 murders of
his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson
and her friend Ronald Goldman.
She also said that she considered
police officers reasonably reliable
witnesses, and, in her questionnaire,
she called DNA analysis "somewhat
reliable." She later conceded that she
did not know much about DNA test-
ing, however, and backed off herques-
tionnaire answer.
The Simpson defense team has
argued that the collection and testing
of evidence in the murder case was so
sloppy that the results are unreliable.
Prosecutors, who intend to in-
troduce a battery of DNA test re-
sults as a mainstay of their case, are
attempting to rebut that contention
by detailing what they say were the
careful and meticulous steps that
investigators took in collecting the
evidence.
With much evidence yet to come
and so much attrition already in the
Simpson jury, some observers have
questioned whether the panel is large
enough to complete the trial. Jo-Ellan
Dimitrius, a defense jury consultant,
has said the dwindling size of the
panel is a matter of concern, but an-
other jury expert said yesterday that
he believed there was still no reason
to worry.

Powell s political stock options
in danger of becoming worthless

The Washington Post
WASHINGTON -Unlike Presi-
dent Clinton and the collection of
Republican presidential candidates
seeking to establish their viability for
1996, Colin L. Powell has a very
different challenge: He is holding an
enormously valuable collection of po-
litical stock options that could be-
come worthless if not exercised at the
right moment.
The former chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff who achieved the status
of national hero during the Persian
Gulf Wardeclines interviewsconcern-
ing his political future.
But in speeches he has signaled an
interest in running as an independent
candidate, and associates close to him
are exploring the mechanics of such a
bid.
Powell, whose prospective sup-
porters include Kenneth M.
Duberstein, White House chief of
staff under Ronald Reagan, and
former Democratic presidential can-
didate Paul E. Tsongas, remains
highly attractive to an electorate
hungry for responsible, mature lead-
ership, according to survey after sur-

vey.
The possibility of his entry into
the contest as a Republican, indepen-
dent or, in a scenario considered least
likely, a Democrat, remains part of
the long-range thinking by strategists
in all the campaigns.
While Powell's favorability rat-
ings remain very high, his viability as
a competitor in the presidential race
has already declined from the post-
Gulf War period, according to some
polls. If he decides to run, his timing
is likely to be crucial, both in terms of
the status of the opposition and the
degree of public discontent with the
choices before the electorate.
The retired Army general is, in
addition, a man used to the power to
command, highly sensitive to criti-
cism and untested for the kind of
assaults that take place in a political
campaign.
Powell's race, in some polls, mag-
nifies his political strength. Paul M.
Sniderman, a political scientist at
Stanford University who has con-
ducted detailed polling on racial atti-
tudes,said "it is reliably the case" that
when whites of all ideological stripes
encounter an individual black person
whose character refutes negative ra-
cial stereotypes, "their response is to
respond even morepositively to him."
This, Sniderman asserts, is specifi-
cally true of Powell.
Shelby Steele, a Black professor
of English and author at San Jose
State University who adamantly op-
poses affirmative action, said: "Ev-

erything I know about Colin Powell I
like. I find him enormously impres-
sive. I don't know what his politics
are; that aside, it (a Powell presiden-
tial bid) is something I would like to
encourage. He represents a very rare
opportunity."
Rep. Earl F. Hilliard (D-Ala.), a
leading Black advocate of affirma-
tive action, played down Powell's
appeal as an independent or Republi-
can, but as a Democrat, "he would
really enhance the ticket, as President
or vice president."
Powell holds, in addition, an as-
set hard to measure: a substantial
segment of the normally adversarial
national media currently in a wel-
coming posture, virtually encourag-
ing his entry into the presidential
field.
He has, in the eyes of his support-
ers, the potential to become another
Dwight D. Eisenhower, a leader who
can assert many of the values associ-
ated with the 1950s while moving the
nation into a new stage in the struggle
to achieve racial equality.
In a society "divided by groups led
by individuals who see in the inflam-
mation of grievance the opportunity for
special preference ... he symbolizes the
existence of the American dream," said
Charles J. Kelly Jr., an investment
banker who is running a drive to get
Powell the GOP nomination.
"This Powell draft reflects the
yearning all across the nation for a
unifying, trusted, post-Cold War, post-
partisan leader."

Sen. Lugar proposes national sales tax

The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-
,nd.) yesterday called for abolition of federal in-
come taxes and enactment of a national sales tax
that he said would promote savings, investment
and economic growth.
Lugar, who plans to seek the presidency in
1996, urged elimination of the capital gains tax as
well as inheritance and gift taxes. He said he would
make the tax issue a central part of his presidential
campaign.
W Under the proposal, Lugar said he would abol-
ish the Internal Revenue Service and ask states to
zollect the sales tax. He said the radical change
would give citizens greater control over their earn-
ings and greater privacy.
"This means for every American that the
money you earn is yours," Lugar told an audi-
ence at the Cato Institute here. "You may save it
dr you may spend it, but the paycheck is bigger
without the automatic income-withholding de-
duction. You need not account for it, report it or
hide it. If you spend it, you will pay a national
Oetail sales tax." Lugar leaped into what has
become a growing debate, particularly in GOP
circles about fundamental changes in the federal
tax system.
A number of Republicans, led by House Major-
ity Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Texas) and in-
dluding presidential candidate Sen. Arlen Specter
(R-Pa.), have proposed replacing the income tax

with a flat tax.
On Monday, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-
Ga.) and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-
Kan.) named former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp
to head a commission to study changes in the
system, with the goal of creating a system with flat
rates and more simplicity.
Lugar said a national sales tax of about 17
percent would be enough to
replacetherevenue lost by abol- ' IS
ishing income and other taxes."
He conceded many of the de-
tails of his plan will have to be
worked out, but said he hoped
to stimulate debate during the .
presidential campaign and de- .
velop a mandate for a dramatic
restructuring.
He said he opposed the idea g
of a Value Added Tax, which is
a kind of national sales tax. The VAT tax might be
more efficient, he said, but the national, retail sales
tax has the virtue of being "apparent ... visible."
The principal difference between the VAT and
a retail sales tax is that, under the VAT, goods are
taxed at all levels of production, based on the added
value. Lugar's tax would be paid by consumers.
The Indiana senator, who formally will launch
his presidential campaign later this month, said
purchases of homes would not be covered under the
new tax.

He also said Congress should consider ways to
exempt some other purchases from the tax, al-
though in general he favored as few exemptions as
possible.
The proposal for a national sales tax is an issue
that has split conservative Republicans.
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for
Tax Reform, issued a quick denunciation of Lugar's
proposal, saying it is a "profound strategic error
that would destroy the Republican majority coali-
tion of 1994 and reduce the party to permanent
minority status." Norquist said unless Congress
repeals the 16th Amendment authorizing the in-
come tax, the likelihood is that the country would
end up with both a national sales tax and income
taxes.
"This is promoted as, 'We'll trade this for the
income tax or the corporate tax,' but in the history
of the world, it never ends up that way," he said.
"It's always an add-on, which makes it a dangerous
process."
But Stephen Moore, director of fiscal policy
studies at the Cato Institute, wrote in a recent
issue of National Review that abolition of the
income tax has the potential for massive grass-
roots appeal.
The proposed flat tax, he said, "amounts to
chiseling out several bricks from America's Berlin
Wall at a time when the public is becoming eager to
tear it down completely" by eliminating the IRS
and the income tax.


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