The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 24, 2001 - 7A
Crop dusters grounded
The Washington Post cameras, taking pictures of the crop threat," the Federal Aviation Adminis
dusters and attempting to photograph tration grounded cropdusters for the
-
ie
BELLE GLADE, Fla. - The first
visit came in February, when three
Middle Eastern men drove through the
sugar-cane fields to the single-runway,
Belle Glade State Municipal Airport to
ask about crop dusters.
How many gallons of fuel can the.
planes hold?, the group's leader asked.
How many gallons of chemicals? How
fast are they? Are they difficult to fly?
Over the next seven months, the
casually dressed man returned to Belle
Glade at least once, and other groups
of Middle Eastern men visited many
more times to quiz the airport staff
about the intricacies of crop dusters --
with special emphasis on how far they
can fly and how much poison they can
carry. The men often had video or still
the interiors.
An airport employee has since iden-
tified the first group's leader as
Mohamed Atta, the 33-year-old Egypt-
ian who the FBI believes was at the
controls when an American Airlines
flight from Boston slammed into the
World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
His apparent visits to an obscure air-
port in rural Florida, combined with
other evidence unearthed since the ter-
rorist attacks, has prompted the FBI and
other federal agencies to issue warnings
about potential chemical or biological
weapons attacks from crop dusters,
which are a common sight over farm-
land throughout rural America.
Yesterday, as a result of what
sources called a "serious, credible
Glow of faith
second time since the Sept. 11 attacks
on New York and Washington that left
more than 6,000 people missing and
presumed dead.
"The theory is that they were looking
into this as a backup to their main
objective, or else as a whole other type
of operation that could still be a con-
cern;' one U.S. government official said
yesterday. "There are certainly enough
questions to elevate our concerns."
In addition to the visits by Atta and
others to the Belle Glade airport, inves-
tigators discovered a manual on crop-
dusters in the possession of Zacarias
Moussouai, a man with alleged links to
Osama bin Laden who was detained in
August in Minnesota after he sought
training at a flight school.
Special
forces
selected
to fight
WASHINGTON (AP) - They are
known as the quiet soldiers, slipping
behind enemy lines with machine
guns, rifles and anti-tank weapons.
The United States is likely to rely on
special forces to uproot terrorists, and
that means a partly secret war.
Americans saw much of the Gulf
War on television. They watched
bombs strike Iraqi targets on video
replayed so often it began to resemble
a computer game. The new fight
against terrorists might not be as open.
"It may include dramatic strikes vis-
ible on TV and covert operations -
secret even in success," President Bush
said.
Operations like those mounted by
special forces are played out in the
shadows. It is not even clear that oper-
ations in which troops might be killed
will be disclosed, at least right away,
said Edward Turzanski, a national
security analyst at LaSalle University.
"Where it's a broader use of force,
you'll know about it," he said. "But
when we're using special forces, there
will be no indication that that's the
case."
Added retired Army Brig. Gen.
David Grange, a former member of
the military's special forces: "We keep
a low profile. On a lot of missions, you
can't say anything. Some are tied to
things still going on and you compro-
mise people and jeopardize lives."
Some special forces' missions during
the Gulf War remain classified, said
Grange, a former Green Beret and vet-
eran of the Army's counter terrorist unit.
"Une mission of our unit was to get
Saddam Hussein to stop firing Scud
missiles into Israel because we didn't
want to drag Israel into the war," he
said. "Our people went out to find
Scud missile sites, calling in on radios
and directing air strikes with beacons
or giving exact coordinates to guide
them in."
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AP PHOTO
Arvinder Singh of Silver Spring, Md., joins attendees of an interfaith memorial
service at the Lincoln Memorial yesterday in Washington.
ABROAD
-Continued from Page 1A
any of the consulates or embassies
*,abroad that Americans are at special
risk but this is the kind of thing we
,,obviously need to keep monitoring,"
Dickerman said.
The situation abroad is evaluated on
the State Department website, which
posts a series of travel warnings and
public announcements, as well by a
safety committee on campus that mon-
itors the situation abroad for the entire
University community.
Dickerman said that there have been
no indications of threats against Amer-
icans abroad, and that if there were
threats against Americans at the
abroad sites students would be brought
home.
"Not every situation. is s best served
by bringing students home but if that's
the best response then we will do it,"
she said. "Student safety is at the top
of our list of concerns."
Both the OIP and the International
Center are still seeing program appli-
VIGIL
Continued from Page 1A
disease need to overcome mental
obstacles.
"The ones who tend to live through
it are the ones who take it as a chal-
lenge and make up there mind with a
positive attitude that they are going to
survive this, or at least survive as long'
as can be," he said.
Wintermeyer-Pingel said that she
has learned much from patients she
has treated.
"I'm always amazed when I think
I'm having a bad day, and then I talk
with one of my patients' family and I
realize how blessed I am. They have
taught me what's important in life,"
Wintermeyer-Pingel said.
ATTAC KS
Continued from Page 1A
events were far from normal.
A senior defense official con-
firmed yesterday that Rumsfeld
signed a deployment order late Sat-
urday that would dispatch an undis-
closed number of logistics units
overseas to support previously
deployed special forces and Air
Force units flying F-15E fighter-
bombers, F-16 fighters, B-1 long-
range bombers, E-3 AWACS
airborne command-and-control air-
craft, refuelers and other support
aircraft. Rumsfeld deployed those
Air Force units five days ago. The
U.S. Army Special Operations
Command received a deployment
cants and students stopping by to look
into programs abroad.LSA sophomore
Max Helveston recently picked up an
application for an Oxford program for
next year. He said that while current
events make him more nervous to fly,
they're not going to ground his travel
plans.
"I feel like Britain's a relatively sta-
ble country in general. It's probably
safer than the U.S. right now," he said.
Director of International Opportuni-
ties at the International Center Bill
Nolton said that he hasn't heard of stu-
dents canceling their travel plans
either.
"At this time most students are
looking at next semester or next sum-
mer and by the time that comes
around everyone will have a better
idea of the general climate of the
world," he said. "The people in this
field are just waiting to see what the
next event is."
Students or parents with questions
or concerns can contact the OIP office
for further information about Universi-
ty programs abroad.
CHEATING
Continued from Page IA
projects that require gathering data.
In these cases, "they expect each
student to work independently when
it comes to interpreting and report-
ing the results," Owen said.
In the LSA code, six types of aca-
demic dishonesty, from submitting
the same paper in multiple classes to
knowingly helping someone else
cheat, are defined.
The problem often begins even
before students arrive at the Univer-
sity. According to plagiarism.org,
four out of five college-bound high-
school students admit to cheating on
their schoolwork.
"In LSA we are putting increased
emphasis on academic integrity dur-
ing the orientation for incoming stu-
dents," Owen said.
The University is combating acad-
emic dishonesty by joining a nation-
al organization called the Center for
Academic Integrity, which sponsors
national conferences on all aspects
of this issue, Owen said.
On a smaller scale, professors use
their own tactics to discourage cheat-
ing and plagiarism. One of them is
the Internet itself, with websites like
plagiarism.org that are committed to
tracing fraudulent papers. Some pro-
fessors, such as English Prof. Steven
Mullaney, redefine plagiarism and
cheating in their course syllabus to
make it clear academic dishonesty
will not he tolerated.
Last year LSA re-formed the
Academic Judiciary Committee,
which is composed of six profes-
sors and six students. The commit-
tee discussed why LSA uses a code
of conduct and monitors exams
closely to deal with academic dis-
honesty.
The committee has no plans to
recommend that LSA use an honor
code rather than the current code of
conduct.
The College of Engineering as
well as other universities do not
monitor exams and use an honor
code that students must sign each
time they take an exam. The purpose
is to reaffirm that they did not give
or receive help on their work.
"The biggest drawback to consti-
tuting an honor code in LSA is its
15,000 students. Some say it is unre-
alistic to expect with a student body
as large and complex as LSA's that
you can maintain the integrity of an
honor code," Rice said.
SERVICE
Continued from Page 1A
allowed. Police officers were stationed
in the stadium's light stanchions.
Small American flags and roses
were distributed to worshippers as they
ing the event would be so popular it
would be impossible to get in.
"I don't think people knew where to
get tickets," said Ita Horan, a college
administrator from Cresskill, N.J.
"They thought they couldn't get any."
Abdur Rahim Muhammad, 55, said