It IIUU One hundred eleven years ofeditorialfreedom *ri NEWS: 76-DAILY CLASSIFIED: 7640557 www michigandaily. com Tuesday December 4, 2001 ne $ Officials reassure Inside: Americans are warned to be on high alert for holiday season terrorist attacks. Page 2. error grips ideast a " interview subjects By Jacquelyn Nixon Daily Staff Reporter Local men who agree to an interview as part of the FBI's investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks can choose where the interview is conducted and who is present and will not be asked about their immigration status, southeast- ern Michigan law enforcement officials assured Muslim and Arab community leaders yesterday. As many as 80 letters have been sent from the FBI to Ann Arbor residents and University students with tempo- rary visas requesting their participation in an interview with the U.S. Department of Justice about terrorism. Government officials addressed concerns about civil liberties and the Ann Arbor Police Department's role in the interview process yesterday with eight community members and two student leaders. FBI Special Agent John Bell, John Gershel of the U.S. Attorney's office of the Eastern District of Michigan, Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje and Councilman Steve Hartwell joined AAPD Chief Daniel Oates in the closed-door meet- ing with Muslim community representatives and students. Oates said that while the Arabs and Muslims expressed reservations and concerns about the interviews at the meeting, they made clear their support of the U.S. war on terrorism. "We want to cooperate just like any other American," said Haaris Ahmad, director for Michigan's Council for American/Islamic Relations. "But we don't want violations of the civil rights of innocent human beings." In the 90-minute meeting, federal and local law officials reached a consensus on several issues with community members. Oates said that if recipients of the letter choose to participate in an interview, they will have a choice about how their interview will proceed - including the venue and See FBI, Page 7 Amnericans spent more last month. By Ted Borden Daily Staff Reporter Even as America remains stuck in a recession and con- sumer confidence continues to lag, personal spending increased by an all-time high of 2.9 percent in October, spurred by the low-interest rates of automakers and by sales of other durable goods, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. But growing concern over international affairs combined with the bankruptcy of one of America's largest energy companies worried investors yesterday, sending stocks into negative territory. "There is global conflict and we are in a recession and stock prices have gone down to reflect that, but we're cau- tiously optimistic," said James Russell, head of equity strat- egy at Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati. Many analysts said the jump in personal spending is not. necessarily an indication of an economy on the rebound. "The number should not be looked upon as good news," said Graham Curchin, an equity trader with Bank of Ameri- ca in Chicago. "The consumer incentives offered by manu- facturers have inflated this spending. Also, there is See ECONOMY, Page 7 Attacks polanze campus By Jeremy Berkowitz Daily Staff Reporter Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel over the weekend followed by retaliatory Israeli missile strikes on Gaza City yesterday have once again polarized segments of the University community over the lat- est bedlam in the 53-year conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.. "Every time one of these things happens, it's supposed to remind us we're all on opposite sides. Instead, it distracts from how many Israelis and Palestinians love one another and are friends with one another," said Rackham student Greg Epstein, president of Humanistic Huvarah, a student organization dedicated to the values of Jewish culture. Americans, who now have more of an understanding about what it's like to experience such horrific devastation at home, are witnessing the biggest flare-up of violence in the Middle East since before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Some students said this could prompt more of a bias against Palestinians. "More Americans will feel sympa- thy towards Israel because they were deliberate terrorist attacks rather than army attacks," said LSA senior Paul Saba, president of the campus Arab- American Anti-Defamation League. But Saba emphasized that despite the militant Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the weekend attacks, there are many Palestinians who feel sympathy for Americans after Sept. 11 because they have been through the same thing. University students and profes- sors alike had many negative feel- ings about the events in Israel See REACTION, Page 7 AP PHOTO A Palestinian family runs for shelter after they fled their house near Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Gaza City yesterday. Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at the landing pad near Arafat's headquarters, from which smoke rises (left background), in retaliation for weekend suicide bombings in Israel by Islamic militants which killed 26 people. Sharon condemns Arafat Los Angeles Times JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared an unfettered war yes- terday on terrorism, which he blamed direct- ly on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, as Israeli fighter jets and helicopters pounded Palestinian cities and towns. Amid a raging government debate over whether to oust Arafat from power and expel him from the region, Sharon's Cabinet early today pronounced the Palestinian Authority a "terror-supporting entity," setting the stage for further retaliations. Army troops and tanks thrust deep into several Palestinian cities overnight, advancing in the West Bank Inside: President Bush supports Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism. Page 7 -------------------------------------- - city of Ramallah to within 200 yards of Arafat's headquarters, where the Palestinian president was spending the night. With the Middle East teetering on the brink of new disaster, Israel also launched strikes elsewhere in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Israeli gunships hit Arafat's Gaza City headquarters yesterday and destroyed two of his personal helicopters. The Israelis called the aircraft symbols of his sovereignty and freedom. Also in Gaza, Israeli bulldozers plowed the runways of the Palestinian international airport, which was opened three years ago amid great fanfare as the crowning jewel of Palestinian aspirations for statehood. A senior Israeli official said the airport was rendered unusable, "turning it into a flour- ishing greenhouse." The air raids and incursions were just the beginning of what Sharon promised will be a broad campaign of retaliation for a trio of suicide bombings and a shooting that killed 26 people, all but one of them Israeli Jews, and wounded more than 200 over the-week- end. But his goals seem to go further than simple retaliation. Palestinian officials said the new offensive was a declaration of war See TERROR, Page 7 Sweatshop worker credits 'U' for better working conditions By Jordan Schrader Daily Staff Reporter Students and administrators at the University of Michigan were instrumen- tal in improving working conditions at a factory in Mexico that produces Michi- gan apparel, a modest seamstress turned labor advocate told students yesterday. Marcela Munoz Tepepa, a seamstress at the Kukdong apparel factory in Atlix- co, Mexico, was among the workers who initiated a work stoppage in protest of poor labor conditions there. Tepepa said those conditions includ- ed low wages, abusive treatment, and food that made many workers seriously ill. The labor union that supposedly rep- resented the workers refused to help them because it was controlled by the Mexican government, she added during a lecture at the School of Education. Conditions are better at that factory now in part because the University of Michigan and other colleges and uni- versities stepped into the dispute, Tepepa explained. The Kukdong factory produces Nike clothing, including some bearing Michigan logos. After student protests helped bring the issue to the forefront, the University wrote a letter to Nike urging the company to intervene, and Nike in turn made demands to Kuk- dong for fair labor practices. "Without the dialogue at the Univer- sity of Michigan it would've been impossible to win the struggle," Tepepa said through an interpreter. "This is one of the reasons we continued to struggle and could stand everything that was See WRC, Page 7 YONI GOLDSTEIN/Daily Marcela Munoz Tepepa, a seamstress at the Kukdong factory. in Atlixco, Mexico, that produces Michigan apparel for Nike, speaks through a translator last night at the School of Education about improvements in working conditions. Guitar in the grass Tech Transfer aids student-run startups By Lisa Hoffman Daily Staff Reporter For former Engineering graduate student Kalyan Handique, the process of getting his research development on the market was not easy, but with the help of University resources his dream of marketing his high-tech handheld device recently became a reality. "We are making a portable laboratory, one the size of a hand-held computer," said Hand- ique, who named his company HandyLab. "I got my Ph.D. in May of 2000 and our patent in June of that year. Since, we've been busy building the core technical team and the first prototype." "The idea is that a doctor could take your blood with something like a Palm Pilot," said Mark Maynard, marketing director at U-M Tech Transfer. Tech Transfer, which was created in 1983 after the federal government placed the own- ership and advancement of intellectual prop- "The idea is that a doctor could take your blood with something like a Palm Pilot." - Mark Maynard Michigan Tech Transfer marketing director also helps researchers find corporate funding. "Not everybody participates, nor should they," said Tech Transfer director Ken Nisbet, although resources at Tech Transfer are avail- able to any upstanding University researcher. "We have brilliant researchers who struggle for a long time. If their research is not put to use, it's really disappointing, so we help them find connections and reach the marketplace." Tech Transfer also helps to ensure the pri- vacy and individuality of each research pro- ject proposed and accepted into their services. "When people talk about an invention in public, they start the clock running on grounds of protection, so before a professor born here can have a positive effect on the world outside," he said. "Money can come back to the University and fund additional research, and a project has the opportunity to grow to the fullest of its potential. Compared to the $580 million a year that the University spends on research, which .is the most of any public university in the coun- try, the few million dollars that the University gets back by helping researchers doesn't yield much financial benefit, Maynard said. For Handique, the help of Tech Transfer was critical in his four years of talking to investors leading to the creation of Handy- Lab. These talks resulted in $4.5 million of LSA freshman Michael Beauchamp plays guitar in the courtyard of East Quad Residence Hall I I