2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, January 25, 2002 NATION/WORLD Anderson auditor remains silent WASHINGTON (AP) - Fired Enron outside auditor David Duncan refused to testify to Congress yesterday about the shredding of the energy compa- ny's documents, invoking his Fifth Amendment pro- tection against self-incrimination. His silence came as his former colleagues, top officials of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, sought to lay the blame squarely on him. Their denials of involvement in the shredding drew skepti- cal responses from members of a House panel inves- tigating Enron's collapse. Duncan, who had been Andersen's lead auditor on the Enron account, was the first witness before the House Energy and Commerce's investigations and oversight subcommittee. "Enron robbed the bank, Arthur Andersen provid- ed the getaway car and they say you were at the wheel," the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Jim Greenwood (R-Pa.) told Duncan. But when Greenwood began to question Duncan, asking him if he had deliberately given an order to destroy documents to "subvert governmental investi- gations," Duncan cited his constitutional right to silence. Duncan invoked it twice, telling the panel, "Respectfully, that will be my response to all your questions." He was not questioned further and was excused. Dorsey Baskin Jr., managing director of Ander- sen's professional standards group, told the panel that Duncan directed the destruction of a substan- tial number of documents just as an investigation was beginning. ' "We are not proud" of the destruction of the records, Baskin said. Andersen lawyer Nancy Temple denied repeatedly that an Oct. 12 e-mail she wrote helped trigger the wave of document destruction. "I was not aware of any shredding activities," she said. The efforts by Baskin and other Andersen offi- cials to deflect the full blame on Duncan for the shredding drew criticism from some subcommit- tee members. As the meeting concluded five hours after it began, Greenwood told the Anderson officials, "We may have to have you back. At the end of the day here we still don't have evidence to suggest that Mr. Duncan, who did not testify, is a rogue employee of Anderson. "We have a lot of information we need to gather," Greenwood said. Bush to increase security spending NEWS F'N+;BRIEFa. JERUSALEM Palestinians demand attacks to stop A senior Hamas commander died in an Israeli helicopter strike in Gaza late yesterday, the Israeli military said, and five other Palestinians were killed in sep- arate incidents. Tension ran high amid expectations of further violence. Because of the flare-up, U.S. officials put a truce mediation effort by envoy Anthony Zinni on indefinite hold. In Gaza after nightfall, witnesses said an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a car, killing one Palestinian and wounding two others. The Israeli military identified the dead Palestinian as Adli Hamdan and said he was the senior Hamas commander in Khan Younis, responsible for dozens of attacks. But Palestinians gave a differing description. They identified him as Bakr Hamdan, a member of the Hamas military wing and a relative of the top Hamas leader in the Gaza city of Khan Younis. The attack took place in the Khan Younis refugee camp. It was the lat- est Israeli targeted killing of suspected militants in Palestinian areas. Palestinians denounce the attacks are assassinations and demand that they be stopped. WASHINGTON Greenspan: U.S. recession could be near Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said yesterday there are mounting signs the economy is recovering from recession, an upbeat assessment that encour- aged Wall Street. Those comments pulled the stock market lower, but Greenspan's more optimistic remarks to the Senate Budget Committee yesterday helped push stocks solidly higher. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 65.52 points at 9,796.48. Asked by lawmakers about his changed tone, Greenspan said he had been trying on Jan. 11 to dampen expectations on Wall Street that the economy would come roaring back this year. He said the rebound will probably be less robust, given that the recession has been a mild one. "The markets, however, had been assuming a far more rapid snap-back than I, frankly, think is likely to happen," Greenspan said. But he said he had overdone his pessimism. "That created, unfortunately, I think, phraseology, which in retrospect I should have done differently," Greenspan said. He said his comments implied "that I didn't think the economy was in the process of turning, and I tried to rectify that in today's remarks." 0 WASHINGTON - President Bush said yesterday that he wants to nearly double the nation's spending on home- land security, telling an audience of mayors that his request for $37.7 bil- lion signals the start of a long-term commitment to an antiterrorism cam- paign that will rely heavily on local police, firefighters and other "first responders." Reflecting the changing priorities brought on by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush said he will ask Con- gress to set aside $3.5 billion to train, equip and aid police, fire and emergency medical technicians, a tenfold jump from the current fis- cal year. Although the allotment for first responders represents the biggest increase in the homeland security budget, it isn't the largest expense. Border security leads the list, with $11 billion, according to sources familiar with the proposal. The package also includes about $6 billion for bioterrorism prevention, including medical research of vac- cines; $5 billion for aviation security; $1 billion for intelligence systems; and more than $11 billion for a variety of other programs, including making structural improvements and shoring up security and at government build- ings, the sources said. Bush mostly confined his remarks yesterday in the East Room of the White House to the overall size of the spending, repeatedly comparing it with the $19.5 billion spent on home- land defense in the current fiscal year. He revealed only the first-responder part of his agenda, tailoring his pre- sentation for the mayors, who have been clamoring for help with unprecedented costs. "This is a two-front war," Bush told 300 mayors here for a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "Overseas we're fighting, and at home we're a AP PHOTO In a speech yesterday, President Bush unveiled his plan to ask for $37.7 billion to increase homeland and national security spending. fighting." Appearing at the White House with Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, Bush promised that his fiscal 2003 budget request to Con- gress marks "the beginning of a homeland defense initiative which is going to last throughout my administration." The announcement came as the White House continued a push to build momentum leading into next Tues- day's State of the Union address and the subsequent budget process. U.S. troops seize 27 Taliban fighte rs KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. Army Special Forces attacked a Taliban headquarters north of Kanda- har, killing a number of fighters and taking 27 prisoners, U.S. officials said yesterday. One American soldier was wounded in the attack. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Wash- ington that American troops attacked adjacent sites in a mountain region 60 miles north of Kandahar. "Our forces attacked two com- pounds and detained 27 individuals," Myers said at the Pentagon. "There were enemy forces killed in this action and one U.S. special forces soldier was slightly injured. He was wounded in the ankle and was then evacuated." The soldier, who was not identified, was the first American battlefield casu- alty since Army Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Chapman was killed Jan. 4 in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan. Eleven U.S. troops have been killed in aviation crashes during the Afghan campaign. U.S. officials said they believed the prisoners seized may include both Tal- iban and members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network but they were unsure whether senior lead- ers were among them. "There's a whole lot more of these," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said of Taliban and al-Qaida outposts. "We're going to keep at them until we get them." Also yesterday, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported that U.S. warplanes bombed a suspected al- Qaida terrorist camp near the eastern town of Khost. The agency quoted res- idents as saying the camp had been abandoned for some time. The report could not be indepen- dently confirmed. The airstrike would be the first since several days of intensive bombing of a suspected al-Qaida tunnel complex near Khost ended Jan. 14. Residents said many houses were destroyed and at least a dozen people killed. Although the air campaign has diminished, special forces have been stepping up the search for Taliban and al-Qaida renegades. On Tuesday, U.S. troops conducted a house-to-house search in four villages of Helmand province, west of Kandahar, looking for the deposed Taliban's supreme BEIRUT, Lebanon Lebanese warlord killed in bombing A former Lebanese Christian war- lord who was linked to the 1982 mas- sacre of Palestinians at two refugee camps during his country's civil war was killed yesterday in a car bombing. Three bodyguards also were killed. A previously unknown group claimed responsibility, saying it killed Elie Hobeika, to protest Syria's med- dling in Lebanese affairs. Hobeika was a Syrian ally. Hobeika led the right-wing Lebanese Forces militia, which tore through the Sabra and Chatilla Palestinian refugee camps in Muslim west Beirut 20 years ago, slaughtering hundreds of men, women and children. The militia was allied with Israel, and an Israeli =commission of inquiry later found that then- defense minister Ariel Sharon - now the prime minister - was indi- rectly responsible for the killings. WASHINGTON Campaign finance bill sent to the floor Supporters of campaign finance legislation claimed victory yester- day in their drive to force the issue to the House floor, setting the stage for a vote this year on a bill to reduce the role of money in political campaigns. "The American people deserve a full debate about how campaigns are financed," said Rep. Richard Neal (D- Mass), who provided the 218th signa- ture on a legislative petition to force the bill to the floor. No date was immediately set for debate and vote on the bill, which would make the most far-reaching changes in the nation's political finance system since the Watergate reforms of a quarter-century ago. The bill would virtually ban soft money, the unlimited donations that unions, corporations and individuals make to the political parties. ASSISI, Italy Religious leaders join Pope in non-violence Declaring that religious people must repudiate violence following the Sept. 11 attacks, Pope John Paul II led an extraordinary assembly of patriarchs and imams, rabbis and monks yesterday in this historic hilltop town in praying for peace. Buddhist chants aid Christian hymns resounded inside a huge plastic tent dec- orated with a single olive tree. About 200 religious leaders accept- ed the pope's invitation to the daylong retreat and agreed on a joint, 10-point pledge proclaiming that religion must never be used to justify violence. John Paul, looking down at a dis- play of turbans, veils and yarmulkes from a red-carpeted stage, said reli- gious leaders must fend off "the dark clouds of terrorism, hatred, armed conflict, which in these last few months have grown particularly ominous on humanity's horizon." - Compiled from Daily wire reports. 0 The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $105. Winter term (January through April) is $110, yearlong (September through April) is $190. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscrip- tions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Colle- giate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. 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