2- The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 10, 2002
Powell calls for
quick resolution
on Mideast trip

NATION/WORLD

Auditor's guilty plea could hurt Enron
The admission in court yesterday by a senior auditor at Arthur Andersen
LLP that he broke the law destroying documents in Enron's collapse gives
U.S. prosecutors a powerful tool in the broadening financial investigation,
legal experts said.
David Duncan, a partner at the Andersen accounting firm who was fired in
January, could provide the government with details about Enron's most con-
. troversial deals preceding its dramatic failure in December, along with
insights into what the Justice Department says was Andersen's widespread
and illegal shredding of related papers and e-mails, experts said.
"I predict he has many songs to sing," said Lowell Peterson, a New York
lawyer with Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein, which is pursuing severance
benefits on behalf of about 40 Enron employees. "I would be more worried if
I were an Enron officer; Duncan didn't shred these documents for nothing."
Andersen has pleaded innocent to obstructing justice.
Appearing in federal court in Houston, Duncan told U.S. District Judge
Melinda Harmon: "I also personally destroyed such documents. I accept
that my conduct violated federal law." He will remain free until his sen-
tencing in August.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Secretary of
State Colin Powell called yesterday for
accelerated negotiations to establish a
Palestinian state, even as he pressed for
a cease-fire to Middle East violence
between Israel and the Palestinians in
the meantime.
Setting no deadline to complete his
peace mission, Powell said he would
meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
as well as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon later this week in an effort to
broker a truce.
"We are going to have to act more
quickly," he said, though adding, "I am
prepared to stay for some while."
Powell said the United States was
prepared to contribute a small detach-
ment of State Department or other
civilian government employees to
monitor any cease-fire agreement.
For the Bush administration, Pow-
ell's emphasis on Palestinian statehood
marks a shift in tactics. For more than
a year, the administration has focused
on establishing a cease-fire as a condi-
tion for deeper peacemaking.
But Powell said all the Arab leaders
with whom he has met have under-
scored the urgency of getting started
on an accord. And he said he would
deal with Arafat as the representative
of the Palestinian people.
Powell said he talked to Sharon yes-
terday and was told Israel would expe-
dite its withdrawal of troops from the
West Bank, where they are pursuing
Palestinian militants. "The sooner the
better," Powell said.
"Time is of the essence" for ending
the violence, he said after meeting with
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Powell is seeking greater Arab partici-
pation in the peace process as well as
an immediate end to Israel's military
offensive.
It was the first time Powell had said
expressly that he would meet Arafat
during his trip to Israel, where he
arrives tomorrow night and plans talks
with both sides through the weekend.
The Palestinian leader has been iso-
lated by Israeli forces in his headquar-
ters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Israel said it wouldn't try to stop the
Powell-Arafat meeting.
Earlier, Powell had hedged, sug-
gesting he would meet with Arafat
only "if circumstances permit."
Powell said he had spoken to Sharon
yesterday and the Israeli had reiterated
"his commitment to bring this to an end
as quick as he can." Powell praised Israel
for beginning to withdraw its troops
from Palestinian areas but noted that
fierce fighting persisted.
After 13 Israeli soldiers were
killed in an ambush during heavy
fighting in the West Bank refugee
camp of Jenin, Sharon said in a
nationally broadcast address that the
Israeli offensive would continue.
In Washington, White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer said President
Bush expects Israel "to withdraw and to
do so now. ... The president believes all
parties still have responsibilities. He's
looking for results."
Working to fill in the details of a
U.S. vision for a permanent peace,
Powell said political objectives must
be pursued alongside talks to end the
current violence. He told the Arabs
they must acknowledge Israel's rights.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, right, announces at a New York news
conference the indictments of four people, including a Manhattan attorney.
Four Indicted for
terrorist support

NEW YORK (AP) - An attorney
and three other people were indicted
yesterday on charges they helped an
Islamic militant imprisoned in the
United States communicate with his
followers in Egypt.
The indictment accuses the defen-
dants of supporting the Egyptian-based
terrorist organization known as the
Islamic Group by passing messages "to
and from the imprisoned Sheik Omar
Abdel-Rahman."
Among the four is Lynne Stewart,
a lawyer for the sheik. The indict-
ment charges that the unlawful
communications with the sheik hap-
pened during prison visits and attor-
ney telephone calls involving
Stewart and Mohammed Yousry, an
Arabic translator who was also
charged.
Attorney General John Ashcroft
said at a news conference announc-
ing the indictments that the Islamic
Group has "a message of hate that
is now tragically familiar to Ameri-
cans."
Ashcroft identified the others
charged as Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a


Staten Island man described as a "sur-
rogate" for Abdel-Rahman; and Yassir
Al-Sirri, the former head of the Lon-
don-based Islamic Observation Cen-
ter. Al-Sirri was charged with
"facilitating communications among
Islamic Group members and provid-
ing financing for their activities."
Stewart, Sattar and Yousry were
all in federal custody. Al-Sirri was
in custody in the United Kingdom.
Abdel-Rahman is serving a life
sentence in the United States for
conspiring to assassinate Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak and blow
up five New York City landmarks in
the 1990s.
Ashcroft said Rahman allegedly
used communications with Stewart,
translated by Yousry, to pass mes-
sages to and receive messages from
Sattar, Al-Sirri and other Islamic
Group members.
The attorney general announced
that the Justice Department had, for
the first time, invoked the authority
to monitor communications
between Abdel-Rahman and his
attorneys.
MIDEAST
Continued from Page 1
the Palestinian leader.
Israel launched its offensive on
March 29 to crush militias after a
series of Palestinian suicide bombings.
At least 124 Palestinians and 25 Israeli
soldiers have been confirmed killed
during the incursion, according to
Palestinian medics and the Israeli
army. The toll was expected to rise;
there were reports that dead Palestini-
ans had not been brought out of some
areas, especially in the Jenin camp.
Aside from the deaths in Jenin
camp, an Israeli soldier was killed yes-
terday in the city of Nablus, though the
military said it may have been by
errant Israeli fire.
The Jenin camp in the northern West
Bank, home to more than 13,000
Palestinians, has been the site of the
most intense fighting of the Israeli
assault, with gunmen inside battling
Israeli soldiers for the past week. All
but three of Israel's casualties in the
campaign have occurred in the camp.
By yesterday, several hundred gun-
men had been pushed into a small area
of the camp, with Israeli helicopter
gunships providing heavy cover fire
for ground troops, witnesses said.
Camp resident Jamal Abdel Salam,
an activist in the Islamic militant
Hamas group, said the gunmen told
him "they said they prefer death to sur-
render."
In the double ambush, one group of
soldiers was walking in a narrow alley
when the bombs went off, military
spokesman Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey said.
One of the blasts was set off by a Pales-
tinian who blew himself up, while the
other explosives were wired together, he
said, killing several soldiers and bring-
ing a house down on three of them.
Just a few yards away, Israeli soldiers
who had entered the courtyard of a
house came under heavy fire from
Palestinian gunmen on rooftops, and
several more soldiers were killed, Kitrey
told The Associated Press. The wounded
and three bodies were recovered.
The Association for Civil Rights in
Israel said dozens of bodies of Pales-
tinians were piled in the streets of
Jenin camp, and residents were pre-
vented from getting food and water.
The Israeli organization complained to
the Defense Ministry that the military
has committed serious human rights
violations in the camp, including the
demolition of homes with residents
still inside. There was no immediate
response from the Defense Ministry.
In Nablus, the West Bank's largest

city, troops took control of the densely
populated downtown area, or casbah,
after several days of fierce resistance
by Palestinian gunmen. At least 41
Palestinians were killed in the fighting
there, but the toll was not final because
bodies remained in the streets, medics

LONDON
Embargo opposition decreases oil prices
Oil prices retreated yesterday as Iran and Libya held back from joining Iraq's sus-
pension of crude shipments to countries allied with Israel.
OPEC Secretary-general Ali Rodriguez said the oil producers' group is opposed to
an oil embargo, and some analysts expected Saudi Arabia and other moderate OPEC
members to quietly boost their output to cover any serious shortfall in global supplies.
v The incentive of higher oil prices might encourage non-OPEC producers such as
Russia and Mexico to do the same, analysts said.
Signs of a partial Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories also helped to calm
futures markets, a day after Iraq's cutoff triggered a 6 percent surge in prices. Markets
seemed initially to shrug off a flare-up in fighting yesterday in which at least 13
Israeli soldiers died.
The European Union's head office said it was convening a special meeting later
this week to discuss rising oil prices. However, the European Commission played
down fears of a looming world fuel emergency.
"We do not consider we are in a situation of crisis," EU Energy Commission
spokesman Gilles Gantelet told reporters in Brussels, Belgium.

MOSCOW
Russia angered by
U.S. doubt, concern
Russia rebuked the United States
yesterday for deciding to hold back
some disarmament projects because of
doubts over Moscow's commitment to
biological and chemical weapons
treaties, accusing Washington itself of
undercutting disarmament efforts.
"Such actions can have the most neg-
ative impact on achieving mutual trust
and can be reflected in the two coun-
tries' cooperation in liquidating
weapons of mass destruction and in the
sphere of nonproliferation," Foreign
Ministry spokesman Alexander
Yakovenko said in a statement.
The U.S. government put Russia
on notice last week it would not cer-
tify Russia's full commitment to car-
rying out the treaties. Such
certification is necessary to disburse
new funds for existing U.S.-Russian
programs to reduce the threat of
nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons.
CINCINNATI
Racial profilin
settlement reached
A settlement in a lawsuit accusing
Cincinnati police of harassing blacks
received final approval yesterday
from the last of the groups that need-
ed to sign off on it.
All 27 representatives of the Amer-
ican Civil Liberties Union in Ohio
who voted supported the deal, said

Scott Greenwood, the chapter's gen-
eral counsel.
The ACLU was the fourth and
final party to approve the settlement,
which was reached last week. Rejec-
tion by any of the parties could have
sent the year-old lawsuit on to trial.
"That really is a deep change in
Cincinnati, and it makes us a nation-
al model instead of something that is
held up to scorn and ridicule,"
Greenwood said.
The deal still must be approved by
a federal judge.
WASHINGTON
Interior dept. workers
abused credit cards
Interior Department employees used
government-issued credit cards to pay
their rent, withdraw money at casinos
and buy jewelry and furniture, an audit
found.
Almost three-quarters of the depart-
ment's 79,000 workers have government
credit cards, and the agency's inspector
general found myriad problems with use
and oversight. Some 1,116 former Inte-
rior employees still had active charge
card accounts, but the report found no
evidence of activity on them.
"The department and its bureaus do
not have sufficient controls in place to
minimize abuse of the charge card,"
the report said. Some reviews of pur-
chases "were done inadequately or in a
perfunctory matter, some were not
done on a regular basis, and some
were not done at all."
- Compiled from Daily wire reports.

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LOSTPROPHETS COURSE OF NATURE
The Fake Sound Of Progress Superkala

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TAKING BACK SUNDAY RUSTED ROOT
Tell All Your Friends Welcome To My Party

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