WAR
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 20, 2003 - 6A
Israeli govt.
prepares,
citizens
for attack
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - Hundreds
of Israelis fled this seaside city yester-
day, fearing a repeat of the first Gulf
War, when Saddam Hussein hurled 39
Scud missiles at Israel. Some of the less
concerned chose to sun themselves and
sip cocktails, saying nearly 30 months of
suicide bombings and other violence
have prepared them for the worst.
The Israeli government instructed
people to bring gas masks with them to
jobs and schools. They also were told
to prepare sealed rooms.
About 2,400 families from the Tel
Aviv area have reserved space in hotels
and public buildings being made avail-
able in the southern town of Kiryat Gat,
Army Radio reported. Eight leading
hotels in the Jerusalem area reported a
surge of more than 1,500 calls from Tel
Aviv residents looking for rooms.
British Airways began canceling its
flights to Israel on Tuesday night.
Luftansa canceled its yesterday
evening flight from Frankfurt to Tel
Aviv and said it would reevaluate the
situation today.
Travel agents reported an increase in
reservations out of Israel and adver-
tised cut-rate deals.
"War? We're ready - are you?"
read one travel advertisement in the
Yediot Ahronot newspaper. "Special
prices for packages in Israel and
abroad, one-way and open tickets."
In the first Gulf War, Saddam's
Scuds damaged some buildings in
Israel but caused few casualties.
Israeli officials have played down
the possibility of another attack, saying
Saddam's arsenal has been depleted.
Israel also has two types of anti-missile
systems in place - the short-range
Patriot and the longer-range Arrow,
developed with the United States since
the 1991 Gulf War.
Israel distributes gas masks to its cit-
izens free of charge, in kits that also
have atropin injections in case nerve
agents are used in an attack.
The preparations - and the daily
grind - have lessened people's fears.
"We have buses blowing up, we have
car accidents and compared to what we
go through every da, this is nothing,"
said Gal.Ganzberg, owner of a beach-,
side pub next to the U.S. Embassy in
Tel Aviv. "I don't think there'll be
chemical weapons, but maybe that's
just drunken optimism."
Organizers of a film festival in the
Red Sea resort town of Eilat said the
event would still ge held as planned
this weekend.
War opponents:
U.S. air strikes
unauthorized
RYAN WEINER/Daily
CBS radio correspondent Dan Raviv spoke on media coverage of the Holocaust and the war in Iraq yesterday evening in
Rackham Auditorium.
CBS correspondent addresses
me la coverage In crisis times
Outspoken nations say
the U.S. is acting outside
of national law
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The
most outspoken opponents of military
action against Iraq - France, Russia
and Germany - insisted yesterday the
United States will be acting illegally if
it attacks Iraq and overthrows Saddam
Hussein.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor
Ivanov told the U.N. Security Council
that no U.N. resolution authorized mili-
tary action or "the violent overthrow of
the leadership of a sovereign state."
There are also "no indisputable
facts" to demonstrate that Iraq threat-
ens the United States, he said. If there
were, the Bush administration could
exercise its right under the U.N. Char-
ter to respond in self-defense.
The foreign ministers of Russia,
France and Germany attended an open
council meeting held only hours before
the clock ran out on a Wednesday
evening deadline set by President Bush
for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq or
face war. Though the Bush administra-
tion has said the time for diplomacy
was over, the ministers made a point of
attending to reaffirm their opposition
to war and assert the primacy of the
United Nations.
Declaring that military intervention
"has no credibility," Germany's Josch-
ka Fischer also stressed, "There is no
basis in the U.N. Charter for a regime
change with military means."
French Foreign Minister Dominique
de Villepin reiterated his country's con-
tention that a war would not only be
illegal but would exacerbate the ten-
sions and divisions on which "terror-
ists feed."
The three ministers did not say they
would raise the issue in the council
after a war begins. They insisted the
U.N. Security Council would have a
role in the aftermath of war.
Predicting "imminent disaster" for
the people of Iraq, Secretary-General
Kofi Annan implored the United
States and its allies yesterday not to
forsake humanitarian aid when the
fighting starts.
"This is a sad day for the United
Nations," Annan said. "I know that
millions of people around the world
share this sense of disappointment and
are deeply alarmed."
He said he plans to submit pro-
posals to the council shortly on
adjusting the U.N. oil-for-food pro-
gram, which was providing food,
medicine and other humanitarian
supplies for about 60 percent of
Iraq's 22 million people until it was
suspended this week.
The council meeting was called to
hear a report by chief U.N. inspector
Hans Blix outlining a dozen issues that
Iraq needed to resolve to prove it was
disarming peacefully, but for many
members, his list of disarmament tasks
was eclipsed by the approaching war.
Blix expressed disappointment that
inspections were curtailed after only 3
1/2 months.
0
0
By Elizabeth Anderson
Daily Staff Reporter
"How does the media cover horrible
tragedies? There isn't just one truth,"
said Dan Raviv, news correspondent for
CBS Radio, in a lecture on the role of
the news media during wartime. Draw-
ing comparisons between the United
States' current situation with Iraq and
U.S. involvement in World War II,
Raviv's lecture served as the keynote
address for the University's 24th Annual
Conference on the Holocaust.
Raviv said the gathering of news
information is often like connecting the
dots in a puzzle. He defended the news
media's inability to present all possible
information on certain occasions.
"How can we know if a war is worth-
while if we don't have all the informa-
tion?" Raviv asked the audience last
night at Rackham Auditorium. "The
news media don't even have all the dots."
Raviv compared the Americans who
want to avoid war with Iraq to those
Americans who wanted the nation to
stay neutral in World WarII- prior to
the Pearl Harbor bombing. He also
drew a parallel between Bush's term
"axis of evil" and the Axis powers of
World War II.
When discussing the lack of atten-
tion the news media gave to the Holo-
caust during World War II, Raviv said
that situation is similar to the current
"How can we know if a war is worthwhile if
we don't have all the information? The news
media don't even have all the dots."
- Dan Raviv
News correspondent, CBS Radio
confusion about Saddam Hussein's
possession of weapons. "There were
conflicting stories (that) diminished
the credibility of the stories," Raviv
said. "The real breakthrough was evi-
dence and victim testimony."
Much of Raviv's lecture focused on
the media's lack of attention toward
Adolf Hitler's murder of Jews and other
groups during World War II, yet Raviv
said he did not blame the media. "We
were unfolding truths and lies while the
Holocaust was taking place," Raviv said.
"Radio correspondents didn't see the
round-ups, didn't see the camps. But
most of the reports were aimed at prov-
ing that Nazi Germany was terrible."
To illustrate conflicting news reports,
Raviv pointed out that many European
nati-ns and media are reluctant to
Sf , although they have the
e in 4iation as the U.S. "What
does the media believe? The Europeans
don't believe he's that bad," Raviv said.
"But Dan Rather won't lose any sleep if
Saddam Hussein is arrested or killed."
When asked about the media's social
responsibility during warfare, Raviv said
the media should calm the public. "I
think, what are my kids going to think
when they hear this?" Raviv said. "I'm
going to keep you informed. I don't
want to exaggerate."
Students who attended the lecture
were divided on Raviv and his speech.
Bobby Nooromid, an LSA junior, said
he felt satisfied with Raviv's conclu-
sions of the current Iraq situation and
the Holocaust. "I thought his speech
was excellent. I loved the way he
compared the Holocaust with today's
situation and the way the Jewish peo-
ple have played a role both now and
then," Nooromid said.
But LSA senior Nicole Scher, who
attended the lecture to hear Raviv's
insider perspective on the news media,
said she felt disappointed by both
Raviv and his speech. "I thought he
was a practiced politician-type speaker.
He seemed to believe very strongly
that America is following the right
course and I would tend to take issue
with that," Scher said. "Just because
America is a superpower doesn't nec-
essarily make our policy right."
Global outrage results from U.S. intervention.
The Associated Press
Unease, resolve and open outrage echoed across a
connected world yesterday as the United States
opened its war against Iraq.
"This is the beginning of the end of the domina-
tion of Western nations," filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt
said in India. Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Khar-
razi, called the military action "unjustifiable and ille-
gitimate."
Support for Washington came from, among others,
staunch U.S. allies Britain and Japan.
"Iraq has continued to ignore the United Nations
resolutions and has not acted sincerely. Therefore, I
understand and support U.S. action to disarm Iraq,"
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said as
hunger strikers protested outside the American
Embassy in Tokyo.
"My heart is crying for the nation of Iraq. I hope the
aggressors will be buried.
- Sher Aga
Air Force Academy in Kabul
A South Korean soldier mans a machine gun on an armored military vehicle during
a military training to prepare for possible attacks in Yeonchon.
S. Korea fears North
may capitali ze on
Iraq walr di 'traction
Weeks of tension and failed diplomacy produced
immediate reactions of dismay and fear,
"It's a wrong war at a wrong time," said 35-year-
old Sean Bowman of London, drinking beer in a
Hong Kong bar and - like much of the world -
watching events unfold on CNN.
In Beijing, officers cordoned off the street in front
of Iraq's embassy and demanded identification for all
passing. A few blocks away, at the American
Embassy, security was its highest level since the
Sept. 11 attacks
Stocks were higher in markets across the Asia-
Pacific region after the United States launched its
attack on Iraq early today, with traders betting the
war will end quickly. Tokyo's 225-issue Nikkei Stock
Average was up by 1.90 percent at 8,204.25 in the
afternoon, while prices rose by 3.25 percent in Seoul.
In Afghanistan, where the U.S. military is still
hunting al-Qaida members, residents of the capital,
Kabul, condemned the United States and its allies.
"Today is a dark day for Muslims," said Sher Aga,
50, who teaches military aviation at the Air Force
Academy in Kabul. "My heart is crying for the
nation of Iraq. I hope the aggressors will be buried."
SADDAM
Continued from Page 1A
shameful crime against Iraq and
humanity," Saddam said, describing the
U.S. president as 'little, evil Bush."
"Draw your sword and be not
afraid," he urged the Iraqi people,
before ending the speech by chanting,
"Allahu akbar" or God is great, and
saying, "Long live jihad (holy war) and
long live Palestine."
After the U.S. strike, Iraqi broadcast-
ers repeatedly announced that the Iraqi
leader would appear. Baghdad radio
carried a message from his son, Odai,
calling on the people to be steadfast
and promised them victory.
FBI given extra power during war
WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney
General John Ashcroft has signed an
order giving FBI agents and U.S. mar-
shals authority to arrest people on
immigration violations, a power that
initially will be used to detain several
dozen Iraqis suspected of posing a
wartime threat.
The order took effect Feb. 28, the
last day that the Immigration and
Naturalization Service and its
enforcement laws fell under Justice
Department jurisdiction. The INS
ceased to exist the next day, when it
was folded into the Homeland Secu-
rity Department.
The American Civil Liberties Union
said the Ashcroft order will further the
impression among many U.S. Muslims
and Arab-Americans that the govern-
ment is singling them out.
Ashcroft's decision, confirmed yes-
terday by two law enforcement offi-
cials who spoke on condition of
anonymity, gives more than 11,000
FBI agents and several thousand mar-
shals arrest powers that had been
reserved only for INS agents, some
Customs agents and 35 police officers
in South Florida under a program pro-
moted by Ashcroft.
The FBI investigates major crimes
and gathers domestic intelligence. The
Marshals Service mainly tracks down
and transports fugitives.
The law enforcement officials
described the move as crucial in the
fight against terrorism. Immigration
charges frequently are used to ini-.
tially detain suspected terrorists or
sympathizers while other charges are
developed.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South
Korea's military went on its highest
alert in seven years today as concerns
arose that North Korea could use the
distraction of war in Iraq to raise ten-
sions on the Korean Peninsula, South
Korea's Yonhap news agency said.
Yonhap, quoting unnamed sources,
said South Korea elevated its military's
Watch Condition to a level 2 for the
first time since 1996.
The move affects mostly military
intelligence and other units assigned
to watch the tense border and does not
involve any major southern troop
movements.
The Defense Ministry would not
confirm the report. But South Korean
President Roh Moo-hyun was expected
to address the nation later today in a
live, televised speech on the U.S.-led
war on Iraq.
South Korea elevated its Watch Con-
dition to a level 2 in 1996 when North
Korean troops marched into the truce
village of Panmunjom to raise tensions.
Yesterday, the U.S.-led United
Nations Command sought to ease
North Korean fears over joint military
exercises in South Korea, saying they
are defensive and not related to "cur-
rent world events."
The statement, made to North Kore-
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Vietnam/Iraq Comparisons
As with the Vietnam War the Gulf
an officers during a meeting at the
truce village of Panmunjom in the
Demilitarized Zone between the two
Koreas, comes amid U.S. preparations
for war against Iraq.
The North has maintained the exer-
cises . signal plans to invade it.
Pyongyang refused a request to discuss
the matter at a higher military level on
Thursday, the U.N. Command said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military in
South Korea announced plans to
implement a new curfew beginning
late today.
"The new curfew is aimed at pro-
tecting U.S. soldiers and civilian
employees from anybody that might
want to potentially use the world situa-
tion to their benefits," said Lt. Col.
Steven Boylan, a spokesman for the
U.S. Eighth Army.
All 37,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in
South Korea must be off the streets by
7:30 p.m., several hours earlier than
the normal curfew, he said.
Referring to the North's refusal to
agree to a high-level meeting on the
joint exercises, Col. Martin Glasser
of the Command's Military
Armistice Commission said the
North "has turned down an excel-
lent opportunity to discuss impor-
tant events affecting the Korean
peninsula."
Glasser said the annual exercises
are not related to "current world
events."
"We also explained that the exercise
is defensive in nature and is not an
aggressive or a threatening move
against North Korea," he said in a
statement. "And that these are regular-
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