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September 19, 2003 - Image 2

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The Michigan Daily, 2003-09-19

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2 - The Michigan Daily -- Friday, September 19, 2003

NATION/WORLD

41

U.S. unable to find smallpox stockpile in Iraq NEWS N BRIEF1
'he Associated Press
harmless by U.N. inspectors, Iraqi scien- come nearly six months after the other aspects of the weapons hunt, said"
Top American scientists assigned to tists deemed credible who gave no indi- administration went to war to disarm the officers who described the smallpox TIKRIT Iraq °;.
the weapons hunt in Iraq found no evi- cation they had worked with smallpox Iraq of weapons of mass destruction pursuit for the first time.
dence Saddam Hussein's regime was and a laboratory thought to be back in that Saddam long denied having and Though Team Pox is no longer opera-b ush outs iikr i u l s 3 sod iers

making or stockpiling smallpox, The
Associated Press has learned from sen-
ior military officers involved in the
search.
Smallpox fears were part of the case
the Bush administration used to build
support for invading Iraq - and they
were raised again as recently as last
weekend by Vice President Dick
Cheney.
A three-month search by "Team Pox"
turned up only signs to the contrary: dis-
abled equipment that had been rendered

use that was covered in cobwebs.
Fears that smallpox could be used
as a weapon led the Bush administra-
tion to launch a vaccination campaign
for some 500,000 U.S. military per-
sonnel after the Sept. 11 attacks, and
to order enough vaccine to inoculate
the entire U.S. population if neces-
sary. President Bush also was vacci-
nated against the disease, which kills
about a third of its victims.
The negative smallpox findings
reported to U.S. intelligence agencies

the military hasn't been able to find.
Smallpox was declared eradicated
worldwide in 1980. All samples of
the virus were to have been
destroyed except those held by spe-
cial labs in Atlanta and Russia, but
some experts fear Russian samples
could have gotten into the hands of
hostile nations.
Two of the six members of Team Pox
- whose existence and work hasn't
been previously disclosed - have left
Iraq while the rest remain involved in

tional, having carried out their work
between May and July, their findings
don't dismiss the possibility that small-
pox could still be discovered, according
to the officials, who spoke on condition
of anonymity.
However, there remains little to
pursue in this area now.
"We found no physical or new
anecdotal evidence to suggest Iraq
was producing smallpox or had
stocks of it in its possession," one
of the military officers said.

Attackers ambushed a U.S. military patrol late yesterday, killing three Ameri-
can soldiers and wounding two on the outskirts of Saddam Hussein's hometown.
The assault near Tikrit came hours after insurgents ambushed two U.S. military
convoys with remote-controlled bombs, opening a three-hour gunbattle in a
volatile city 50 miles west of Baghdad.
The U.S. military said two soldiers were wounded in the Khaldiyah ambush,
the latest in a string of attacks that has raised questions about the Bush adminis-
tration's handling of post-war Iraq.
The three soldiers from the Army's 4th Infantry Division were killed when
attackers opened fire with small arms in the village of Al-Ouja, just five miles
south of the center of Tikrit, shortly before midnight yesterday, Lt. Col. William
McDonald said.
The two wounded soldiers were evacuated to a medical treatment facility and the
names of those killed were withheld pending notification of next of kin, he said.
The soldiers were part of a patrol investigating a suspected site used to
launch rocket propelled grenades, or RPG's, at American military convoys.
The weapons have been used to launch repeated attacks against the U.S. mil-
itary in and around Tikrit.
CAMP DAVID, Ms

I

Head of terror cell in Spain blamed for 9-11

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Imad
Eddin Barakat Yarkas, a stocky, mid-
dle-aged used-car salesman, was living
in Madrid with his Spanish wife and
four children when he was arrested
two years ago and accused of directing
an al-Qaida cell in Spain.
He's still in prison, and now his legal
troubles have deepened: a new indict-
ment from Judge Baltasar Garzon
accuses the Syrian-born Spaniard of
helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks.
Garzon's indictment names Yarkas
and 34 others including al-Qaida
leader Osama bin Laden. Five other
suspects were arrested yesterday on the
judge's orders. Although they were not
among the 35 named in the indictment,

four were linked to people named in it.
"What they're accusing him of makes
no sense. The evidence is so flimsy,"
said Yarkas' wife, Maria Luisa Martin,
speaking from her Madrid home, where
she looks after the couple's children,
who now number five, with another
baby on the way. Soto del Real prison,
where her 40-year-old husband is being
held, allows conjugal visits.
Garzon said he issued the indict-
ment Wednesday because al-Qaida
used Spain as a base to plot the Sept.
11 attacks. Many named in the indict-
ment, like Yarkas, are already in Span-
ish jails.
The indictment details taped tele-
phone conversations that Yarkas had

shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks with
a man known only as Shakur, who is
also named in the indictment. Yarkas
met him as a casual acquaintance in
the United Arab Emirates in the mid-
1990s, Martin said.
In one conversation, on Aug. 27,
2001, Shakur said that, among other
things, "they had entered the area of
aviation and had even slashed the
throat of the bird," the indictment said.
Yarkas and Shakur laughed during the
exchange, the indictment said.
The document also noted Yarkas'
phone number was found in an address
book at a Hamburg, Germany, apart-
ment shared by accused Sept. 11 plot-
ters who included Mohamed Atta, one

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of the suicide pilots.
Martin insists Yarkas, whom she last
visited two weeks ago, is innocent.
"My husband does not know
Mohamed Atta. He doesn't know that
group. We didn't know about al-Qaida
until Sept. 11," she said.
Yarkas' lawyer, Jacobo Teijelo, said
the taped conversations show his client
knew nothing of a terrorist plot, adding
that the phone number found in Ham-
burg was from a previous home and
eight years out of date.
"In this country, it is a crime to be a
radical Muslim. My client is innocent
of the attacks in New York. He didn't
incite anyone to make these attacks,"
Teijelo said.
COMCAST
Continued from Page 1
AT&T Broadband - making it the
nation's largest cable company. This
acquisition also made Comcast vir-
tually the only cable and Internet
service provider in Ann Arbor.
"We have had issues in south Ann
Arbor (which includes University
property) because of outage prob-
lems. There were software issues
with a router that serves the area,
but that was repaired at 5 a.m. (yes-
terday) morning," Comcast
spokesman, Mark Gilman said.
"The issues we had, have nothing to
do with the number of subscribers,"
he added.
Gilman said that while Comcast
does not usually release the total
number of subscribers to the public,
there have been a lot of people sub-
scribing since the start of the new
academic year. He said there has
been tremendous growth in mid-
Michigan, so growth in Ann Arbor
most likely correlates with that.
According to a U.S. Census
Bureau report from 2000, the popu-
lation in the city of Ann Arbor is
114,024, a 4 percent increase from
the previous report in 1990.
"I am not familiar with the prob-
lems of individuals, but we have
people who are more than willing
to take care of any problems or con-
cerns," Gilman said.
While Comcast also provides a
website resource for consumers, it
does not address these issues, and
many students do not feel that their
problems are getting resolved.
"I live on White Street, and I
would say that we haven't had serv-
ice 75 percent of the time in the
past week. I have called Comcast
several times, they sent the same
technician out here twice and he
says it is Comcast's fault and there
is nothing he can do," Business
School senior Niraj Patel said.
LSA junior Jen Davison said,
"The cable has been fine, but the
Internet goes on and off at least
once a day for an hour or so."
Studentspalso complain about
Comcast's prices.
"Overall (Comcast) is okay, but
the price is a little high," LSA jun-
ior Pei-Yu Kao said.
Comcast would not comment on
the price increases (if any) from
previous years.
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PERO:

Bush urges Palestinians to turn from Arafat
President Bush accused Yasser Arafat of undercutting chances for peace
in the Middle East and told Palestinians they need a new leader committed
to fighting terror if they hope to stop the cycle of violence with Israel.
Three months after winning concessions that raised hopes for an end to
Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed, Bush acknowledged yesterday that his cam-
paign had stalled. He put the blame squarely on Arafat, referring to him as
"the old order," and offered no criticism of Israel.
Acknowledging frustration on another front, Bush also conceded he is
unlikely to win a Security Council resolution on Iraq before he addresses
the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.
The administration is seeking a measure to clear the way for additional
peacekeeping troops and money from other countries to finance Iraq's
reconstruction.
"Reconstruction funds are never easy to come by, even in cases where
everybody is completely united," said Bush's national security adviser, Con-
doleezza Rice.

WASHINGTON
U.S. expects more
weapons in N. Korea
Some American intelligence analysts
are becoming increasingly concerned
that North Korea may have three, four or
even six nuclear weapons instead of the
one or two the CIA now estimates. \
Every new weapon would enhance
North Korea's nuclear capability and give
the country significantly more authority
at the negotiating table, experts say.
One or two nuclear weapons would
be considered last-resort devices,
because once used they could no
longer deter a U.S. nuclear response.
But a half-dozen would give North
Korea the ability to strike and then be
ready to strike again.
In addition, if North Korea had
weapons to spare, its leaders might be
more willing to part with one, either in a
test or by selling it. The leaders also
could more easily afford to put one
weapon on display at a missile launch
site for US. spy satellites to see - to up
the ante in negotiations.
BASKING RIDGE, N.J.
Trend in most U.S.
hotels is smoke free
Smokers are finding there is no room
at the inn anymore.
From New York to California, small
and mid-size hotels have gone smoke-
free, cleaning, deodorizing and redeco-

rating rooms once reserved for smokers
and designating them nonsmoking.
One major reason is that fewer guests
are requesting smoking rooms. But hotel
managers point to other benefits: lower
room maintenance costs and a marketing
tool at a time when the business has been
hurt by a sluggish economy.
"Families with kids, it's attractive to
them. It reinforces cleanliness and safe-
ty" said Chris Canavos, manager Howard
Johnson's in Williamsburg, Va., which
went smoke-free during a renovation
three years ago.
NEW YORK
Political candidates
opt for prime time
Forget newsmaker interviews with
Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather. These
days, candidates are more likely to
trade barbs with Jay Leno or Oprah
Winfrey, believing the more effec-
tive route to voters is on entertain-
ment shows rather than traditional
news programs.
Consider just one week on the
campaign trail.
John Edwards previews his presi-
dential campaign kickoff on Come-
dy Central's "The Daily Show."
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has
shown some aversion to candidates'
debates, talks to Winfrey about his
bid for California governor.
- Compiled from Daily wire reports.

4

04

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