The Michigan Daily - Monday, November 17, 2003 - 5A
SOLE joins Borders patrol
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U.S. officials: Iraq's
lead missile expert
fled to Iran after war
The Associated Press
TUN uINGuaily
Engineering junior Michael Lear, a member of Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality, stands with
Borders employees on strike Friday outside the store on East William Street.
Energ companies that donated
win big under Republican b1l
WASHINGTON (AP) - Energy industries
that have invested millions of dollars in law-
makers' campaigns would reap billions in tax
breaks and potential new business from com-
promise Republican legislation.
President Bush took office promising to
develop a new energy policy. Since then, ener-
gy-related businesses have contributed nearly
$70 million to lawmakers and political parties,
with about three-fourths of it going to Repub-
licans, according to an analysis of Federal
Election Commission records by the Center
for Responsive Politics.
The energy sector also gave an additional
$67 million - $50 million of it to Republi-
cans - during the 2000 election cycle, when
Bush won the presidency and Republicans
regained control of the Senate.
The House and Senate are expected to vote
this week on the final compromise developed
by GOP negotiators. The measure is designed
to boost energy production, improve reliability
of the electricity grids and make it easier for
energy companies to develop oil and gas on
federal land.
Energy interests have been "giving heavily
to the Republicans for a long time, and this is
what it's all about in the end. It looks like
they got an energy bill that they wanted," said
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center
for Responsive Politics, a bipartisan research
group.
Environmental groups, which lobbied
unsuccessfully for measures to cut energy use
or promote cleaner renewable energy sources
such as solar and wind power, made only $2.3
Szmulator zwi
SIMULATION
Continued from Page 1A
researchers had to design a preliminary
program, showing off the interactivity pos-
sibilities available with Virtual Reality,
said 3D Lab Director Peter Beier.
The preliminary program shows a basic
artist's rendition of a building before and
after an explosion, complete with five peo-
ple sitting in an office who become victims
of the explosion.
A person can then walk through the
room in order to gain a different perspec-
tive of each victim.
The vision of the complete program
includes more victims with more injuries
"(Energy interests have
been) giving heavily to
the Republicans for a
long time, and this is
what it's all about in the
end. It looks like they got
an energy bill that they
wanted:'
- Larry Noble
Executive director,
Center for Responsive Politics
million in political contributions during the
past three years.
One of the biggest political contributors
over the years has been Illinois-based Archer
Daniels Midland, the largest producer of
corn-based ethanol. The company was one of
the biggest winners in the energy agreement,
which doubles the use of ethanol as a gaso-
line additive to 5 billion gallons a year.
Since 1999, ADM has given $2.4 million in
unregulated donations to political parties, $1.5
million to Republicans and $874,000 to
Democrats. Such soft money donations were
outlawed by the campaign finance law that
took effect last year.
The company also has contributed
$371,450 directly to federal candidates since
1999, including more than $200,000 to
Republicans.
There was bipartisan support for the
ethanol provision among farm-state lawmak-
ers. Two major proponents were Sen.
Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) the lead Senate
negotiator, and Minority Leader Tom
Daschle, whose home state of South Dakota
has nine ethanol plants.
Manufacturers of the gasoline additive
MTBE, which has been found to contaminate
drinking water, also won big when congres-
sional negotiators agreed to protect them from
product liability lawsuits.
The bill also authorizes $1.75 billion over
seven years in "transition" assistance to
MTBE manufactures, including oil compa-
nies and refiners, as they scale back produc-
tion because of state bans on the product.
The bill would extend a Senate-proposed
federal MTBE phaseout from four years to
10 years.
About three-fourths of the MTBE pro-
ducers are based in Texas and Louisiana,
and the liability protection was championed
by three Republicans from those states:
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of
Texas, Rep. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, the
lead House negotiator, and Rep. Joe Barton
of Texas.
Major MTBE producers include Lyondell
Petrochemicals of Houston, which has con-
tributed $41,500 to federal candidates this
year, including $10,000 to DeLay, $5,000 to
Tauzin, $3,000 to Barton and $2,500 to
Grassley.
The Iraqi scientist who headed Saddam Hus-
sein's long-range missile program has fled to
neighboring Iran, a country identified as a state
sponsor of terrorism with a successful missile
program and nuclear ambitions, U.S. officers
involved in the weapons hunt told The Associated
Press.
Modher Sadeq-Saba al-Tamimi's departure
comes as top weapons makers from Saddam's
deposed regime find themselves eight months
out of work but with skills that could be lucrative
to militaries or terrorist organizations in neigh-
boring countries. U.S. officials have said some
are already in Syria and Jordan.
Experts long feared the collapse of Saddam's
rule could lead to the kind of scientific brain-
drain the United States tried to prevent as the for-
mer Soviet Union collapsed. But the Bush
administration had no plan for Iraqi scientists and
instead officials suggested they could be tried for
war crimes.
"There are a couple hundred Iraqis who are
really good scientists, particularly in the missile
area," said Jonathan Tucker, a former U.N. inspec-
tor now with the Center for Nonproliferation
Studies at the Monterey Institute in California.
"In the chemical and biological areas, their work
wasn't state of the art but it was good enough to
be of interest to other countries."
Only now is the State Department exploring
the possibility of a government-funded program
to block a scientific exodus and prevent Iraqis
from doing future research in weapons of mass
destruction. Initial cost estimates for the pro-
gram run about $16 million, according to a Nov.
3 draft proposal obtained by AP.
U.S. Army
soldiers remove
the wreckage of
a U.S. Army
Black Hawk
helicopter
yesterday, a
day after it
crashed Into a >
residential area
in Mosul, Iraq.
Seventeen
soldiers died In f-
the crash,:
which the
military is
Investigating. >
(AP PHOTO) m>>Yfu: e
Two members of the Pentagon's Defense Intel-
ligence Agency involved in questioning scientists
in custody told AP the Iraqis continue to deny the
existence of illicit weapons programs in Iraq.
Dozens of Iraqi scientists have been questioned
and less than 30 remain in custody. All of them,
including senior members of Saddam's regime,
have been subjected to lie-detector tests, which
have come up clean on weapons questioning, the
DIA officers said.
But U.S. scientists and weapons experts, who
all spoke on condition of anonymity, said they're
having trouble finding some Iraqi experts and
have no way of tracking ones they've met.
"They could leave Baghdad tomorrow and we'd
never know," said one senior official involved in
the hunt. "Very few are obligated to tell us where
they're going or what they're up to."
U.N. inspectors spoke with Modher in Baghdad
a week before the U.S.-led war began on March 20.
Two U.S. weapons investigators say they believe he
crossed the Iraq-Iran border on foot at least two
months after U.S. forces took Baghdad.
His activities in Iran are unclear and may
explain why his disappearance hasn't been pub-
licly disclosed. The CIA declined to discuss its
efforts with Iraqi scientists or identify individuals.
Thought to be in his mid-50's, the Czech-
educated scientist specialized in missile
engines. He met numerous times with U.N.
inspectors during the 1990s and earlier this
year when he argued that the Al-Samoud mis-
sile system under his command wasn't in vio-
lation of a U.N. range limit. The inspectors
determined otherwise when tests showed it
could fly more than 93 miles. They quickly
began destroying the Iraqi stock, much to his
frustration.
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and more life signs - chests rising, people
moaning and screaming, while others are
running and panicking - as well as a more
scientific view of what would happen to a
building if a bomb went off from different
locations, Schumann said.
The program will help train medics in
triage - quickly assessing which victims are
alive, which are dead and which are in the
most need of immediate medical attention.
"(The simulations) are going to be pret-
ty intensive. We hope to simulate the
chaos that surrounds these sorts of situa-
tions so that we can immerse the trainees
in them so they learn how to communi-
cate, how to triage - all of the things that
they are taught to do in a disaster situa-
r'st responders
tion," Woolliscroft said.
The program should take about six
months to complete, Beier said. At that
time, recruitment first responder training
should start. If University researchers can
prove the program's success, then more
disaster simulations will be created, Beier
added.
"This funding is about half a million
dollars, which is very small initially for a
simulation center," he said.
"We will use this money to show this
idea is really working. We will have the
first training simulator ready, and we hope
that based on that we will get enough
funding to develop a real, complete simu-
lation center."
GEPHARDT
Continued from Page 1A
recognize couples and none recognize gay
marriage.
The Bush administration has forthright-
ly opposed gay marriage.
Where same-sex couples have formed
civil unions - which carry some legal ben-
efits but not as many as official marriages
- the process pales in comparison to the
decorated ceremony of a heterosexual
union, Chrissie Gephardt said.
t "Civil unions will accomplish equality
under the law and I think that's what the
government is in the business of doing,"
she said.
"But it doesn't give the same status (as
marriage)," which she hopes to have some-
day with her current partner.
Social equality, she said, has remained
the centerpiece of her platform. Apart
from seeking parity for the gay communi-
ty, Chrissie Gephardt has sought to
improve the status of the mentally ill.
Shortly after receiving her master's,
Gephardt began counseling homeless
women with a history of trauma at the
Anacostia Community Outreach Center in
Washington.
She added that her experiences there
served as a sobering introduction to the
maltreatment received by many victims of
mental illness.
"We need to just take mental health ill-
ness more seriously and not stigmatize it,"
she said.
"The majority of the mentally ill are
incarcerated. We like to incarcerate people
in this country who don't demonstrate the
model of people who are treatable."
During her address to University social
work students, Chrissie Gephardt said
mental health patients have had a particu-
larly hard time gaining coverage for treat-
ment.
"Under our health care policy, (mental
illness) needs to be treated as any illness is
treated," she said, adding that victims of
mental illnesses should have access to the
same amount of care as cancer patients.
The younger Gephardt said her commit-
ment to assisting the socially disadvan-
taged is also a staple of her father's
campaign.
Objectives of his presidency include
establishing an international minimum
wage to protecting affirmative action pro-
grams at colleges and universities.
"He says, 'I just want to fight for people
like my parents, who just want to earn an
honest living and get up everyday and sup-
port their family,'" she said.
Mditary begi;
iizto elicopter,
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. military
tried to determine yesterday whether insurgent
gunfire caused the crash of two Black Hawk heli-
copters, killing 17 soldiers in the worst single
loss of American life since the war in Iraq began.
Meanwhile, an audio tape purportedly by Sad-
dam Hussein urged Iraqis to escalate attacks
against the occupation and "agents brought by for-
eign armies" - Iraqis who support the coalition.
The speaker on the tape, aired on Al-Arabiya
television, said the only way to end the chaos in
Iraq was for Saddam and his now outlawed Baath
Party to return to power.
U.S. soldiers, meanwhile, took the offensive
with the military mounting operations in Bagh-
dad and Saddam's home region of central Iraq.
The military fired a satellite-guided missile with
a 500-pound warhead at a suspected guerrilla
training base. Four insurgents were killed in a
separate clash.
"Any of those groups that are working against
the best interest of the Iraqis are going to be tar-
geted," said Lt. Col. William MacDonald,
spokesman of the 4th Infantry Division.
,s fatal crash
Strong explosions thundered through central
Baghdad after sundown yesterday, apparently
part of "Operation Iron Hammer," a new "get
tough" strategy of going after insurgents before
they can strike.
Late yesterday, a large number of U.S.
troops, backed by armored vehicles and heli-
copters, moved into the Sunni Muslim neigh-
borhood of Azamiyah, sealing off a 20-block
area and searching vehicles in a show of
force.
The CIA said it would review the purported
Saddam tape for its authenticity. But President
Bush dismissed the recording.
"I suspect it's same old stuff. It's propaganda.
We're not leaving until the job is done, pure and
simple," Bush said. "I'm sure he'd like to see us
leave, if in fact it's his voice. I know the elements
of the Baathist party, those who used to torture,
maim and kill in order to stay in power would
like to see us leave."
The voice in the recording resembled Sad-
dam's, but was huskier and the speaker
appeared tired.
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