02003 The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Vol. CXIII, No. 64
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CHANGING SENTIMENTS
ROTC cadets
share vie'ws
on decrease
BY Stephanie Pilat
For the Daily
EDITOR'S NOTE: Shortly after Sept. 11,
2001, the Daily interviewed four University
ROTC cadets about how their lives changed
after the attack on the World Trade Center
All said they took their training more seri-
ously and the public treated them with more
respect.
Now, more than two years later; the Daily
sits down with two of these cadets to see how
their perspectives have changed.
When interviewed then, LSA senior
Karen Mesko and University alum Lt. Jer-
maine Jordan said they sometimes received
spontaneous expressions of thanks when
they were in uniform.
Now, Mesko said, "Around Ann Arbor, it's
the same now as it was before September 11
-the initial patriotic hype has died down."
After an initial burst of unity after Sept. 11,
the war in Iraq has changed the way the public
views the military and the Bush administra-
tion, but it hasn't changed the way many in the
military view their mission.
Despite the political controversy sur-
rounding the war in Iraq, Mesko and Jordan
said they remain committed to serving their
country. Mesko plans to graduate this spring
and faces the possibility of being asked to
join the fight in Iraq. Although the war in
Iraq has not sustained support as widespread
as that in Afghanistan, if called upon to
fight, Mesko said she would go to Iraq with-
out hesitation.
"Being in the military, our oath isn't to the
current foreign policy or to the president, it is
to the Constitution and the country,' she said.
Caller threatens
females with
sexual demands
By Emily Kraack
Daily Staff Reporter
Two female students and the mother of another
University student received extortionary phone
calls Tuesday.
The students told the Department of Public
Safety that a man called them and said he was
holding their parents hostage. The man allegedly
promised not to hurt their parents if the women
complied with his explicit sexual demands. The
DPS media log says the parents were contacted
and were found not to be hostages. DPS notified
the local police departments for the women.
The man reportedly told the mother that he was
holding her daughter hostage. He also made sexual
demands in return for the daughter's safety.
The women said the man spoke with a foreign
accent, though they could not identify the origin
of the accent. DPS is investigating the three
reports.
Lt. Robert Neumann of DPS said anyone who
receives a harassing telephone call should note the
exact time when they receive the call. They should
also note background noises, specific phrases used
by the caller and distinctive speech patterns or for-
eign accents. DPS urges anyone receiving such a
call to dial 911 and file a report.
DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown said police
investigators currently have no information about
why the caller targeted these specific women. DPS
has not been able to establish a link between the
women who reported Tuesday's calls, she said.
Brown added that DPS does not currently know
how the calls are connected. She said that if more
people come forward to report similar incidents,
DPS might be able to narrow their search for a sus-
pect.
The incident prompted DPS to issue a crime
alert yesterday morning that differed from the three
previous crime alerts of this semester. The prior
alerts involved physical attacks on individuals,
whereas yesterday's alert involves extortion via
telephone communication.
This crime alert also breaks with past alerts in
that little information is available about suspect.
The crime alert of Oct. 5, involving a woman
pushed from behind near the Law Quad, had no
available suspect description. Brown said at that
time, the October crime alert was issued in hopes
of bringing forward witnesses.
Neumann said DPS issued yesterday's crime
alert to aid the investigation of the case and pro-
tect people who may fall victim to the caller.
"We wanted to get the word out to the communi-
ty so that they don't panic and so they notify us
immediately" if they receive a similar harassing
phone call, he said.
The DPS website asks anyone with information
about the incidents to call DPS at 994-2880.
LSA senior and Air Force ROTC cadet Karen Mesko poses for a portrait inside of North Hall,
home to the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at the University.
Interstate shootings in
Ohio might be linked
Jordan graduated from the University in
August and is now stationed in Altus, Okla.,
where he is training to become a pilot. Jordan
said he too would go to Iraq, if asked.
But war veteran and Ann Arbor resident
Doug Kelley said while he understands the
dedication of Jordan and Mesko, he is still
concerned about the credibility of some
administration leaders such as Bush, Vice
President Dick Cheney and Deputy Secretary
of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. "Bush, Cheney
and Wolfowitz didn't actively serve in the mil-
itary - none of them had been willing to put
See CADETS, Page 7A
,Students protest Bhopal disaster
on Dow executives'
By Victoria Edwards
Daily Staff Reporter
Holding contaminated water from Bhopal,
India, 25 University students and supporters
from the Ann Arbor community traveled to
Midland last night to protest in front of the
houses of Dow Chemical Company executives.
They went to the homes of three board
members and attempted unsuccessfully to
meet with Dow Chief Executive Officer
William Stavropoulos on the anniversary of
the Bhopal chemical tragedy that occurred
on Dec. 3, 1984.
The Union Carbide chemical spill in Bhopal
killed an estimated 3,000 to 3,800 people in
the first 24 hours after the accident. In 1989 in
a civil court of law, Union Carbide and the
Indian government agreed on a $470-million
settlement to compensate victims of the
tragedy. The settlement exempted Union Car-
bide from additional responsibilities in the
cleanup.
Since Dow acquired full stockholdings in
Union Carbide two years ago, protesters said
that they should take responsibility for the
tragedy and clean up the waste left behind by
the spill.
But although groups involved in the
demonstration - such as Justice for
Bhopal, the Association for India's Develop-
ment and Environmental Action - wanted
to meet with Stavropoulos, he would not
agree to see them.
"The CEO made a personal choice not to
meet with them. If they wanted a meeting, we
will give them a meeting at normal business
hours. But he does not want to hold meetings
out on the street," Dow spokesman John Muss-
er said.
oorsteps
Although the groups were unable to voice
their demands to Stavropoulos, they said they
would still meet with the remaining board
members and follow the activities they previ-
ously planned.
"We're getting together ... to have a candle-
light vigil and to have people talk about the
basic demands for the victims of the tragedy,
as well as (discussing) the contaminants of the
water and the contradiction between Dow stat-
ing to be environmentally responsible and
what they are doing," said Medical School stu-
dent Nirali Bora, member of Justice for
Bhopal.
The demonstration is part of the Global Day
of Action Against Corporate Crime, which cele-
brated its first anniversary yesterday, said LSA
Junior Nidhip Patel, co-coordinator of the Asso-
ciation for India's Development. Patel added
See BHOPAL, Page 7A
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Parents nervously
took their children by the hand and walked them
to school. Teachers were given maps to help them
get to work without using the highway nearby.
Outdoor recess was canceled for the rest of the
week.
A deadly series of 12 shootings around here
since May - including one in which a bullet
broke a window at Hamilton Central Elementary
School last month in the middle of the night -
have unnerved parents, motorists and others.
The shootings - which investigators believe
are connected - have taken place. around a five-
mile stretch of Interstate 270. One woman in a car
was killed last week.
"Until they catch him, there's no way they're
getting on the bus," said Michelle Maupin, who
changed her routine to drop her 7-year-old daugh-
ter off at school.
Yesterday, police used dogs to search woods for
a weapon after residents reported a gunshot near
the sites of the shootings. Columbus police
spokeswoman Sherry Mercurio said officers were
talking to a man, and later led a handcuffed man
away from the direction of the woods. But author-
ities say the case is probably not related to the
shootings.
At Hamilton Central Elementary, police offi-
cers and sheriff's deputies watched over students
arriving and leaving the brick school, which has
468 students in kindergarten through third grade.
Three boys waved cheerily at an officer stationed
at the door.
Some parents said they were not comfortable
with their children being at class. Seventy stu-
A Franklin County Sheriff's officer patrols an area
near Hamilton Central Elementary School after
classes yesterday.
dents were absent yesterday, according to the
school system, almost double the usual number.
"We told them if anybody comes into the
school, to get under the desk and hide," Maupin
said.
Hamilton Central, about two miles from I-270,
sits along a rural road, with a high school on one
side and a school administration building on the
other.
See SHOOTINGS, Page 7A
Alternative to Internet holds
promise for science research
Songs to soothe the soul
By Aymar Jean
Daily Staff Reporter
Burdened by commercial activity
and crippled by security defects, the
Internet is an imperfect but often
necessary tool for researchers and
educators.
But researchers at the University, at
other institutions and corporations
around the country have been working
on an early version of an alternative
medium called Internet2, led and
administered by School of Informa-
tion Prof. Doug Van Houweling.
Since 1995, the non-profit Inter-
net2 has been providing a network
service to 205 research institutions
and about 50 corporations.
As a separate network with expand-
ed bandwidths, fewer users and
tighter security, Internet2 holds prom-
ise for researchers - primarily in sci-
Internet2 provides entirely new capa-
bilities, allowing members of the aca-
demic and corporate community to
perform video conferencing across
state and international lines, for
instance.
"One of the things that we've been
able to do is make data available to
the global research community," said
Steve Corbato, director of backbone
network infrastructure for Internet2.
Internet2's much-touted video capa-
bility has been used by a number of
researchers in fields ranging from
physics to astrology to music.
The ATLAS project, a Switzerland-
based consortium of 200 universities
doing research in physics, studies pro-
ton collision. The colliding particles
actually create new particles, allowing
scientists to study "the smallest parti-
cles that exist in nature, what are they,
how do they interact," said Edward
"For data analysis, ATLAS will be
producing a huge amount of data,
many terabytes (1,000 gigabytes), an
unprecedented amount of data," Diehl
said. "You'll need to be able to move
around a lot of data."
The large amount of empty and
secure space on Internet2 allowed
this research group to communicate
with the laboratory in Switzerland in
real time.
One of Internet2's programs, Abi-
lene, has a bandwidth of about 10
gigabits per second, the same as many
large Internet service providers. But
unlike commercial ISP's, Abilene
allows its membership - all academ-
ic and corporate research institutions
- a greater connection speed because
it has fewer customers. The goal is
that Abilene will offer members a
connection up to 100 times faster than
other ISPs.
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