02003 The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXIII, No. 64 meather TODA' One-hundred-thirteen years ofeditornalfreedom Mostly cloudy dur- ing the day with snow showers at night. 39 i %31 -romorrowm wwwmichigandaily.com 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. I ~ ~ I