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ATTORNEY GENERAL ROBERT ABRAMS AND DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL AL BURCZ AK BYJTMREAGEN New York State's Attorney - General Robert Abrams visited Ogdensburg Wednesday to urge consumers driving badly built new cars to consider using his agency's Lemon Law program. Abrams, who visited several upstate communities wanted to highlight his \Lemon Law Arbitra- tion program\ which the attorney general says has helped resolve almost 1,000 complaints since it began six months ago. Administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA), Abrams said the program will be providing more convenient service to consumers of the North Country who have complaints about their new cars. He said that the Attorney General's program provides an in- dependent alternative to existing arbitration programs which are sponsored by the automobile manufacturers. the arbitration program is scheduled to begin on Aug. 26 in the Plattsburgh Regional Office, at 70 Clinton Street and in the Water- town Regional Office in the State Office Building, 317 Washington Street. The Plattsburgh program will offer the services of an ar- bitrator to residents of Clinton, Essex, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties. The Watertown program will serve residents of Jefferson and portions of Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. All North Country consumers now must drive to Syracuse or Albany for access to an arbitrator. Abrams said the American Ar- bitration Association, which has administered the Attorney General's program since January, 1987, now has 13 locations around the state for its arbitration hear- ings. Consumers pay the AAA a $200 filing fee, which is returned if the consumer wins his or her case. Other arbitration programs, fund- ed by the automobile manufac- turers, are not available. Abrams said that while the manufacturer's programs do not charge the con- sumer a fee, consumers \would get a fair shake\ from the independent program, while the manufacturer- sponsored programs frequently do not give consumers the full refund or replacement vehicle to which they are entitled. The Attorney General said that during the first five months of his program, 969 consumers paid the required filing fee to have their cases heard. The arbitrators have reached decisions in 615 cases. More than two-thirds of those, or Isi JOURNAL 417 cases, were decided in the con- sumer's favor. Fifty-seven of these consumers chose to accept a replacement car, and 360 opted for a cash refund. The other one-third, or 198 cases, were decided in favor of the manufacturer. Seventy-three cases were settled before the AAA arbitrators announced a decision. When the settlements are factored in, 80 percent of the cases filed with the arbitration program were resolved successfully for the con- sumer. In the North Country, a total of 12 Lemon Law complaints have been resolved, eight in favor of the con- sumer and four in favor of the manufacturer. Five others are still pending. \There has been widespread criticism of the consumer arbitra- tion programs sponsored by the Continued On Page 12 Highlight Super Duper Offers To Help Amish — See Page 7 USPS 403900 VOL. 26NO. 8857 TWO SECTIONS-12 PAGES Briefs Jewels In Titanic BY SYDNEY RUBIN PARIS (AP) — A leather satchel containing a fortune in jewels was scooped up early Thursday by treasure hunters salvaging objects from the doomed luxury liner Titanic, the expedition leader said. The valise, which did not have an identity tag, contained jewels, bank notes and coins, according to Robert Chappaz, head of the leader. In a statement released in Paris before dawn Thursday, Chappaz said the valise was not in good con- dition. However, the existence of the leather case indicated that some organic material still re- mained intact 75 years after the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank dur- ing its maiden voyage on April 14- 15,1912. Mom Doted On Killer BY MARCUS ELIASON HUNGERFORD, England (AP) — In a day of blood and fire, a man wearing combat clothes and carry- ing an assault rifle killed 14 people, including his mother, before com- mitting suicide and leaving this quiet town in a state of shock. Police today were trying to establish a motive for 27-year-old Michael Ryan's indiscriminate rampage Wednesday, which ap- parently started in a forest outside town and ended seven hours later in an empty school. In the midst of the rampage, the man neighbors described as a gun- loving loner and \oddball\ went to the home he shared with his 60- year-bld widowed mother, shot her to death, and set fire to the house. Mercenary Stung MIDLAND, Texas (AP) — A self- proclaimed mercenary who said the Iranian government sent him to barter for $2 million in stolen missile parts was snared in a coun- ty sheriff's international sting operation, officials say. Victor Manuel Fonseca, 47, of Lisbon, Portugal, was arrested Wednesday while inspecting crates he believed contained stolen Hawk missile parts and radar tubes, Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter said. Fonseca was jailed under $500,000 bond and charged with organized criminal activity; a state offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine ( Painter said. Laos Aids MIA's BY HENRY GOTTLIEB WASHINGTON (AP) — The Lao- tian government has agreed to ac- count for three Americans who fail- ed to emerge from captivity after the Indochina War, sources familiar with recent negotiations say. The Laotians also appear to be willing to survey one of a number of sites where U.S. aircraft crashed during the war, to check for re- mains of some of the 549 Americans still listed as missing in Laos, the sources said, Dally Entered -As Second Class Mailer Posl OOlce Ogdensburg. N,/. A Tark Newspaper OGDENSBURG, N.Y.- THURSDAY, AUGUST 20,1987 Republican Established 1830 Copyright© 1981 Park Newspapers of St. Lawrence, Inc. Journal Established 13SB SECTION ONE SINGLE COPY 25$ Reagan: No Deal Behind Glass Release BYBARRYSCHWEID WASHINGTON (AP) - The next step in improving U.S. relations with Syria will be the return of Am- bassador William Eagleton to Damascus, U.S. officials say, but the Reagan administration is try- ing to prevent the move from being seen as a reward for the freedom of hostage Charles Glass. Two administration officials, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday a deci- sion to send the ambassador back around Sept. 1 was made before Glass gained his Jlreedom in Beirut onTuesdayT \We don't want Eagleton to be a reward for Glass,\ one official said. Some U.S. analysts are con- vinced the Syrians, at U.S. behest, put pressure on Iran, which it is helping in the Persian Gulf war with Iraq, to free Glass and eight other American hostages also believed to be held in the Lebanese capital. In fact, the official said, the am- bassador's return might be set back a little bit to separate it from Glass's liberation. Despite the decision to send Eagleton back, Syria remains on the State Department's list of coun- uries that sponsor terrorism. The others cited are Cuba, Iran, Libya no to and South Yemen. The official said he knew of consideration being given removing Syria from the list. Eagleton was withdrawn last fall to show strong U.S. disapproval of what American and British experts concluded was Syrian support for terrorism. High-level U.S. contacts with President Hafez Assad's government were banned by Presi- dent Reagan, and a number of' other diplomatic and economic sanctions were imposed. But after Assad closed down the Damascus headquarters of Abu Nidal, a Palestinian extremist ac- cused in the bombing of the Rome and Vienna airports in 1985 and a synagogue in Turkey in 1986, Reagan reversed his ban in June and sent U.N. Ambassador Vernon Walters to see Assad in July. Walters talked to the Syrian leader about Glass and the other American hostages. After Glass's liberation — he said he escaped but U.S. officials are skeptical — Reagan administration spokesmen praised Syria \for its efforts to secure his freedom.\ The praise was extended even while the spokesmen acknowledg- ed they did not know how the televi- sion journalist got free after 62 days in captivity. Iran Offers Help To Free Hostages HISH REDEIt - Keith Smith pivots atop a quaiterpipe ramp, showing his blossoming skills as a BMIX Freestyle rider. Smith and a group of_BMX and Skateboard enthusiasts are petitioning the city to build a halfpipe ramp to allow them to practice their freestyle bicycle acrobatics, a rapidly grow- ing sport across the country. See story on page eight. (Shea Photo) Families Should Keep Hope Glass: Syria Pressuring Terrorists BYDEBRJVCRAINE LCXNDONf (AP> - Charles Glass celebrated freedom with a party and a faanily stroll and said relatives o£ the 24 foreigners held hostage in Lebanon should be en- couraged b-y pressure Syria is put- ting on theixloved ones' captors. The American journalist was reunited with his wife, Fiona, 39, and their five children earlier Wednesday, a day after fleeing his captors wlille they slept in an apartment \building on the outskirts of Moslem -west Beirut. \I just want to be at home with my family, \he told reporters. \Be- ing athomeis more than enough.\ Tbxe Syrians have said Glass was permitted to escape because of their efforts. American officials have Syria may have pressured Iran, to order the journalist's release. Glass told reporters that a Syrian-arranged release may have been \politically possible\ but he did not think it was the case since his guards had become harsher in recent weeks and they had not altered their routine. The Glass family held a large private party Wednesday night at the journalist's 18th century house in London's Notting Hill district. His parents and sister flew in from Los Angeles for the reunion. The journalist and his family also took, a long stroll in London's Hyde Park. \What could be more wonderful than having your son back,\ the journalist's father, Charles Glass Jr., of Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. \He looks great; it's amazing. I was scared to death what I would see when I got here.\ Glass, 36, who was held for 62 days by Lebanese Moslem gunmen, said he was not beaten or tortured during his ordeal. He said he had no plans to return to Beirut and would stay home to write a travel book about the Mid- dle East. Glass, a Los Angeles native who had taken leave from his job as cor- respondent with ABC to write a book on the Middle East, was doing research when he was kidnapped June 17. The abduction was claim- ed by the previously unknown Organization for the People's Defense • After his escape, Syrian soldiers policing part of Beirut sent him to Damascus, where he was turned over to U.S. officials and caught a plane for London. NEW YORK (AP) — Iran's parliament speaker says his coun- try does not condone hostage tak- ing and would like to help arrange a swap to free foreign captives in Lebanon. \I am not saying that I have ab- solute power to do that, I only pro- mise to make my best efforts. I think I can be of some help,\ Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani said Wednesday in an interview being broadcast today on NBC's \Today\ show. He said that for such a swap to occur, the United States would have to exert pressure on Israel and Kuwait to release Shiite Moslem prisoners. The three countries have said they oppose what they describe as dealing with terrorists. But Israel has released Shiite prisoners to gain freedom of captured ser- vicemen in Lebanon, and the United States last year engaged in what is widely viewed as an arms- for-hostages deal with Iran. Rafsanjani denied that the government of Iran controls the groups holding 24 foreigners, in- cluding eight Americans, hostage in Lebanon. \We have some influence in cer- tain groups in that country but we never interfere in what they do,\ he said. \Some of them listen to Reagan Faces Right Wing Wrath Over Contra Deal BY MERRILL HARTSON preted as abandonment of the Con- SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) tra rebels, conservatives remain — When President Reagan ven- suspicious, tures from idealism to political Reagan nas used his fair share of pragmatism, he gets into trouble rhetoric on the Sandiaista govern- with his conservative followers. meat headled by President Daniel Nowhere is this more apparent Ortega, saving at one point that his than in the furor surrounding Reagan's decision to consider a diplomatic, rather than military, solution to the leftist dictatorship in Nicaragua. While Reagan and his top associates have said repeatedly the president's embrace of new peace initiatives should not be inter- goaL was to make the Sandinistas \say uncle,\ But in tbie aftermath of the Iran- Contra axms-ajnd'inoney affair, Reagan's aides apparently were ready wltta some pretty pragmatic advice: Show a willingness to negotiate a settlement to the con- flict, or there will be no chance that Congress will approve any new military assistance to the Contras in the budget year starting Oct. 1. Now, conservatives are pro- testing that Reagan is reneging on his commitment to the men the president once likened to our \founding fathers,\ the \freedom- fighters\ whose cause he has ar- ticulated so often. This crescendo of criticism may have led to recent statements by the administration emphasizing that the administration would not turn its back on the Contra fighting force — the \insurance policy\ against the export of subversion in the Western Hemisphere, Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater admitted as much when he told reporters last Friday: \You have to recognize that In this pro- cess, there are a number of very heavy pressures being brought to bear on everyone involved by con- stituent groups for a number of dif- ferent positions.\ In fact, one White House official who accompanied Reagan west for the president's vacation groused privately that conservatives want the president to merely carry their rnetorical water, no matter whether that costs him heavily in the things he's able to achieve before leaving office in early 1989. Rep. Jack Kemp, R-N.Y.', a 1988 presidential contender, seized the opportunity last week after Reagan's speech on the Iran- Contra affair to say he was \grave- ly disappointed\ the president \did not forcefully restate his principle of continued military aid to the freedom fighters if democracy and freedom are to be achieved in Nicaragua.\ what we tell them.\ The Lebanese groups implicated in the hostage taking are composed of Shiites loyal to Iran's revolu- tionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Thursday RCMA Blocked New York State's Agriculture Commissioner wants to know why manufacturers and milk process- ing plants are trying to prevent the formation of the RCMA — See Page 2 Weather Today...Areas of fog early this morning...Otherwise partly cloudy and cooler than Wednesday. A chance of afternoon showers. Chance of rain...30 Percent. High in the mid 70s. Light wind early this morning...Northwest 10 to 15 mph this afternoon. Tonight and friday...Partly cloudy. Low in the lower 50s. High friday near 80. Light wind tonight. Index State News Pace 2 National News .'.\ Pace 3 Editorials p age * 4 Local N <ws Page7,12 Sportf;---;-. Pages8,9 Classified Ads Pages 10 RENTED ON FIRST CALL!! CAMP tdeeps 6 to 8 people. Dock, boat hoist, screened in pore? sundeck. Seasonal preferred^E thly considered. 000-0000. WE WORK FOR YOU! The Journal Classifieds CALL 393-1003 or 393-1Q0A
