{ title: 'Press-Republican. (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) 1966-current, August 09, 1984, Page 1, Image 1', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn88074101/1984-08-09/ed-1/seq-1/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn88074101/1984-08-09/ed-1/seq-1.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn88074101/1984-08-09/ed-1/seq-1/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn88074101/1984-08-09/ed-1/seq-1/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
Image provided by: Northern NY Library Network
es 1619 ons Press-Reoublican Vol. 90 - No. 297 Copyright 1M4, The Press-Republican Mine frisks on ships bound for Red Sea ByHALAKHOURY CAIRO, Egypt (UPI) - Authorities searched ships in transit to the Red Sea Wednes- day in an intensifying dragnet for mines only a day before thousands of Meccabound Moslems pilgrims were due to sail through waters where 14 ships have hit mines. Four U.S. minesweeping helicopters arrived in Rota, Spain on the first leg of a journey to join Egyptian ships and air- craft searching for mines that have disrupted shipping in the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea. Iran, whose official radio earlier attributed the minings to the pro-Khomeini Islamic Jihad terrorist group, Wednesday ac- cused the United States and Israel of trying to blame Tehran to damage its reputation. With thousands of Egyptians due to set sail Thursday through the Red Sea at the start of the an- nual Moslem pilgrimage to Mec- ca, authorities imposed tighter security measures at Egyptian ports. The chairman of the Suez Canal and Red Sea port authorities said a number of 'suspected ships\ were being searched for explosives and that a special \operations room\ had been set up to supervise the departure of the pilgrims. \Decisions have been taken to tighten security measures and ensure the safety of pilgrims un- til they leave Egyptian ter- ritorial waters,\ the port authority chairman, Abdel Aziz Suleiman said in statements published by the Al Gomhouria newspaper. Suleiman, did not identify the ships searched, but sources at the Suez Canal said they included Iranian and Libyan commercial vessels. Iran's Prime Minister Hussein Mussavi Tuesday protested the search of Iranian ships by Egyp- tian authorities. Both Iran and Libya have come under suspicion of involve- ment in the minings because an Iranian ship twice passed through the Gulf of Suez as did a Libyan ship since the first of 14 ships hit a mine July 27. \The foreign affairs ministry of the Islamic Republic strongly condemned a new conspiracy by the U.S. and the Zionist regime in the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to damage the reputation of the Islamic Revolution and Republic/ 9 the official Iranian news agency IRNA said in a dispatch monitored in Beirut. The Iranian foreign ministry called for an international con- ference to \expose the agents behind those moves.\ Iran Tuesday praised the min- ings as part of the \bitter strug- gle\ against the West-but denied any involvement r with the Islamic Jihad — the same ter- rorist group that claimed respon- sibility for the twin suicide bomb- ings that killed 241 U.S. ser- vicemen and 58 French paratroopers in Beirut last year. China's official Xinhua news agency reported -from Peking Wednesday that two Chinese vessels were seriously damaged by mines in the Red Sea last week, but it was not known whether they were among those already listed. Fourteen ships have hit mines in the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea since July 27, prompting Egypt to sweep its territorial waters for more explosive devices and request assistance from the United States and Bri- tain. m ^mr Nixon quit office By ELIZABETH WHARTON WASHINGTON (UPI) - Ten years after Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in disgrace he remains one of the most controversial leaders ever, and the Watergate scandal that drove him from office haunts the consciousness of the American people. Americans' opinions of Nixon range from reverence to hatred. Few are indifferent to the man who has inspired controversy on a national scale ever since he entered politics by defeating Democratic Rep. Jerry Voorhees for a House seat from California in 1946. Nixon resigned Aug. 9, 1974. the only president ever to do so. Asked Wednesday if he he thinks the former president has been rehabilitated, Carl Berns- tein, the former Washington Post reporter who with Bob Wood- ward was largely responsible for \ng the link of the Watergate burglary to the House, said: \I think a man has a right to redeem himself. I wish that the president would ... make aa open confession.\ \There was a cleansing effect that Watergate had on oar system,\ Bernstein, interviewed ira *P€'*- \Good Mi Fhe Hometown Newspoper of ^H Oin.ton Essex Franklm Counties Plattsburgh, N.Y., 12901, Thursday Morning, August 9,1984 Suggested Price: 30* 48 Pages America.\ said. \I think were probably better as a country ir tome ways/* Nixoo haj received thousands of letters over the past 10 years from all sides of the spectrum and his taxpayer-financed office is New York must also get rti sfeare of telephone calls. The staff apparently was Uking the day off Tuesday — repeated calls Thousands of his fellow citizens acknowledge being \Watergate junkies,\ who recite whole segments of his various public utterances from memory, collect his memorabilia, read and re-read everything written about him and even hold annual anniversary parties to mark his resignation. Rep. Peter Rodino, D-N.J., still chairman of the House Judiciary Committee that approved three articles of impeachment against Nixon, said on \Good Morning America\ that he wept after voting for impeachment. \I was saddened/' be said. \... I picked up the telephone and called my wife and, frankly, I cried — cried not for Richard Nixon, not because we had done it, but only because i guess (the emotional discharge) was so no- thing we had to get out of our system; we were glad to be rid of it.\ Former White House counsel t'n uean, w] the Senate Watergate Committee linked Nixon personally to the coverup of the burglary; former White House aide Charles Co\- «m, and Gordon Uddy. author of the campaign harassment scheme that included the break- mrt Democratic b—dq«art»rt m the Watergate complex, were asked on the ABC program what they would tell high school students about the scandal. Cotton, who became a bora- again Christian while to prison, said \I think I would tell high school students that if there is a lasting teswm. it is what the pcalmtst says — that we are to pot OQT trust not in princes aod kings, bat in the sovereign God. On target Plattsburgh Kiwanian Bob Tuoff pitches a good one Wednesday during Howard Johnson's 16th Annual Appreciation Day. The event is held for members of area service clubs, the chamber of commerce, the tourist bureau and area county, town and city of* ficials who annually make civic w contributions. (PR staff photo by Dave Paczak) Japanese commemorate bomb By JAMES TYSON TOKYO (UPI) - With a mo- ment of silence and a flight of doves, an expected 20,000 people led by Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone will mark the flash of a U.S. nuclear fireball that killed $4,000 people in Nagasaki 39 years ago. The annual observance Thurs- day in the southern port city will end a week of ceremonies remembering the victims of the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima to end World War U Ad esttm; 150.000 people were killed and 15,000 injured is the two attacks. The moment of silence will fall at 11:42 a.m., the boor and minute when \Fat Boy\ explod- ed over Nagasaki, on the fffffrgf m^tfi iflaiwl j>f speaks, administration officials said. Japan expressly forbids the manufacture or possession of nuclear weapons on its soil. The prime minister and other officials will carry small vials of water to symbolize the desperate search for water 39 years ago by citizens trying to escape the ter- rific heat of the blast. A chorus will sing 'Peace from Nagasaki\ as mourners release 250 doves to mark the end of the ceremonies. Weather f^fr^gf ^ f j Kyushu about M0 miles south of Tokyo. Nafcasoae a&4 other prominent leaders are expected to offer flowers at a memorial shrine. The names of 2.217 survivors wbo died in the last year will be added to the memorial. Nakasoae will reaffirm Japans commiUfrtai to world peace and its opposition to nuclear weapons when he Considerable cloudiness and more humid today. Highs in the km 80s with winds southeast around 10 mpfi. Lotteries The daily number drawn Wednesday in the New York state lottery was 330 The winning numbers in the Wednesday Lotto game were 17, 21. 5.23.3* and 22 The supplemental number was 10 Jury gets De Lorean drug case ByMARKZ.BARABAK LOS ANGELES (UPI) - After 300 hours of testimony, 17 witnesses and 65 government tapes, a jury began deliberations Wednesday to see \that justice is done\ in the cocaine trafficking trial of automaker John De Lorean. \It's all in God's hands/* De Lorean said after U.S. District Court Judge Robert Takasugi gave thje six-man, six-woman panel hH finailnstructions. The deliberations began at 9:48 a.m. on the 82nd day of the celebrated, complex trial. The panel met for less than four hours, adjourning at 1:30 p.m. \We're nervous, scared, anx- ious, hopeful/' chief defense at- torney Howard Weitzman said. \We hope the jury will do what we think is the right thing.\ Prosecutors ' declined com- ment. If convicted of all eight counts, De Lorean, 59, could be sentenc- ed to 87 years in prison *ad lined $180,000. De Lorean is charged with in- vesting $2 million in a scheme to import and distribute $24 million worth of cocaine, hoping the pro- fits would bail out his dying Nor- thern Ireland sports car com- pany. The Belfast factory was closed hours after De Lorean's October 1982 arrest. Opposing lawyers used literary references in presenting their final summations earlier this week. Prosecutor James Walsh liken- ed De Lorean to the legendary Faust, saying he sold his soul and made a pact with the devil. Weitzman said De Lorean was the victim of an oppresive Orwellian government, saying the former auto executive Was framed by a \con man\ infor- mant and overzealous govern- ment agents in an operation reminiscent of the novel \1984.\ \In your deliberations, you are expected to use your good sense,\ Takasugi tdld jurors in closing his instructions. He said they should not worry about whether their verdict would be seen as a victory or defeat for the government, and explained: \The government always wins when justice is done, whether the verdict is guilty or not guilty.\ Takasugi told jurors to con- sider the possibility that De Lorean was entrapped. To acquit him under that circumstance, he said, they must find evidence that De Lorean would not have £_ r * Tng jt unless amy y first approached by government agents. Conversely, he said, \if you find evidence that John De Lorean was induced, then you must go on to consider whether (he was) 'already* predisposed ... willing to commit the act.\ The judge also told jurors to use the \utmost caution\ and \great care\ in considering th6 testimony of the prosecution's star witness, paid informant James Hoffman. The case, for and against LOS ANGELES (UPI) — A summary of the case for and against former automaker John De Lorean : ' Prosecution .. . _., te for millions to save his failing sports car company, approached an ex-neighbor he knew was in the narcotics trade and asked him in June 1982 to put together a multimillion dollar drug deal. Unknown to De Lorean, his former neighbor, James Hoffman, had become a government informant to avoid jail on cocaine charges. During the next four months, De Lorean met and frequently spoke by telephone with Hoffman and undercover government agents introduced to him as Hoffman's cohorts in the drug business. The conversations were tape-recorded and videotaped, and those tapes make up the bulk of evidence against De Lorean. Prosecutors claim De Lorean hoped to use $2 million to pur- chase $24 million worth of Colombian cocaine for resale at up to $60 million. That money would have been used to pull De Lorean Motor Co. from receivership with some profit left over to use as seed money for a long-term narcotics enterprise, the prosecution contends. \John De Lorean saw the opportunity to make million of dollars in the narcotics business and he took the risk,\ prosecutor Robert Perry said in summing up the governments case. Defense De Lorean's attorneys contend their client was framed by Hoff- man, an admitted perjurer who has received more than $170,000 for his work for the government. The star defense witness, Gerald Scotti, a former federal drug agent/ testified Hoffman told him before the case was opened against De Lorean that he would \deliver** the ex-automaker to the government. Lawyers claim Hoffman took advantage of De Lorean's desperate scramble for cash to save his company by approaching him with a deal for legitimate financing. Once De Lorean started talking with him. he suddenly brought drugs into the picture and threatened D* Lore an when tb* automaker expressed reluctance at getting involved, the at- torneys contend. • Statistics describe key problem of ajcohol abuse -PageS. • Banks.offer \no-frills\ account! — Page ttt. • State mortgage agency- readies its defense — Page 11. • US men cagers ad- vance to goid-medal round -Page 14. Business News Classified Comics Date Calendar Deaths. Public £i Editorial Entertainment Horoscope Ann Landers Lively Arts Sports Weather 10.11 1M3 11 • 7 P k ovd I f 4 17 17 It *J 14-lUf U