| Show ) Salt Lake City Utah—Monday Morning February 27 190 Vol 237 No 136 Tower Vows By Donna Cassata Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary-designate John Tower said Sunday that he is not an alcoholic and issued an extraordinary pledge not to take a single drink if he is confirmed by the Senate to head the Pentagon As Tower defended his reputation in nationally televised interviews Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn a accused the White House of leaking information from the FBI report on Tower and threatened to reopen the hearings on the nomination and subpoena onfirmed uit rinking anonymous witnesses quoted in the agency review The committee voted 11-along party lines last Thursday to recommend that the full Senate reject Tower's nomination with Nunn citing allegations of excessive drinking by the nominee In his first interview since the vote Tower denied that he was an alcoholic and with his unusual promise sought to allay fears among his former colleagues and remove the obstacles to his confirmation The full Senate is expected to take up the nomination Wednesday 9 "Noting the principal concern of Senator Nunn and other members of the Senate relative to my confirmation as secretary of Defense namely the extent to which I may engage in excessive use of beverage alcohol let me state that I have never been an alcoholic nor dependent on alcohol" Tower said in a statement he read on ABC-TV- s "This Week With David Brinkley" "I hereby swear and undertake that if confrmecl during the course of my tenure as Secretary of Defense I will not consume beverage alcohol of any type or form including wine beer or spirits of any kind" he said Tower distributed copies of the statement after reading it on the air Dated Saturday it was signed by Tower and witnessed by his doctor at Baylor University Dr Warren Lich-liteand Department of Transportation Secretary Samuel K Skinner Tower also vowed that if he broke his pledge not to drink he would step down I think I'd be obliged to resign if I broke the pledge I've never broken a pledge in my life" said the former Texas senator And following the interview Tower was asked whether it would be all r right for reporters to follow him as they did former presidential candidate Gary Hart whose bid for the presidency was derailed by his liaison with a part-timmodel "Look a secretary of defense lives in a goldfish bowl If anybody wants to put a tail on me they can- - Tower said In the interview Tower read a portion of a letter from Lich liter that said tests conducted prior to his surgery to remove a colon polyp found normal liver functions and that there was no evidence of alcohol withdrawal following the operation -Based on this fact that can be e Khomeini Seeks Soviet Ties To Fight 'Devilish' West By Neil Mac Farquhar Associated Press Writer NICOSIA Cyprus — Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini said Sunday he wants strong ties with Moscow to help fight the "devilish" West and Iranian legislators reportedly agreed to consider breaking ties with Britain Khomeini's overtures to the Soviet Union which he previously condemned for its atheist ideology r came during a meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze Sheverdnadze later met Prime Minister Hussein Musavi and delivered an invitation for him to visit Moscow according to Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency IRNA said Shevardnadze did not ask Khomeini to withdraw his order for Moslem zealots to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie because of his book "The Satanic I12-hou- Verses" Britain reportedly asked Shevardnadze to press Khomeini to give a reprieve to Rushdie whose book has been denounced as insulting to Islam "There was no mention of the affair in Shevardnadze's speech" said IRNA monitored in Nicosia The meeting with Shevardnadze came two days after Khomeini declared Iran does not need relations with the West This issue has divided the Tehran hierarchy between pragmatists who favor more relations with the rest of the world and hardliners who favor continued isolation However Iran's Cabinet declared Sunday it is united behind Khomeini reported Tehran Television which also was monitored in Nicosia "Your children are united as a single hand against the enemies of Islam" it quoted a Cabinet statement as saying of the international furor over Rushdie The award winning author born into a Moslem family in India has been in hiding since Khomeini's Feb 14 execution order and Iranian religious leaders put a $52 million bounty on his head In protest Britain withdrew all its diplomats from its embassy in Tehran which had been reopened in December after an earlier rift of more than a year It also asked Iranian diplomats to leave London The 11 other European Community countries as well as Norway Sweden and Canada recalled their top diplomats from Iran and Tehran brought its ambassadors home No diplomatic ties have been formally broken But religious leaders in Tehran last week called for a break with Britain Associated Press Writer SEOUL South Korea — President Bush calling the United States "a faithful friend and a dependable ally" of South Korea said Monday he has no plans to reduce US troops stationed in this strife-tornation the last stop on a whirlwind five-daAsian tour "They will remain in the Republic of Korea as long as they are needed and as long as we believe it is in the interest of peace" Bush said in re n y marks prepared for a speech to the National Assembly Bush's visit came amid unusually stringent security because of a rash demonstraof recent tions The president made no mention of the often-violeprotests in his prepared remarks but focused on the history of the US military presence that Korean radicals want removed In 1950 when North Korean forces invaded the south "without hesitation or delay American and United Begins Special Plane Checks it ! - life have you noticed all the parkirg spaces are filled? i e said "I remember the devastation of your country Your cities lay in rubble Your factories were in shambles Millions of your people wandered the streets homeless and hungry" Bush headed here after a two-da- y visit to China whose troops fought on the side of North Korea in that 1950s conflict y —Assoctoted The president stressed new US relations with China But his upbeat visit was marred by harassment of a leading dissident The dissident astrophysicist Fang Lizhi said his efforts to atten4 a farewell banquet hosted by Bush were repeatedly frustrated by police even though he and his wife had been invited by the president South Korea's capital has been buffeted in recent weeks by violent demonstrations as radical students demanded that the much-improve- d n V7 V e I 1 - t" wasgrotkAtvitowo Vci00 —United Press internotional 828 Pounds a Billion-Dolla- be moved Police said they did not know who but they said the blast may be linked to protests over Rushdie's book Hundreds of Moslems protesting US publication of the novel attacked the American cultural center in Islamabad on Feb 12 sparking police gunfire that killed five people At least another 60 people were injured from bullets tear gas and rocks Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini has called for the execution because of the book was responsible A security force 120000-stronwas mobilized to guard Bush during g r visit against threats his both from student radicals and from North Korean commandos In his speech Bush likened the Korean National Assembly to the US Congress -- full of noise contention and emotion: "But that is the sound of democracy at work" he said "Throughout let our close economic and strategic See A-- Column 2 five-hou- 2 By Christine Donnelly Associated Press Writer HONOLULU — A failed lock may have caused a United Airlines Jumbo door to pop open at jets cargo 22000 fE et ripping a huge hole up the side of the plane and sending nine passengers to their deaths federal investigators say Damage to the plane is consistent with the cargo door popping open under pressurization of the cabin as the jet gained altitude and atmospheric pressure outside the aircraft declined National Transportation Safety Board investigator Lee Dickinson said at a late Saturday news conference The Federal Aviation Adminstration in July ordered airlines to improve cargo door lock systems on older Boeing 747s after a door in one plane partly opened in flight The deadline for the work was the end of 1989 United had inspected all 25 of its by the order but had completed the required modifications on just six by last week spokesman Russell Mack said in Chicago The plane in last week's accident was jets covered ftmatt60: The Coast Guard has suspended search af ter finding personal items such as shoes US bases hurt Did Failed Lock Allow Jet's Door to Open? 10 N Loserphoto Korea S Tw)7' AtN- PTEMS Ayatollah Khomeini who once condemned Moscow for its atheist ideology listens Sunday to Soviet foreign minister e--' INT cent unrest over the book by Indian-bor- n British writer Salman Rushdie The Satanic Verses" which many Moslems consider sacrilegious 3- They said the 10 at went about bomb off pound pm in the guardhouse at the main entrance to the sprawling British consulate compound in a posh residential area of the southern port of Karachi Pakistan's largest city The explosion damaged the roof of the main building and wrecked the guardhouse killing one security man inside police said They said another guard on duty at the time was strolling inside the compound and was not 1 i I KARACHI Pakistan (UPI) — A massive bomb exploded at the British consulate Sunday damaging the building and killing a security guard police said Police officials said they suspect the explosion was connected to re 416101410 ':?0 Pilot° and teddy bear but no bodies Nine passengers were sucked out of United flight not one of the six he said Dickinson said th ! pilot and told investigators Saturday there was no indication of trouble closing the cargo doors Dickinson said a warning light in the cockpit would have indicated if the doors were not closed properly More than 70 investigators including 16 from the NTSB worked Sunday on finding the cause of the accident But the Coast Guard suspended a sea and air search 100 miles south of here after finding more debris from the plane Coast Guard U Brad Nelson said the search was hampered by high seas "There's probably not a lot more that can be picked up' he said United Flight 811 carrying 354 people had taken off Friday for New Zealand and was about 100 miles from Honolulu when the fuselage ripped open over the Pacific Ocean Nine passengers were sucked out and are presumed dead The pilot lost power in one of the four engines and shut down another when a fire indicator light went on Column See co-pil- A-- 2 Haul r Inside The Tribune FBI Stumbles on Largest Heroin Bust in US History By Larry McShane Associated Press Writer NEW YORK — It wasnA like the "French Connection" heroin bust There was no careening car chase no colorful "Popeye" Doyle cracking the case But agents who smashed a Hong narcotics ring last week stumbled onto the largest heroin haul in US history when they seized $1 billion worth of the drug packed in hollowed-ou- t golf cart tires -This seizure is much bigger than the French Connection: " said US Attorney Andrew J Maloney who prosecuted some of the cases stemming from the drug ring that in1971 film spired the The biggest seizure from the whole 'French Connection' was about 220 pounds But this — everybody was- amazed by the size of this n Oscar-winnin- Chuckle Today's As you travel down the road of side-by-sid- 1 Rushdie Compromise: A4 IrMIT""m"M"IPMM17 CHICAGO (AP) — United Airlines has begun a series of special maintenance checks on its aircraft following the accident near Hawaii in which nine people died the airline said Sunday The maintenance checks are "over and above United's existing procedures and those required by the Federal Aviation Administration" said United Chairman Stephen M Wolf "By announcing these steps we want to make clear that we are not speculating and will not speculate on the cause of Friday's incident" Wolf said in a company statement "By the same token we have an absolute commitment to safety and we intend to go well beyond our already-stric- t standards and FAA requirements" A cargo door may have popped open on United Flight 811 ripping a hole in the side of the Boeing 747 which was flying at 22000 feet about 100 miles south of Honolulu federal investigators have said Nine of the 354 people on board were blown out and are presumed dead The plane returned safely to Honolulu Wolf also said the 747 involved in Friday's accident on Flight 811 was in compliance with all FAA airworthiness directives and maintenance requirements However the jet's cargo door locks had not yet been modified under a July order by the Federal Aviation Administration that airlines improve cargo door lock systems on older Boeing 747s after a door in one plane partly opened in flight The deadline for that work is the end of this year United had inspected all 25 of its jets covered by the order but had completed the required modifications on just six by last week spokesman Russell Mack said in Chicago The plane in Friday's accident was not one of the six he said Because the right forward cargo door was suspected in the incident Wolf said United checked all cargo doors on its fleet of 31 747s and all were found to be in proper working order UN forces rushed to your aid Together Americans and Koreans for your right to fought determine your own future" Bush A-- 2 Bomb Kills At British Consulate 0 Bush Has No Plans to Pull Troops From By Tom Baum stated with relative certainty Senator Tower shows no evidence at all of alcoholic impairment or alcoholism- the letter said In an interview with Cable News Network Tower acknowledged that he was an excessive drinker during the 1970s hut denied that he had a drinking problem "Drank to excess I wouldn't say that I had a problem That is to say I wasn't hooked on it I wasn't dependent on it I did drink too much" he said On the AD(7 program Tower conceded that there 1'as a point in his life when he changed his drinking See Column 1 seizure- 4 g Federal authorities on the night of Feb 20 hit three locations in the borough of Queens grabbing 828 pounds of 90 percent pure heroin from Southeast Asia — enough to supply one out of every five US heroin addicts for a year The amount of heroin was so big that when Assistant FBI Director James M Fox arrived at his office Tuesday morning he cautiously asked if a radio report he had heard was correct: Had 300 pounds of heroin really been seized? "No" replied a colleague with a straight face "It was 828 pounds Eighteen suspects were arrested in New York City and 13 in Detroit Los Angeles San Francisco Chicago Singapore Hong Kong and Canada Seized along with the drugs was S3 million cash Fox putting the seizure in perspective said the FBI had taken in 't just over 500 pounds of heroin in all of 1988 The celebrated Pizza Connection case in which heroin was distributed nationwide through pinerias produced 18 convictions but no major drug seizure Operation White Mare — named for the heroin's color and its street name "horse" — started with an informant's tip that Chinatown businessman Peter Woo one of the 31 people arrested was involved in drug trafficking court papers indicated When the probe ended 18 months later more than 100 law enforcement officials were involved and the FBI had taped more than 100 conversations between New York and Canada Singapore and Hong Kong -Unlike the French Connection this was a whole new culture we were - said We Maloney dealing withhad hours and hours of conversa Tribune Telephone Numbers on A-3 tons in part Chinese part English different dialects" As a result the FBI combed its of- fices across the country for agents to translate the wiretaps Complicating the language barrier was a code used by the alHeroin was called leged dealers: -"shrimp" or vegetables- for example While a bust of this size will hurt the heroin trade Maloney acknowledged it was no death blow "We're making heavy dents but there's always somebody waiting to in and take over" said Maloney step -They keep spitting it out as fast as we make seizures" Which means this record-settinbust will someday be surpassed? hate to say no I guess you have to assume there always are bigger fish in the lake" said Fox -- But I think it's going to be a long time before that happensChinese-speakin- g i g Asimov Quiz Business Classified Comics Crossword Editorials Entertainment Foreign Intermountain B-- 2 D-- B-- 3 I I A-I- A67 A-- 4 2 Lifestyle Local National Obituaries B10 Public Forum A-1- 1 Sports Star Gazer Television Washington 4 D-- 7 D-- 8 A-2- 5 Today's Forecast Salt Lake City and vicinity — Variable clouds Isolated mountain show ers Cooler Highs 40s Lows 20s e |
