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Show (HIk akf Sri b mu Jsalt Tuesday Morning Section October 14, 1986 Page 16 A U.S. Operations in Nicaragua May Exceed Wink, Shrug U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, worries that the Reagan administrations praise for private gunrunning operations in Nicaragua will increasingly blur the line between official and support of the Contra efforts. Eventually, he says, nobody is going to see a distinction of whether they the gunrunners are there officially working for the United States or only with the encouragement of the United D-V- t., non-offici- al States." The senators warnings may very well have come too late, in light of the revelations of Vice President George Bushs, albeit still very tenuous, conn nection with Max Gomez, the who reportedly did most of the coordination of aerial supply operations to the Contras, according to the captured Eugene Hasenfus. Cuban-America- Gomez, say press accounts, got the job with the help of Donald Gregg, Vice President Bushs national security adviser. The vice president and Mr. Gregg deny everything. Still doubts persist. Mr. Bush, it must be remembered, once headed the Central Intelligence Agency and no doubt still has numerous contacts among its employees and former employees. For that matter, Gomez fought in the CIAs Bay of Pigs operation in 1961 and reportedly worked for the agency at least as recently as the 1970s. Also Mr. Gregg and Gomez are both said to have worked in Vietnam airline Air for the defunct America. Additionally, Mr. Bush acknowledged to reporters that he had met Gomez three times, but he has CIA-funde- d refused to say what their relationship was. These are the sort of indications supporting the idea that private supply operations to the Contras may have gone considerably beyond the governmental wink and a shrug Sen. Leahy anguishes over. There is, as the senator says, reason to wonder whether the administration was involved with more than verbal encouragement of these people. The administration could, if it wanted to, sharply curtail the private Contra aid efforts originating in this country. There are sufficient laws restricting such exercises, they only need to be enforced. Accounts of a connection to El Salvador and on to Nicaragua generate strong hints that those laws might have been ignored, and may have been for some time. Inadequate Education Law The state attorney generals recent opinion regarding home education confirms, once again, the inadequacy of Utahs school attendance time as children are required by law to be taught in district schools. Thats not very specific. Nothing is said about quality of instruction. Delaw, pending on whos reading it, the law According to the formal opinion, gives parents a lot of leeway or school boards a lot of power with home prepared by Assistant Attorney General Ralph Finlayson, Utah school disschooling. In any case, its wide open tricts have the authority to check up to interpretation by school boards, on home schools only once a year. His parents and the courts. As such, it inreasoning is based on the Compulsory vites litigation. Or even confrontaAttendance Act, which says students tions like the one that ended in John may be excused for home schooling Singers shooting death in 1979. in each year by the local board of Just three years ago, a Utah home education. school association claimed as many as Mr. Finlayson has interpreted re800 members, some of whom threatlated provisions of the law to mean ened legal action if school districts that school districts can only inquire tried to increase supervision of their somewhat regarding the texts and home schools. While some of those teaching approaches to be used" in parents undoubtedly educate their home schools. children well, others lack the necesThese conclusions collide with an sary ability or commitment. Conseinformal opinion issued by the same quently, some children are missing the opportunity to receive a good office three years ago. At that time, Assistant Attorney General John enough education to become producMcAllister told school boards they tive, satisfied citizens. could set educational standards for Its up to the state to assure that home schools regarding subjects all children have as equal a chance at success as possible. That assurance taught, instruction time, teaching cannot be provided in Utah as long as competence, adequacy of teaching materials, student progress and parents are able to take undue advanschool records. He suggested the tage of loose language in the law and board establish a procedure for evaluuntil school districts have the authortesthome programs, including ating ity to intervene. A revised compulsory attendance ing student progress at least annually. law must permit, if not require, school When two diametrically opposite districts to set quality standards for home schools and to regularly monireadings of the same law come out of the same office within three years, the tor them. Otherwise, too many chilis is that dren will slip through societys cracks. high probability something With with law. or the without wrong the conflicting opinions, flaws in Orbiting Paragraphs Utahs compulsory attendance statute are obvious. Even the most brilliant and longest life is The law allows parents to educate but a brief shooting star in the vast expanse of eternity children at home as long as the local school board excuses them and they're taught in the branches prescribed by law for the same length of I Most doctors claim brandy won t help cure a cold The rest mind their own Lies Lurk in U.S. Latin Policy, Too By Frank Del Olmo Los Angeles Time Writer Why is everybody so upset about the revelation that administration officials lied when they waged a "disinformation" cam- paign against Libya's Moammar Gadhafi? After all, President Reagan and his aides have used evasions and outright lies to justify their policies in Central America for years now. Does anybody remember when the administration first ordered the CIA to covertrebels in Nicaraly aid the gua, the Contras? The official explanation was that they would use the money to interdict arms that the Sandinistas were shipping rebels in El Salvador. to Instead, the CIA used the Contras in a methodical campaign to overthrow a government with which the United States is officially at peace. Congress ordered a halt to the charade when it found out CIA operatives, not Contras, were mining Nicaragua's harbors. But Reagans cynical shell game continued. Out of the woodwork came private right-win- g organizations that volunteered to or freedom provide aid to the Contras fighters" as Reagan began calling them in another campaign of obfuscation. posed to be helping the Contras officially, not until funds approved by Congress are disbursed, they are clearly getting help, and lots of it, from somewhere now. Reagans $100 million aid package for the Contras has been held up pending final approval of the military appropriations bill of fore the 1988 presidential campaign begins, and when an unresolved Central American war could become an issue. But if a Contra offensive is to take place by November or December, the ammunition, guns, boots and other material that the Contras need would have to be on their way now. So there is a real chance that Gonzalez suspicions about Southern Air Transport are right, and the Reagan administration is and deceiving Conagain cutting corners gress and the American public in the process to keep its bloody Nicaragua policy on track. Neither Congress nor the press has ever found a "smoking gun in the Central American disinformation campaign, nothing like the National Security Council memo that revealed the campaign against Gadhafi when it was published by The Washington Post. But they should be looking for it. Asking some hard questions about the surge in activities for the Contras would be a good place to start. half-truth- While these Contra-aigroups were all officially private, the government links were there for anyone who looked closely enough activists or just listened to the right-win- g involved. The leading spokesman for the Contra-aigroups, retired U.S. Army Gen. John K. Singlaub. has said many times that he is carrying out the wishes of the White d d House and CIA. There were also several reports that a member of the president's National Security Council staff. Marine Corps Col. Oliver L. North, maintained close contact with Contra leaders and even gave them military intelligence and other information obtained through government channels. Most recently, Elliott Abrams, the assis- tant secretary of state for Latin America, went out of his way to praise U.S. citizens who privately work to overthrow the Sandinistas. He did so while talking about the latest Nicaraguan incident that the administrathe tion is trying to away downing of a contra transport plane with three U.S. citizens in its crew. g The White House, State Department, CIA and Defense Department all deny the three Americans had any ties with the U.S. government. But anyone paying attention could see the strands of the private citizens cover story coming unraveled some time ago. Recently, for example, the Costa Rican government discovered a mile-lonairstrip carved out of the rain forests near its border with Nicaragua. Several workers employed on the project told a Sew York Tim?s reporter that they had been hired by Americans, one of whom said that he was a former Green Beret working on classified matters. Then there was the crash of a civilian transport plane last Saturday at Kelly Air Force Base, in San Antonio. The local congressman, Democrat Henry B. Gonzalez, suspects that the cargo plane may have also been carrying supplies for the Contras. He told Congress that the plane was owned by Southern Air Transport, a company that was owned by the CIA from 1960 to 1973. g And then ABC News reported that one of its video crews had filmed the same plane that was downed in Nicaragua when it was parked last year at a Miami airfield in a spot owned by Southern Air Transport. So, while the U S government is not sup Frank del Olmo is a editorial writer. Los Angeles Times which it is part. Yet government sources admit that the logistical planning already is well under way for a major upsurge in Contra military activity this winter when Central Americas rainy season ends. A winter offensive is important to the Contras because they need quick victories to show Congress that they are a viable fighting force against the larger Sandinista army. A few victories could help them get more money out of Congress early next year, be- Lars-Eri- k air-supp- Nelson 4 If English Becomes Official What About Us Americans New York Daily News WASHINGTON California is about to pass a law making English the official state language, I observed to a New Yorker the other day. Whaddya? Kiddin? he replied. No, seriously. The idea is that all newcomers to these shores shall be swiftly integrated into the mainstream of American society through familiarity with our language. Om fa dat, he said approvingly. Yes, I thought you would be. English is an eloquent and varied tongue, a treasure house of literature, the vehicle of world commerce and, even for the humblest, an entree into the innermost workings of the greatest nation on Earth, rich in poetry and lyrical beauty. Hey, yeah. Ya know what I mean? Imagine the hardships that would be visited upon our new arrivals if they were not encouraged swiftly to enter the mainstream of our culture by mastery of our precise and expressive language. Oh, wow, he agreed. They would find themselves left behind, unable to rise from their respective linguistic ghettos, tempted to think that they could somehow survive in this society without a command of its universal medium of discourse. Whattadey? Goofy? English, its like where it's at. Now, it is true that American English is not a pure language. Big deal. The wonder of American English, in fact, is that it has been able to absorb and meld a rich variety of cultures into a single intelligible argot, accessible to each of its denizens. Less a guys maybe a total schnook, you got it, pally. Why, what we think of as English today includes universally understood adoptions like stoop and boss from the Dutch, from the Swedish, honcho from the Japanese, cop from the Yiddish and a whole host of words from Indian languages and Spanish. What about nudnik?" Yes, Russian, too. Despite these foreign words, the basis of English is a logical, though flexible, grammar that follows certain predictable rules and a vocabulary so rich that I think we can all proudly say there is hardly a meaning the mind can conceive that cannot be expressed in our tongue. Mazel tov, ya so prouda yaself." True, the law might give some offense to those Americans whose native language is not English. Spanish-speakinresidents have been in parts of this country far longer than Anglos. And there are French-speaker- s whose families have been here for centuries. So? Leddem loin, same as my old man hadda. He got off the boat, he knew from nothing. And today, I mean, look at me. Inspirational stories such as yours are legion, my friend. Yes, education is an obvious answer. It would open up a new world to the millions who seek freedom and opportunity among us, accelerate their acceptance into commerce and industry, the arts and the professions. Hey, not so fast, buddy." Surely you cannot deny that mandatory use of English is an excellent proposal for the good of the commonweal. Naw, naw, naw. Lemme think a minute. Ese guys cornin in from wherever Korea, I mean, a lot of Haiti, Hong Kong, Russia em are not your typical jerk, ya know what I mean?" g Yes, they are by and large industrious and even adventurous people, eager to take risks and reap the rewards of the free enterprise system. All they need to move ahead in life is command of our great American language. They could wind up talking as good as hard-workin- me. Better, I hope. And then, where would I be" You have a point, sir. Forget this new mandatory English law. Who needs it? I mean, gimme a break, Church Reforms Should Come From Vatican, Not Its Representatives Universal Press Syndicate rulings, he will disobey five of the Ten mandments The press is everywhere writing about the tensions caused by what is referred to as the pope's "crackdown" on "liberal" Catholics. Cited especially are the Rev Charles Curran of Catholic University of America, who was told by the Vatican he could not proceed to teach his theological doctrines at a university that is the teaching arm of the Vatican in the United States and pronounce " his teachings as "Catholic The problem there, if you want to put it so, is that Catholic theology is. so to speak, copyrighted in the Vatican, and although it and has in the past to retains the liberty change here and' there the construction of this or that doctrine, it is the Vatican that does this, not a local bottling plant Right now, Pope John 1aul II is opting for Classic Coke, and it is unlikely that any U S court is going to look hospitabh on Curran's appe.il to g' int him the right to ontinue to te.e !, st a atn an institution as a theologian Nix!, the pope tracked down on Arh h'.p Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle, re Com- But now we have Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, delivering a lecture Protestant theological center in which he has warned the pope Warned him of what0 That if he keeps it up - this business of exercising his authority over the theological department of Catholic University of America, and over the behavior of such as Archbishop Hunthausen the pope runs the risk that the Catholic churches in the United States will degenerate, if that is a permissible word to use under the circumstances, into the condition of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands "The comparison to the church in the Netherlands." explains .Vcic Yurk Ttfu's reporter Joseph Berger, seemed to underscore the influential archbishop's sense of urgency about recent VatiDutch Catholics are can actions among the most liberal in the world, and many in the t hurt h there have distanced themselves from Rome and its teachings " Indeed, the pope recently went to the Netherlands where he was not very hospitably before moving from him most of the authority regularly exercised by a bishop It is not absolutely predicted whether the archbishop will accept this limitation on his authority with docility, docility not being the archbishop's strong point A few years ago he announced that in order to protest the defense policies of the United States, he was going to f from his income tax, a sum subtract that, the archbishop calculated was destined to go to the maintcnunc e of our nuclear strategic force It isn t ejs to come up with a theological analogy of the bishops civil disobedience Perhaps along the wav tie will dei lari t hat unless he agrecs with atuan one-hal- a treated by many Catholics, who his stands on the role of women in the church, birth control, and other is- sues." presumably including stripteases Archbishop Weakland. to continue the news story, recalled that he visited the Netherlands in the summer of 1984 and found little attendance at Mass, a decline in the numbers of those pursuing the priesthood, and other indications of a dispirited church I had a feeling that the Dutch church was rather moribund.' he said " Archbishop Weakland went on to warn that the American Catholic church might move in the same direction as the Dutch church "He said," Mr. Berger summarized, "many American Catholics could drift away, feeling 'we don't have the energy to fight The whole of with that kind of thing American society." the bishop explained, "is anti institutional, and they bring that attiA certain disillu tude to the church sionment that the momentum of Vatican II will fie lost in all areas" is the common eoncm - t I bluntly-challenge- I Of course the implicit position of Archbishop Weakland is that congregational loyalty is a function of the indistinguishability between how the church says we ought to live and how we choose to live That assumption is not entirely easy to document. If it is true that the majority of American Catholics practice birth control in defiance of church doctrine, neither of two things necessarily follows 1) that church doctrine is wrong, or 2) that loyalty to the church would increase if church doctrine were, to use the term of modern ethicists, to be "situationalized " Attendance at Mass was in fact much denser before Vatican II than after it. and even though it is greatly reduced, Sunday worship remains leagues ahead of its counterpart in many of the 1rotestant churches, where doci .nal disciplines are, well, museum pieces If Archbishop Weakland runs out of energy, there are those who hope that lack of energy will also enervate his desire to introduce socialism to the United States Let us hope that before that happens, there will still be enough church attending Christians to pray efficaciously that he will fai ( |
