
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991                   TAG: 9102080707
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WAS SOVIET SHIP VIOLATING EMBARGO?

THE SOVIET freighter Dmitri Fermanov was stopped near the Red Sea in the first week of January by U.S. and Spanish naval vessels. Bush administration officials said they had reasons to suspect the cargo might be headed for Iraq in violation of the embargo on trade.

The freighter was loaded with tank parts, detonators, military vehicles and rocket launchers. Some of the military hardware was not even on the ship's cargo manifest. Moscow was contacted for an explanation; none was received.

I first heard of this event early one morning on CBS Radio. Strangely, I heard nothing further about it in days to follow. I was beginning to think I was in the Twilight Zone.

Luckily, the Virginia coordinator of the John Birch Society had read of it and sent me a copy of a Jan. 9 New York Times article, "Soviet Ship Halted Near Red Sea May Violate Iraq Arms Embargo."

I find it disturbing, to state the least, that George Bush's new comrade in the "new world order," Mikhail Gorbachev, would give lip service to supporting the United States in the Mideast and, backhandedly, supply our enemies with military equipment.

I am also disturbed that nothing about this breach of trust was reported in the Roanoke Times & World-News. NANCY M. KAMWELL TROUTVILLE

by CNB