Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 23, 1994 TAG: 9411160026
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A: Our presence in the Persian Gulf ``is pretty much funded by the United States,'' a Pentagon spokesman said. But, he added, there are some shared expenses. The Kuwaitis and Saudis pay for the upkeep and storage of prepositioned equipment and base upkeep and maintenance of the bases.
Q: A story about plans for the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial in Washington said a commission to undertake the project was started in 1955, but plans have just now gotten under way. Has the director of this commission or other employees been on staff since 1955 at taxpayer expense?
A: No. Since Congress created the commission in 1955, it has consisted of a volunteer board and a post office box. The first part-time employee was hired in 1989, and Executive Director Dorann Gunderson was hired to get things moving about 20 months ago. After 40 years the planned memorial is scheduled to open in 1996.
Q: Has a president ever been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?
A: Yes, two of them. Theodore Roosevelt not only was the first president of any country to win one, but also was the first American. He won in 1906 for his role as mediator in ending the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Woodrow Wilson was awarded the 1919 prize for founding the League of Nations and trying to establish a fair peace agreement at the end of World War I. Both presidents were presented the Nobel Peace Prize while they were still in office. Wilson did not receive his until 1920.
Q: Were the recent suicides in Haiti by U.S. servicemen unusual occurrences?
A: Total suicide statistics for all branches of the service run very close to the statistics for the population at large. Those in Haiti appear to be ``isolated and tragic occurrences,'' said a Pentagon spokesman. From 1990 through 1993 in all branches of the military, there were 218 to 250 suicides a year, or about 11.5 per 100,000. There have been 138 so far in 1994. The 11.5 suicides per 100,000 compares with about 11.4 per 100,000 in the general population.
Q: Please explain how the Federal Reserve can arrest inflation by raising interest rates. It seems that if the Fed charges the banks more money, the banks are going to charge businesses more money, and then the businesses in turn are going to raise their prices to recover their interest costs. Doesn't this seem to be inflationary rather than anti-inflationary?
A: Here is how they figure it's supposed to work: The Federal Reserve raises interest rates to put the brakes on the economy. When interest rates go up, it costs businesses more to borrow - so they borrow less. It's the same with people: They borrow less money when interest rates are high. Consequently, businesses spend less because they have less to spend. And people spend less, too. With less money being spent, stores are less likely to raise prices on their goods.
Q: I received a letter from the Federal Records Service Corp. saying that, for a fee, it would do the paperwork to get my newborn a Social Security card. Is this legitimate?
A: It is, but why pay them to do it? You could save yourself some money, and you are going to have to fill out some paperwork anyway. Just go to your nearest Social Security office or call 800-772-1213.
Q: I watched the PBS special ``Baseball'' and am wondering what Sandy Koufax is doing today.
A: This is a tough one, even for author Chuck Wills, who has updated the whereabouts and activities of many former Major League stars in his book, ``Beyond Home Plate.'' After checking with all his sources, which included the Los Angeles Dodgers, ``The best I can come up with is that he lives a low-profile life with no obvious exposure.'' And nobody is even sure where. He has been said to be living in a number of places, from Maine to California. He shows up at the Dodgers' spring training camp every year, but Los Angeles Times sports writers do not know where he arrives from or where he goes afterward. .
Q: When was the Astroturf playing field first put into use in professional sports?
A. Not surprisingly, the Houston Astrodome became the first professional stadium to have artificial turf, made by the Monsanto Company, installed in 1966.
The Astrodome, the first indoor stadium of its kind, originally had a hybrid Bermuda grass field. But, despite having a translucent skylight dome, the stadium proved unconducive to growing grass. Ball players complained of the skylight glare, and some of the dome's skylights were tinted, while others were blacked out all together. Denied its full ration of light, the grass died - and Astroturf was born.
Q: What is the National Reconnaissance Office? What is its history and what is its assignment?
A. The existence of the National Reconnaissance Office and its mission - to design, procure, launch and operate spy satellites - were declassified only two years ago. Nothing else about the agency, created in 1960, has been made public. It's our nation's most clandestine and most expensive intelligence agency. Estimates of its budget consistently put it at more than $6 billion - more than three times the budget of the State Department and twice that of the Central Intelligence Agency. It's overseen jointly by the CIA and the Pentagon, which share the information gathered by its multibillion-dollar network of spy satellites.
The NRO found itself the object of unaccustomed scrutiny in August, when its leaders were forced to testify before Congress on the $347 million headquarters it was building on a 68-acre tract in Chantilly, Va., in the suburbs west of Washington. The agency had concealed the money by breaking it up into different accounts in its operating budget and never representing the building as a separate project. Senators were astonished to learn its full cost, and agency officials apologized for having concealed it.
Q: What happened to the Iraqi fighter jets that escaped to Iran during the Persian Gulf War?
A. The more than 100 jets, including some commercial airliners, are still there, and they're now claimed by Iran. Some are incompatible with the rest of Iran's air force and aren't being used, but others have been repainted and reflagged and are fully operational.
The pilots of the Iraqi jets, which are all Soviet-built except for a few French Mirages, fled to Iran when coalition forces in the Gulf War started bombing hardened jet shelters to destroy them.
Dan Goure, deputy director for political and military studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said no one knows for sure why Iraq in effect gave the planes to its longtime enemy. Some theorize that Iraq wanted to draw Iran into the war. But it's also possible that in its desperation to save the planes, Iraq took them to the nearest place it could without regard for whether it would ever get them back.
by CNB