Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040130
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
WASHINGTON - The Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday unanimously endorsed President Clinton's nomination of Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch to be the next director of central intelligence, giving him a strong bipartisan mandate to enact what he has promised will be top-to-bottom reforms at the demoralized spy agency.
Meeting behind closed doors, the committee voted 17-0 to recommend Deutch's nomination to the full Senate, which is expected to easily confirm him as CIA director as early as today.
But while Deutch was set to coast through his confirmation, one controversy continued to follow his nomination: Clinton's plan to elevate the former Massachusetts Institute of Technology provost to Cabinet rank, a plan that many lawmakers fear could embroil Deutch in the kind of policy-making debates that in the past have sometimes colored the objective intelligence that the CIA is supposed to provide.
``My preference is that he [Clinton] doesn't do it,'' Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said after the vote.
- Los Angeles Times
Study clears design in jetliner crashes
An extensive study of the Boeing 737 jetliner has turned up no design flaws in the world's most widely used airliner that could have caused either of the crashes that prompted the review, the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday.
The FAA study was launched after USAir's Flight 427 - a Boeing 737-300 - rolled suddenly to the left and plunged 5,000 feet to the ground near Pittsburgh on Sept. 8, killing all 132 on board.
Four and a half years earlier, United Air Lines Flight 585 - another Boeing 737 - crashed in much the same way near Colorado Springs, Colo., killing 25.
The National Transportation Safety Board has never determined the cause of either crash.
Most aviation experts agree that the only control system on the planes that could have caused them to roll and dive as they did is the rudder - the hinged back half of the vertical part of the tail that is used to correct for crosswinds and to keep the jetliners from fishtailing.
- Los Angeles Times
Castro foes seek to fight U.S. policy
WASHINGTON - Angry anti-Castro lawmakers held strategy sessions Wednesday to devise ways of countering the administration's ``bloodcurdling'' decision to forcibly return Cubans trying to flee the island by boat.
One proposal would forbid the Defense Department from using funds to repatriate political refugees from communist countries. Also under consideration is a proposal to accelerate the timetable for approval of legislation to tighten sanctions against Cuba.
The administration has criticized aspects of the proposals, but a Republican congressional source said the anger among anti-Castro hard-liners in Congress was such that there was little inclination even to hear out the administration.
``Any willingness to cooperate has evaporated,'' the source said, asking not to be identified.
- Associated Press
Flight attendants urge infant seats
WASHINGTON - Airline flight attendants say allowing parents to hold infants on their laps during airplane trips isn't safe and should be banned.
But government regulators respond that making people buy a ticket so the tots can be placed in a safety seat would raise prices so much people would switch to cars, a more dangerous way to travel.
Using child-restraint seats ``is the only safe way for our youngest passengers to fly,'' Patricia Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said Wednesday.
``Quite frankly, it does not make sense to selectively put infants at risk by not requiring them to be restrained,'' said Chris Witkowski, director of air safety and health for the association.
Children under age 2 do not require an plane ticket if they are carried by an adult. But in a crash the children are in danger because parents are unable to hold on to them, she said.
``Each time I see parents holding children on their laps I shudder,'' said Jan Brown Lohr, a flight attendant who survived a 1989 crash in Sioux City, Iowa. ``It is a tragic mistake to allow children to travel by air unrestrained.''
The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that restraints be required for infants aboard airplanes.
Rep. Jim Lightfoot, R-Iowa, who has introduced a bill to require safety seats for the youngsters, said the Federal Aviation Administration is using ``misguided premises'' in opposing the idea.
The Federal Aviation Administration has opposed the requirement on both safety and cost grounds. Having to buy an extra ticket so the child could be placed in a safety seat would make air travel less affordable for families and force many of them to turn to automobiles - a form of transportation that places children at a much greater risk than airplanes, Deputy Administrator Linda Hall Daschle said.
- Associated Press
AARP faces probe of nonprofit status
WASHINGTON - A Republican senator took on the nation's most powerful seniors group Wednesday, saying the American Association of Retired Persons has learned to ``gimmick'' nonprofit laws to benefit its ``vast business empire'' and lobbying machine.
Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, a longtime critic of the organization, said he would begin holding hearings this month on AARP's business practices, lobbying efforts and potential conflicts of interest.
Simpson's attack on the 33 million-member organization comes as Congress begins debating the future of Medicare, the government's health insurance program for the elderly and disabled.
Asked whether he was trying to intimidate an influential voice in the debate, Simpson told a Capitol news conference, ``you can't intimidate the AARP. They're the canniest old cats in this jungle.''
But a Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Ron Wyden of Oregon, called it ``classic scapegoating'' and said Simpson is trying to cover up Republican efforts to cut Medicare spending by discrediting AARP.
- Associated Press
by CNB