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

DATE: FRIDAY, June 9, 1995                   TAG: 9506090106
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Hearst Newspapers
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

RESCUE WAS EXCLUSIVELY AMERICAN

President Clinton ordered an exclusively American team to rescue missing U.S. fighter pilot Scott F. O'Grady in Bosnia in order to avoid the kind of confusion that cost American lives in a U.N.-led operation in Somalia, officials said Thursday.

The U.S.-only operation enabled rescuers to ``go in, do a job quickly and get out quickly,'' said White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry. ``This was a U.S. mission undertaken by the U.S. to rescue one of our pilots.'' By avoiding NATO entanglements, Clinton opted for speed, secrecy and streamlined command, officials said.

The president, shortly after calling O'Grady ``an American hero,'' telephoned the pilot aboard the USS Kearsarge Thursday, spoke for about 10 minutes and invited him to the White House.

As O'Grady and the president prepared to end their conversation, O'Grady said: ``I would just like to say one thing: The United States is the greatest country in the world. God bless America.''

The president replied: ``Amen.''

In other developments Thursday:

On Capitol Hill, the House voted, 318-99, for a unilateral U.S. lifting of the United Nations arms embargo on Bosnia - to help Bosnian Muslims defend themselves against Bosnian Serbs.

All Virginia representatives voted for lifting the embargo except Herbert Bateman, R-Newport News; Thomas J. Bliley, R-Richmond; L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, and Norman Sisisky, D-Petersburg.

In Brussels, Belgium, NATO officials said Thursday that U.N. peacekeepers will leave Bosnia unless a rapid reaction force being sent to prop up the embattled U.N. operation is accepted by Bosnian Serbs. They said a U.N. withdrawal could come as early as the fall if Bosnian Serbs don't give their ``strategic consent'' to the operation by August.

In Sarajevo, intense sniper and artillery fire rocked the city for the second consecutive day Thursday, and all U.N. food warehouses near the capital stood empty because of the Bosnian Serb siege. Heavy fighting killed two civilians and wounded 16 others.

The Associated Press contributed information to this story.

by CNB