St. Cloud Times from Saint Cloud, Minnesota • Page 1

State nuclear plants downplayed errorsIB 7 10 ST. GLOUD Sunday Nov. 17, 2002 www.sctimes.com 2002 ST. CLOUD TIMES $1.50 Weather Today: Cloudy High: 37 Low: 27 Details: 10A MM St. Cloud, Minnesota 142NDYEAR.N0.145 Inside Fdn wDgiDuiKgdo IMxs Concern for missing St.

John's student hangs over local universities -smug 1 1 B.t 1 I A Pained friends do what they can By Michelle Tan mtanstdoudtimes.com COLLEGEVILLE -Katie Benson feels like she's going through hell. Benson, a junior at the College of St. Benedict, is the ex-girlfriend of Joshua Guimond. Guimond was last seen leaving a campus apartment at Metten Court after gathering for drinks with about eight friends. "Hell would be an accurate way to describe it," Benson said about the past week.

"We're hoping he just took a week vacation and he'll be back." The Stearns County Sheriffs Department spent part of Saturday following up on information, but nothing new has been uncovered, Sheriff Jim Kostreba said. The ground search is done and a search Friday of Stumpf Lake, which lies between Metten Court and Guimond 's apartment in St Maur House, didn't produce any information, Kostreba said. Benson draws support from her and Guimond's closest friends and roommates. The group, described by many of them as tightly knit, has busied themselves with helping search for Guimond, making buttons and ribbons, launching a Web site for him and distributing about 3,200 fliers on campus and at universities and businesses from Fargo, N.D., to the Twin Cities. See FRIENDS, 6A Mayor I CIA tried to recruit hijackers' associate Knight RidderTribune News Service HAMBURG, Germany -Almost two years before the Sept.

11 hijackings, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency began persistent efforts to recruit as an informer a Syrian-born Hamburg businessman with links to al-Qaida and the key hijackers. The CIAs attempts to enlist Mamoun Darkazanli were initiated in late 1999, at a time when three of the four Hamburg students who would later pilot the hi-jacked planes were first learning of the hijacking plot at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan. Darkazanli, 44, has acknowledged knowing the pilots, Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, with whom he attended the same radical Hamburg mosque, Al Quds, and shared several common friends in this city's sizable but insular Muslim community. The disclosure the CIA was seeking to turn Darkazanli into a spy during the time the initial hijacking plans were being laid represents the earliest and deepest set of U.S.

intelligence footprints outside the hijackers' window. In December 1999, the CIA representative in Hamburg, posing as an American diplomat attached to the U.S.- -Consulate, appeared at the headquarters of the Hamburg state domestic intelligence agency, the LFV, that is responsible for tracking terrorists and domestic extremists. According to a source, the CIA representative told his local counterparts his agency believed Darkazanli had knowledge of an unspecified terrorist plot and could be "turned" against his al-Qaida comrades. "He said, 'Darkazanli knows a the source recalled. Israeli troops take embattled Hebron HEBRON, West Bank (AP) Israeli soldiers retook this divided city Saturday, imposed a curfew and herded dozens of blindfolded Palestinians into buses.

It was the first respoase to a Palestinian ambush that killed 12 members of the security forces lured into a dead-end alley. Israel's retaliation was expected to focus on Hebron itself, with troops staying to crush militias. An adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said there was no plan to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, as several Cabinet members demanded. Friday night's ambush by the Islamic Jihad group heightened tensions in He Times photo by Paul Middlestaedt, pmiddlestaedtstcloudtimes.com Nate Slinkard (left) and Justin Goodale talk about how they are dealing with the disappearance of their friend, Joshua Guimond. "(Josh Guimond's) family is still hurting.

(But) you have a stronger appreciation for the people around you and realize the connection By Michelle Tan mtansteloudtimes.com COLLEGEVILLE -Many students on St. John's University's seemingly insulated campus have stopped walking alone. They lock their doors. They look out for their friends. A heightened sense of awareness and feelings of apprehension have permeated the campus of about 2,000 students after St.

John's junior Joshua Guimond was reported missing last weekend. But St. John's isn't the only school affected by the disappearance. Students at the College of St Benedict, who often have friends and attend classes at St John's, and students at St. Cloud State University have been monitoring the situation.

St. Cloud State's public safety department released an alert urging students to look out for one another. "Everybody's so much more alert. Everybody's kind of watching what's happening," said Katie Watson, a junior at St. Ben's.

"I don't walk alone anymore." Guimond was last seen leaving a campus apartment in Metten Court, where he and about eight friends gathered for drinks. Guimond lives in St Maur House, a campus hall a short walk from Metten Court Intense search Guimond is one of four college-age Minnesotans reported missing in the last three weeks. The search for Guimond has been intensive. Stearns County sheriff's deputies, more than 100 National Guard soldiers, numerous volunteers and other law enforcement personnel have worked to find him. See HOPE, 6A John Ellenbecker Was elected November '01 off to another meeting.

This to line up buyers such as CompuCredit who promised to save jobs. See MAYOR, 6A I ft i a small school has." 7 Huskies dominate Mankato St. Cloud State's i hockey team avenges Friday's loss with a 7-2 rout of Minnesota State University-Mankato. SportsID Area organs draw a crowd Three groups put together an organ crawl, where the musically curious see the sights and sounds of Central Minnesota's organs. LocalIB Alzheimer's takes toil on family The Alzheimer's Support Group, which meets at the Whitney Senior Center, addresses the issues this disease brings to loved ones.

LrfelC Too Many 1 0 A House fire illuminates a mystery It started with a tragic house fire, but in time, suspicions would grow on one man's aura of doom. This is the first in a four-part series. Times today IB Births 2B Money IE Books 3C Nation 3A Opinion 8B Classified Outdoors 10D Cooking Sports Crossword Scoreboard2D Television. Life 1C Travel 8C DeathsPage 3B Alice E. Hoikka, Annandale Philip M.

Konz, Marty Gladys Maly, Clearwater Duane P. Nathe, Melrose Lldwina Spanier, Paynesville Lauren Wittowski, Sauk Rapids Lottery Dally 3: 6-4-3 Hot Lotta 5-8-25-30-38 (11) Powerbalfc (1) ST. CLOUD TIMES A (Unnett newspapw tmm 'yr-Jk Sarah Lehnert Senior at St Benedict's 4 i It. 1 endures year 's tests Fingerhut sets tone for 'reactive year 1. 1 Times photos by Joaquin Siopack, jsiopackstcloudtimes.com Ellenbecker and staff members laugh as the mayor runs time, it Is for a doctor's appointment "Al Loehrhad atough first year, walking into the Mall Germain improvements referendum.

Sam Huston had the 10th Street Bridge referendum to deal with," Hagelie said. "But they both knew what was coming before they took the job." Reacting to events Fingerhut may be the defining event of Eflenbeck-ers first year, but it certainly wasn't the only one. The city spent much of the last year reacting to Fingerhut, anticipated state budget cuts, legislative decisions on a local half-cent sales tax, Sauk Rapids' decisions on a new bridge connecting the two communities and other matters. "It's been mostly a reactive year, as opposed to setting forth an agenda and following through on it," Ellenbecker said. "There's a lot of other issues we would Ve addressed this year if we'd had time." Still left hanging are major decisions on the future of the St Cloud Civic Center and Public Library, the future of fire protection services and how to improve city services under tight budget restraints.

Those things still need to get done, despite the economy, said Mike Landy, City Council member and the man who lost to Ellenbecker in last fall's electioa By Lawrence Schumacher 1schumacherstcloudtimes.com About this time last year, John Ellenbecker was hoping to ease his way into his new job as St Cloud's mayor. He'd just won a narrow election victory and was looking to restructure his private law practice to accommodate the added responsibility. The honeymoon lasted two months. On Jan. 16, the training wheels came off with the announcement that mail-order retailer Fingerhut, the city's largest employer, would be sold or closed by the end of the year.

"It was frustrating, because we don't have much control or input on these decisions," he said. "They get made by interests with no real motivation to keep companies in business to support the local community' Praise and publicity came EUenbecker's way for rallying the community behind Fin-gerhut's employees and keeping pressure on Finger-hut's parent company, Federated Department Stores Inc, to look for a new buyer instead of liquidating the company. EUenbecker's first year as mayor of St Cloud has few historical comparisons, in terms of immediate challenges to face, City Administrator Chris I Iagelie said. Ellenbecker handled Fin gerhut as well as anybody could have, Landy said And the relationship between the mayor's office and City Council has rebounded from some early tensions, he said. "I'd like to see more vision from the city, though," Landy said.

"Resources are thin. But that doesn't mean we should put our dreams away" The roker Early in the Fingerhut crisis, Ellenbecker demonstrated an ability to bring people together to broker a solution, Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch said. "It was a baptism by fire, and (Ellenbecker) was extraordinarily effective in a bron, home to 130,000 Palestinians and 450 Jewish settlers. About 1,000 settlers attended a rally after the end of the Sabbath, some chanting "revenge" and "death to the Arabs." Army commanders urged settler leaders to prevent vigilante action. In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Islamic Jihad supporters rallied in celebratioa Abdullah Shami, a leader of the group, said "there is no room to give up or to surrender to this criminal Nazi enemy who seeks to exterminate Palestinians in collusion wi th America." The ambush jeopardized U.S.

intentions to cool the conflict and focus on Iraq. Ellenbecker works Wednesday at his desk in the mayor's office at City Hall. Hatch credits Ellenbecker for keeping state and federal officials focused on Fingerhut and for helping.