Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 1

1' yXll1 -SPORTS- Central Wyo vf rodeo begins WEATHER yfe JjA- Cloudy, but still hot SJp -A2 iPenonal NATIONAL 1 Spending 1 Personal if spending lillllllill Z1 1 I military" TTVtl Stark skipper Qyf to retire 1 1, A4 1 rttntne 1 Sullivan will head state trade mission 18-member delegation plan stops at Australia, Taiwan in 16-day trip Meese will testify at hearings today Official says he wasn't informed about most aspects of arms sales 1 By ERICH KIRSHNER Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNNE Gov. Mike Sullivan will lead an 18-member state delegation on a 16-day trade mission to Australia and Taiwan next week, his office announced Monday. Sullivan said the trip grew out of work by the Economic Development and Stabilization Board (EDSB) and the Wyoming Community Development Authority (WCDA). The trip will enable state officials to follow up the efforts of those agencies to "increase business and agricultural contacts for Wyoming and encourage increased investment and tourism," Sullivan said in a news release. In a telephone interview Monday from the National Governor's krn IV, II (f I i nrn-T- WASHINGTON (AP) Attorney General Edwin Meese first found out about U.S.

arms sales to Iran from Lt. Col. Oliver North in January 1986 but will tell the congressional Iran-Contra committees he was uninformed about most aspects of the sales until last November, a spokesman disclosed Monday. North came to the Justice Department on Jan. 6, 1986, with a draft presidential finding authorizing such sales and gave it to Meese and then-Deputy Attorney General Lowell Jensen to read, said Terry Eastland, a department spokesman.

Meese does not recall the meeting, but found a reference to it on his calendar, Eastland said. The attorney general continues to maintain he didn't find out about Edwin Meese set to testify Lack of base delays White House angrily denies arms cover-up State Hospital rapped in task force hearings Initial screening process criticized holding up WASHINGTON (AP) The United States wants to send some mine-sweeping helicopters to the Persian Gulf to assist Navy convoys, but has delayed such a move pending a decision onvhere they'll be based, Pentagon officials said Monday. The officials, who insisted on anonymity, said efforts to enlist the aid of either Kuwait or Saudi Arabia in providing land facilities for the giant RH-53D choppers had so far failed to produce any results. Without access to land bases, the Navy would have to move a helicopter carrier or similar size ship to the gulf to accommodate the helicopters, the sources added. "There's a consensus that more U.S.

mine-sweeping assets are needed," said one official. "But we haven't been able to make any decisions yet on where, when and how." By LIZ BRIMMER Star-Tribune northeastern bureau and JIM NEWSOM Star-Tribune correspondent GILLETTE The Wyoming State Hospital should provide long-term mental health care but local agencies should take over performance of initial psychiatric assessments of troubled juveniles and criminal suspects, a state task force on mental health was told Monday. Local assessments will be more credible in criminal cases and stop the current practice of dumping problem youths on the state, one 1 earlier 1985 arms shipments to Iran until last November. The finding was the subject of an NSC meeting the next day, Jan. 7, 1986, and Meese's legal advice was sought for that, said Eastland.

"Contrary to what many in Congress will say, the attorney general was not that involved" in the Reagan administration's decision to sell arms to Iran, said Eastland, one of the aides helping Meese prepare for congressional hearings. When he testifies Tuesday on Capitol Hill, Meese also will reiterate his contention that he was justified in keeping the FBI out of the Iran-Contra investigation until last Nov, 26, saying there was no hint of possible criminality when he and his top political aides laun-Please see HEARINGS, A14 health professional said. The task force also was told that the state should establish a new system of patient transportation to the hospital in Evanston that could coordinate county needs to deliver patients. One task force member suggested hiring a private air transport company to transfer patients to the hospital. The state task force on mental health conducted hearings in Gillette and Sheridan as part of a nine-stop tour throughout the state.

The hearings are designed to help develop a new "plan of ac-Please see HOSPITAL, A 14 pany income calculations for the two gas wholesaling and two retailing divisions. Yet as part of its recently filed $10.7 million rate-hike request, Northern is asking the state Public Service Commission for permission to bill customers as if the company carried a 40 percent income-tax burden. The PSC Consumer Representative Staff says it will ask the commission to drop Northern's tax requirement to the current 34 percent. "It should have a significant impact on our revenue recommendations" to the PSC, consumer staff analyst Steve Ellenbecker said. The lower tax rate would require $489,000 less revenue yearly about $11.34 less from each of Northern's 43,000 residential and commercial customers according to Northern income projections.

Please see NORTHKRN, A14 indefinitely tion." The Iraqi said Iran has been blackmailing countries in the region, "intimidating them in order to achieve a piecemeal solution or a partial halt in the activity in the gulf so that will enable them to continue the war, to continue the invasion of our territory." Aziz added: "If they succeed in that way, they will get hold of the whole gulf region." Asked if his views were shared with Iraqi's military commanders, Aziz said he did not usually "interfere" in military decisions. But, he said, "this is the political posi-PleaseseeGV I A 14 SEES AP before Iran-Contra panels choppers Appearing on television Sunday i Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said the U.S. ability to deal with mines in the gulf "can be increased and will be increased." Weinberger refused to elaborate on that statement, however. The supertanker Bridgeton, one of two Kuwaiti oil tankers to be re-registered as an American ship, struck a mine last Friday while on the final leg of its first trip to Kuwait under U.S. Navy protection.

The strike occurred near Farsiyah Island, which is controlled by Iran, in an area where mines had not previously been detected. Although U.S. officials have acknowledged they have no hard proof, they say they are convinced that Iran was responsible for planting the mine. None of the eight warships Please see MINES, A 14 Iraq voluntarily halted its attacks on merchant ships carrying Iranian oil and other supplies for Tehran on July 15. In mid-May, the U.S.

frigate Stark was hit by an Iraqi warplane. Thirty-seven sailors were killed. The United States subsequently accepted Baghdad's explanation that the missile attack was a mistake. Aziz met for about 35 minutes with Shultz, and another hour with Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy. The Iraqi foreign minister described the talks as "friendly and fruitful." He thanked the Conference in Traverse City, Sullivan said that former Secretary of State Thyra Thomson's successful trade mission to Taiwan in 1983, which resulted in the sale of Wyoming wheat to the Taiwanese, shows how "personal contact is important" when trying to sell products to that part of the world.

"They are looking to invest," Sullivan said of the Taiwanese. Thomson said after her trip in 1983 that Taiwanese officials would be looking for new supplies of uranium in 1987 for a market that would need 4.2 million pounds of yellowcake by the turn of the century. The governor said the state delegation will meet with representatives of both state and na: tional agencies as well as private Please see JUNKET, A14 Reagan urged his aides to avoid talking abot the TOW anti-tank missiles that had been sold to Iran. "Don't talk TOWs, don't talk specifics," Reagan said, according to the Keel notes. The notes also show that he urged everyone at the meeting to indicate "no bargaining with terrorists" and "no ransom for terrorists." Fitzwater denied the assertion by The Washington Post in an article published Sunday that the comment demonstrated that "President Reagan actively led the initial effort last November to conceal the essential details of his secret arms-for-hostage program and keep it alive." The Post story was picked up by news agencies, television networks and other newspapers, and has Please see REAGAN, A 14 Gulf protest Iraq says it WASHINGTON (AP) Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz of Iraq warned Monday that unless Iran promptly accepted a comprehensive cease-fire his country might resume its attacks on shipping in the Persian Gulf.

Otherwise, Aziz told reporters after a meeting with Secretary of State George Shultz, Iraq would be yielding to Iranian "blackmail" by extending the voluntary 12-day moratorium while fighting continued on other fronts. Aziz said Iran wanted "a partial halt" to the shipping war in order to continue its invasion of Iraq and to "get hold of the whole gulf -II Northern to retain tax break, officials report PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. (NYT) The White House angrily insisted Monday that President Reagan had not tried to mislead the public when he withheld information about the Iran-contra affair last November. Marlin Fitz-. water, the presi-dent's spokesman, told REAGAN reporters that Reagan "was trying to protect the lives of those hostages" still held in Lebanon when he advised aides at a White House meeting on Nov.

10 to avoid detailed comments about the sale of arms to Iran. "The president's comments on Nov. 10 were appropriate, honest and consistent with all of his public statements," Fitzwater said. He spoke to reporters while Reagan was touring three Wisconsin cities to promote his economic programs. Notes taken at that meeting by Alton Keel, the deputy national security adviser, were made public last week by the congressional committees investigating the Iran-contra affair.

They say that Casper Area A3 Classifieds B8-14 Comics B4 Community B3 Crossword A8 Enterprise All Landers, Oracles A8 Letters A13 Markets A10 Obituaries, Diary B2 Opinion A12 Sports B5-7 TV-Movies A9 Wyoming Bl Old Grouch That delegation needs an experienced junketeer, and I'm available. RESULTS Ray Stalkup of Fay Peebles Traveland in Casper told us, "Fay Peebles uses the Casper Star-Tribune Classifieds with great success!" He said they are very impressed with the professionalism and quickness of the Classified Customer Service Reps. Do you need to place an ad? Let a professional help you! Call 266-0555 or 1-800-442-6918, toll-free in Wyoming. 1 1 1 I 'I 5 AP Members of a group calling themselves 'Defenders of the Persian Gulf carry an anti-American banner during a demonstration recently near Tehran University in Tehran, Iran. By JEFF THOMAS Star-Tribune staff writer CASPER Federal tax reform will save the Northern natural-gas companies about a half million dollars a year, but the company does not plan to pass those savings on to consumers, Northern officials say.

Taxes, like other items, are part of the overall cost of gas service, the utility said. "If salaries go up, if water bills go up, if telephone bills go up, you don't go in and change rates," Northern Vice President of accounting Eddie Law said. "Federal income taxes (are) no different, rate-wise, than my water bill." A portion of consumer gas rates during the first half of 1987 were set aside to pay tax on Northern's income, then taxed at 46 percent. Tax reform lowered that rate to 34 percent July 1, easing Northern's annual income-tax burden by about based on com Reagan administration for its role in the Security Council's adoption of the ceasefire resolution, which Iraq promptly accepted. A number of Iranian officials have denounced the order as onesided.

But Charles Redman, the State Department spokesman, said that did not mean Tehran had rejected it. "We believe it is an equitable and fair way to end this war," Redman said. Aziz, fielding questions in the State Department lobby, said partial implementation of the resolution would help the Iranian position "of blackmail and intimida will not extend ban on gulf shipping region." The foreign minister did not say how long his government would wait for Iran to respond to the cease-fire ordered last week by the U.N. Security Council. "But we would like this timeframe to be as short as possible," he said.

"The main issue for us is the full implementation of the resolution, not a partial implementation of the resolution," Aziz said. Adopted unanimouslv by the Security Council last Monday, the resolution calls for an end to fighting on all fronts, on land and in the air, as well as in gulf waters..