The Camden News from Camden, Arkansas • Page 4

4 Amt 30 1977 commentary Reporter, wife held in Budapest Sinking the loot Some major cities in the wettern worId. and some not so large, are cosfring a laate of what it was like in oil and tfokl boom towns o( ok) Seme things are different about these The wealth be produced where it is being spent In this case the billions flowing in from the 0PEC oil fields Where they ire going is interesting York is a prime repository for of it. either to be invested in Securities or into invest fronts eLvrwhere But London also is receiving a chunk of the oil cash Wherv it is going is into palatial estates the kind of real estate British nobility once favored but now finds difficult to maintain The OPEC sheiks have no such problems OPEC's trade surplus last year was 144 billion and is expected to be higher this year So what is a IfcO.OOO London town house, even though the owner was asking only before two Arabs began bidding on Dozens of expensive London properties reportedly have been sold to the oil barons in much the same fashion One pleasant thought evolves from this Some of those old castles are tern bly difficult to heat Guess who now will be paying the heating bills at inflated costs Tracing explosives 11 might work the plan by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to have manufacturers in plant identifying plastic and phon- Porous in explosives so the source Id be readily identified even after nation hen those explosives are used in a al bombing said the director of BA recovery of these materials will the investigating team kind of explosive was used, manufactured it and the date and shift that it was manufactured. Then through the records keeping process the investigators will be able to determine the retail dealer that explosive was obtained from It might work, and with 194 000 pounds of explosives reportedly stolen in the United States last year it is worth a try But be surprised if the thieves switch from the finished prod uct to the ingredients to make their own fty JACI WASHINGTON Shortly Las Vngeies correspondent Toth arretted and harassed by the Soviet KGB in Moacow one of our own waa picked up by the Hungarian police Budapest eacorted to a potoce station and about work Michael Viner and hu actreaa-model wife Deborah were detained and questioned for seven boun Thor passports camera and private were seized by the police The couple waa acruaed falsely of taking unauthorized of a military truck Indeed Deborah had pointed her camera at a rood but had snapped no pictures It is poaaible there fore that the police mistakenly thought she had photographed the truck Yet a stray truck is a secret weapon that muat be hidden from the fceat The incident alao the first of its kind in the memory a i diplomats whoae experience goes back four years And two carlosds of policemen suddenly materialized at the scene Later, it became dear from the questioning that the police not only had been keeping a close on Viner throughout his stay in Hungary but fully aware of his reporting activities At one point, an interrogator demanded harshly is Jack Anderson interested in It may also be significant that the incident immediately followed Toth ordeal in Toth chilling encounter with the KGB taken in Wash ington as another blunt signal that is dis pleased with President Carter's human nghts campaign This Kremlin attitude presumably has not gone unnoticed in the Eastern European satellites Viner is our Hollywood reporter who alao sends us diapatches from overseas when he is traveling He recently provided js with first hand accounts of the political turmoil in India In Yugoslavia and Hungary be was doing omilar research for us He put through so emergency call to us after the first two with the Hungarian police We made a number at phone calk to Budapest From Viner and sources here are the details at ha experience Viner and hia acireaa wife were apprehended in the outskirts of Budapest by an armed motorcycle policeman who menacingly opened his holster to free the pistol The pair was ordered to hand over their passports and the camera Then the policeman signalled the eight men apparently had been trailing Viner The strange caravan proceeded to a local police stations where a senes of mysterious phone conventions held Eventually, a slovenly man appeared and introduced himaelf as the interpreter may be in senous he began ominously his followed by four hours of grueling mterro.ation Then the couple permitted to returr to their hotel, under virtual house arrest until the following morning They phoned the consulate and placed an overseas call to us The chief consul Thomas Longo advised them to return to the police station as ordered It might only escalate the incident, he suggested to bnng a consular official along But he promised that the authorities respond vigorously if any senous charges brought So the following morning the Viners appeared at the Budapest police headquarters and were ushered into a drab interrogation room They confronted by a hostile woman and two uniformed policemen The dour speaking through an interpreter began cross -examining Viner about his reporting He admitted that he had done some reporting but claimed he had come to Hungary pnmanly as a tourist The kept demanding to know why Jack Anderson was inter ested in Hungary The couple again that they might be in senous And one of the uniformed policemen volunteered that our jails here are very unpleasant But no direct threats made, and no charges brought Three hours of questioning followed by some more conspiratorial telephone conversations Then suddenly the couple told it all mistake and released But later in Vienna, Viner discovered that three pages of his notes missing They must have been taken from his hotel room he said while he was under questioning Footnote The State Department tended to down play the affair, describing it as merely an vement incident A spokesman for the Hungarian Em bass had no comment DIPLOMATIC DIGEST Communist leaders in Cambodia one of the most closed societies on earth are so secretive and xenophobic that some of them have taken on pseudonyms to avoid identification Only a montns ago Amen can analysts learned that the secretary general of the party, Salot Sar, and the prime minister. Pol Pot are probably one and the same man Although North Korea is ruled by a repressive regime few North Koreans defect across the Mth parallel The last defector for example, a young soldier who stole his sergeant lunch and fled south in fear of retribution Strengthening the rules Two United States senators who frequently find themselves on opposite ends of legislative battles have joined to force uniform sentences for persons convicted of federal crimes Conservative Sen John McClellan and liberal fCdward Kennedy authored the bill ablishing standard sentences as part of two-pronged effort to reduce fed era I crimes I nder the bill, judges would not be prohibited from deviating stan dard sentences, but if they differed their substantially from the standards they would have to explain their reasons in writing If their sentences were higher than prescribed the defendant would be guaranteed an appeal If too Ww the prosecution would nave the right to appeal The second prong of the legislation might be more important It would prohibit parole An individual sentenced under the standard sentencing procedures would have to serve all of that sentence, with the possible exception of some reduction for good behavior What the legislation would do is to assure greater consistency in sentencing for similar crimes and forewarn everyone what the penalty would be upon conviction No more shopping for lenient judges and no more bargaining for lenient or suspended sentences Making the rules as plain as possible not only lests everyone know what to expect, but might convince some they rather not play the game.

Gas reserves down Considering the prolonged severity of last winter cold weather, the natural gis shortage which developed while troublesome to factory and home alike turned out to be as bad as some had predicted This coming winter shortages be a good bit worse. if weather conditions make a repeat performance ven with a more normal winter, short a are almost certain to occur That is the word from the gas companies as reported to the Federal Power Commission Reserves were depleted during the inter months and are not expected to be sufficiently replenished to withstand a heavy drain is a good time for those who can reasonably convert to coal or oil to consider doing so The alternative could be more factory shutdowns when cold weather returns Cancer and politics: deadly duo By UR MHUJHHH ASHING is nu public desire that politicians will not to fulfill no I deep the desire or eniptv the pt I ruse Congress in 1171 passed the Natural anter I and Presi Nixon im the devia ratnr of cancer said hr hoped the at 1.41 be thr most significant une of his at numeration The promise of the to relate the toll of cancer in five vears But five years have passed hundreds of milhuns of have been spent and no cancer cure yet Is in sight Yet political temptaliun endures more grnsly iTuel Mill l-ast legislators In 'eased nearly a dozen the number of that have legalized the vale of laetrile a aw'Mance extracted from apricot pits that is leas either in preventing or in curing canter all the while the scourge of canter (or cardiovascular disease canter is the I killer In recent canter ha hren responsible for more deaths and for an increasingly larger share of the nation deaths More than million Americans livinit will develop some form of canter and thirds of them die The empty political promise of a cure for canter is more grossly cruel still because it shrouds the political failure to take against the causes of canter To promise a cure for cancer is easy, to cut out the causes of canter is hard So politicians lake the easv and avoid the hard Sinte 1171 thr evidence has become stronger and stronger that cancer is caused by the air breathe the drink the food eat The Vfrorld Health Organization has estimated that as much as 10 per cent of all cancer is caused by the environment in we live The affluent society has become the contaminated society cun lamina ted by the chemical additives and chemical of affluence The evidence accumulates daily in public hearings and private laboratories The automobile is the greatest god of American affluence and the automobile produces more than half the carbon monoxide and other chemical oxidants that contaminate our air and that can cause lung canter Saccharin, an artificial slightly levs essential to the affluent life causes malignant bladder tumors in rats Chemicals are added intentionallv to food products Nitrate and nitrite for example added to red meat and poultry for color and preservation are to combine chemically other agents to form carcinogens as nitrosamines Other chemicals are added unin tentionally to food products Insecticides sprayed on field crops and in chicken houses have up as carcinogens in slaughtered poultry and meal Drugs fed to mass produced cattle and chickens to control disease or promote up as potential carcinogens i4i supermarket shelves Admittedly the evidence does not prove bevund all doubt that 90 per tent of all cancer is caused the environment in live But more than JO million Americans may die for proof The evidence is convincing enough but the politicians avoid the hard The oldest evidence is thoroughly convincing that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer but vtill avoids action that reduce cigarette sales Evidence that saccharin causes bladder cancer available four years ago but the Food and Drug Administration still has not banished the five million pounds of saccharin used every year as an additive in prepackaged foods Although the automobile mav be the single most deadly carcinogen in America, on gress relaxes clean air standards under political pressure exerted auto manufactur ers and auto unions The auto industry still builds big cars big air pollution rather than small cars with small pollution problems because there is more profit in big cars than in small cars To promise a cure for cancer and at the same time to perpetuate the causes of cancer is deadly political sophistry Hazard of going up the down escalator BymcmwtST WASHINGTON (CPU Increasingly of late lumbers ot Congress have been accusing the Occupational Safety and Health Adminiatration tt nitpicking lawgiver went so far as to make public a list of occupational hazards he said OSHA had bund in congmaional offices Thr list included a suggestion that certain workers wear hard lest ihey get hsngsd in the head by file cabinet OSHA, however denied making any such inspection and complained that the list waa a atggling attempt to the agency It difficult for a layman to tell where nggling leaves off and nitpicking But authentic or not the list has served to make thoae ot us around the Capitol much more conscious of the perils that lurk about us Following are a of the dangerous I have observed and corrective action that might be taken lo meet safety standards Correspondents covering the pro in the Senate sit at long on round backless stools the type of fur mshings known aa Truck Stop Renaiaaancr During a speech by, say Senator Jackson two sitting side by side could easily become drowsy simultaneously begin lo nod to port or starboard and bump their heads together causing minor concuaaions BXMKDY Stools in the cungreaaional press gaiter tea should be equipped with lap and shoulder straps that keep the occupants in upnght positions dunng soporific oratory At the least occupants should be required lo crash helmets BAZABD Correspondents entering the Sen ale gallery are required to pass through metal detection portals equipped with sig nab that are activated by extra sets at keys silver cigarette cases flasks and the like There are. however no detection devices at the chamber entrances used by senators Thu means that reporters are highly vulnera Me lo attacks by senators extra sets of silver ngarette flasks and the like REMEDY Remove the detection from the preaa so that any journalist who is aauulted by a senator with say a silver cigarette case be able to defend himself in kind 1AZAAO Several escalators in the House office buildings are inadequately marked rats mg a nsk that someone headed will mount an up escalator by mistake Or vice versa Some of these are in little-used stairwells so that anyone making such a mis lake might be stuck Ihere for hours before being rescued REMEDY Redesign the they will operate bi-directionally like Or equip each escalator with an emergency tele phone Or, following the precedent ot having operators on duty in automatkc hire a crew of escalator Fight against abortion has a new turn By AI SCOTT WASHINGTON The expanding battle to protect the unborn from the massive slaughter that is now going on throughout the country is taking a and highly significant turn With an unexpected stroke of his pen President Carter made the anti abortion fight an official human rights" issue by signing the long shelved American Convention on Human Rights Approved by the Organization of Amencan states in this little known Human Rights Treaty contains a provision (Chapter 2, Article 4). reads as person has the right to have his life respected This nght shall be protected by only in general, from the moment of conception No one shall be arbitrarily depnved of his life The little publicized action of the President caught most pro- and anti-life officials and groups by complete surprise still realize the significance of the President's decision in signing the long dormant document both President Ford and Nixon refused to sign What isn't generally realized is that the President has in effect the entire abortion battle as he has the human rights issue by linking it to foreign policy Significantly the President has set the stage for a historic debate and vote in the Senate this year on the range of human rights issues including the explosive question of the massive killing of more than I 3 million of our future citizens each year Should the Human Rights Treaty be sent to the Senate and ratified by the vote, its far-reaching provisions including the one protecting the right to life of the unborn from the moment of concepts In effect, this give pro-life advocates tne victory they are seeking for the unborn in pushing for Congress to adopt an Amendment to the (institution which is designed to protect this given nght to life X)n the other hand, should the President decide to send the Treat) to the Senate with reservations about the anti-abortion or pro-life provision, as being advocated by some of his advisers then the image he has created as being opposed to abortion be shattered and a can of be opened For example, the President action clear the for other OAS signers of the treaty to make reservations on other provisions in the Human Rights document something that the President like to avoid This presidential dilemma, caused partly by faulty staff has forced him to delay sending the treaty to the Senate since his advisers are still deeply split on course he should lake Before signing the document, no one thought to brief the President on the significance of the anti-abortion provision in the treaty because of the burned the decision was made to use it to support the President's "human rights" program and for backing of his wife's recent trip to Latin America What happened shows the influence that the First Udy is having on foreign and domestic policies of the Carter admmistra tion During her trip Mrs Carter cabled her husband urging him to sign the OAS Human Rights Treaty as a gesture of good will toward those countries she was visiting The President responded by approving the document for submission to the Senate without being adequately briefed on its content one White House aide puls it The President would never have acted so swiftly if he had been bnefed on the full impact of the pro-life provision He was just provided a general analysis of the treaty and its ranging human nghts provision Since the signing ceremony in the White House, the President and his political advisers learned of the explosive anti abortion provision The President immediately asked his advisors to agree on a course of action which they so far have been unable to do thus delaying the transmission of the treaty to the Senate Meanwhile when leaders of the pro-life movement discovered their windfall, they began to set up a campaign to keep the President from sending the treaty to the senate with reservations about the anti abortion provision They are campaigning for him lo send the document any reservations Catholics for Chnstian Political Action tCCPA) sent off a message urging the country Catholic Bishops to use their influence so that the treaty is presented to the Senate for ratification with its nght to life section intact Speaking on behalf of the activist lay organization CCPA President Gary Potter told the Bishops President Carter did not refer to the nght to life section he signed the treaty on June I But there are persistent reports that he intends to ask the Senate to reserve the section In of that the Bishops plus all other fnends of human rights should do everything they can lo urge President arter to recommend ratification of the treaty as it wntten and as hr signed it For him to do otherwise would be lo aak for ratification of the treaty except for the part of it that is being violated in this country and that would be sheer hypocmy the human nghis dilemma that Carter faces.