The South Bend Tribune from South Bend, Indiana • 1

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1991 LOCALLY OWNED SINCE 1872 MICHIGAN EPITIOtl35 CENTS 1991 South Bend Tribune Corp. 119th yearNo. 158 Bush giving Ttiomborgli bis seedoffff firmation hearing when Congress returns from its summer recess in September. In the face of criticism that Thomas lacks commitment to civil rights and is too inexperienced for the high court, Bush has seized every public forum to praise him. He has attacked the many groups that are coming out against his nomination, including many that successfully opposed the 1987 nomination of Robert Bork.

Bushs remarks today were generally geared to anti-crime themes and praising Thornburgh, who flew to Kennebunkport Tuesday and dined with the president and first lady Barbara Bush at a local lobster restaurant. A former two-term Republican governor in Pennsylvania, Thornburgh is now favored over appointed incumbent Democratic Sen. Harris Wofford, who was named interim senator after Heinz died in a plane crash April 4. The election is tentatively set for Nov. 5.

Democrats have said they will make Thornburghs stormy tenure as attorney general a major issue in the campaign, including recent allegations that the Justice Department failed to aggressively pursue the BCCI banking scandal. Civil rights advocates see Thornburgh as a principal roadblock to enacting new civil rights legislation. And last week he See BUSHPage All By RITA BEAMISH Associated Press Writer KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine -President Bush is giving Attorney Gen. Dick Thornburgh a glowing sendoff as he leaves the Cabinet, using a speech to police officials to boost Thornburgh toward a race for tiie Senate. Thornburgh has not yet formally announced his candidacy for the Senate seat from Pennsylvania, and the White House categorized todays presidential speech to the Fraternal Order of Police as official, not political activity.

Bush on Tuesday would only say that in the joint appearance with Thornburgh he would be wishing him well in what lies ahead. Hes been an outstanding attorney general, Bush told reporters Tuesday. But the FOP convention in Pittsburgh gave Bush the perfect opportunity today to pump up the candidate-to-be in his hometown. In his speech, Bush was expected to praise Thornburghs record as attorney general, having called him one who has pursued those who prey upon our society. Thornburgh submitted his resignation Friday and is expected to announce this week that he will run for the unexpired Senate term of the late Sen.

John Heinz. His resignation takes effect on Thursday. Bush also was taking the opportunity to once again plug his embattled Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas, who faces a con Demos stuck in mulling process By JILL LAWRENCE Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON One is concerned about his family, another frets about his allergies, a third says he feels unprepared. You can picture them as friends, neighbors, sons-in-law but can you see them in the Oval Office? There are times you could wonder whether Alan Alda is the person who is running for the Democratic nomination, says Republican strategist John Buckley. This sensitive-guy stuff might not be exactly what the voters of America are looking for.

In this years protracted precampaign season, with many possible Democratic candidates but only one declared, the spotlight is on the decision process. Prospects are contemplating. Mulling. Weighing. Musing.

Agonizing. Sen. A1 Gore, is still in the pondering stage. If politics were the only factor in my decision, I would already be a candidate, he said in a recent letter to several thousand past and future supporters. However family concerns are critical to me.

I am a United States Senator, but I am also a father with four young children. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, once looked like a sure thing. But he also talked an awful lot about the toll a national campaign would take on his family. And when he bowed out earlier this month, he sounded an unusual note.

No, not yet, he said. He wasnt up to the task. He hadnt had enough time to think about being president. Then there are the perpetual mixed signals emitted by New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.

He says ethnic candidates are too threatening, his state has too many problems, hes not running. Still, hes out there on the hustings as if to say "heres how I would do it, here's how it should be done." Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton is moving ever closer to actual candidacy, but he did express some concern last week about his severe allergies. It seems they are ag- See DEMOSPage All U.N. chief hopes for gesture from Israelis swap differ in details, there are common threads.

The major points of any deal would be freedom for the Western hostages, Israels release of Arab detainees, and a release of seven missing Israeli servicemen or the return of their remains. Hopes for the release of the remaining Western hostages gained new Impetus last week, when kidnappers freed three hostages in three days Briton John McCarthy on Thursday and Frenchman Jerome Leyraud See HOSTAGESPage All for hostage holders, told The Associated Press that there has been a breakthrough in the stalemate and that the process of hostage-freeing would likely continue. Israeli media reported that at todays talks, the Israeli negotiators would propose a two-stage exchange of Western hostages for Arab detainees. And Arab diplomats said they believed a broad agreement had been reached for a series of hostage swaps that could end the ordeal of the 11 Westerners, including five Americans, still held in Lebanon. While the reports about prospects for a expectations that todays talks with senior Israeli negotiators would solve the long hostage crisis.

I am not expecting that the Israelis will give me the magic formula, Perez de Cuellar told reporters. Top Israeli negotiator Uri Lubrani, arriving at the Geneva airport this morning, told reporters he would stay as long as it takes me to carry out my business. In Beirut, a senior Shiite cleric who is close to the leadership of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, believed to be the umbrella group Bv HANNS NEUERBOURG Associated Press Writer GENEVA Amid widespread reports that a broad-based deal was in the works to free Western hostages in Lebanon, U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar held talks today with Israeli negotiators and said he hoped the Jewish state would free some Arab detainees this weekend. "We could have a gesture on the part of one or the other.

That would be extremely positive, the secretary-general said before the talks began. But he warned against false FLIGHT OF A FUGITIVE The trail of William Charles McCarthy has led authorities around the world. After moving from South Bend to Madison, Connecticut, here is a list of places McCarthy fled to, along with approximate dates of each move: Bail for fugitive denied FBI agent details William Charles McCarthys travels 1989-VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA 12291- ARRESTEDATOAK BAY (near Victoria), VANCOUVER ISLAND, C. 3 786-MADISON, CONN. FALL88-FLOYDS KNOBS, IND.

LATE86-TAMPAST, PETERSBURG, home after his arrest Jan. 22 in Oak Bay, a town just outside Victoria, British Columbia, Hanis said. U.S. Magistrate Robin Pierce denied the request for bail and ruled that McCarthy should remain in custody until his Oct 21 trial. McCarthy made his initial court appearance in Indiana on Aug.

5. Neither Hickey nor McCarthy could be located when they were indicted along with several other people in November 1986. The case charged the two as drug kingpins, who led a marijuana operation that distributed more than 100,000 pounds of the drug in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, Hanis said. Some 20 people subsequently were convicted for their roles in the conspiracy and are among 32 people, including Hickey, who would testify against McCarthy, said Assistant U.S. Attorney William Grimmer.

Hickey was to be sentenced this afternoon on his guilty pleas to several charges. McCarthy, if convicted, faces a prison term of life plus 274 years and fines up to $2 4 million. McCarthys travels began in the summer of 1986 before he was indicted when he went to Floyds Knobs, See FUGITIVEPage All By MARTI GOODLAD HELINE Tribune Staff Writer SOUTH BEND During five years as a fugitive, William Charles McCarthy traveled from Florida to Australia, frequently changing his identity as well as those of his wife and young daughter. The McCarthys lived in at least eight locales, according to testimony Tuesday by federal authorities in U.S. District Court here.

The testimony came during a hearing to determine if McCarthy, 36, formerly of South Bend and Niles, should be held in custody until his trial on charges of running a marijuana distribution ring from 1979 to 1986. McCarthy and co-defendant Thomas Paul Hickey, 34, formerly of Mishawaka, outran authorities for five years until their luck ended in January when they were featured on the television show Unsolved Mysteries. FBI special agent Robert Hanis detailed McCarthys travels and itemized an extensive collection of phony identification cards and documents. Drivers licenses, passports and other items were found in a storage facility in Oregon and at McCarthy's LDER, COLO. 1987 or 1988- PHOENIX, ARIZ.

Tribune GraphicMICHAEL BRUGH Inflation posts modest gain in July Clifford aims to isolate bank from BCCI furor INDEX AREA NEWSB1-B3 BUSINESSCS CLASSIFIEDS B9-B 13 COMICSAIO CROSSWORDB7 EDITORIAL A8-A9 MISHAWAKAB4 OBITUARIESBS PUNCHC7-C10 SPORTSC1-C8 TELEVISIONCIO THEATERS C9 this spring. Overall food and beverage prices, which includes restaurant meals, fell 5.1 percent in July after rising 4 percent in June. Meanwhile, energy prices fell for the seventh time in eight months as a decrease in gasoline, 12 percenL and fuel oil, 0.3 percenL more than offset increases of 1.8 percent for natural gas and 0.8 percent for electricity. Prices excluding the volatile food and energy items considered a good measure of underlying inflationary pressures rose a moderate 0.4 percenL the same as in June. Clothing costs rose 0.9 percent in July after a slight 0.1 percent rise See All percent in May.

For the first seven months of 1991, prices have advanced at an annual rate of 2.7 percenL well below the 6.1 percent rise for all of 1990. The July report was most heavily influenced by a 1.2 percent drop in grocery store prices, the biggest since 1953. Ninety percent of that drop came from a 12.7 percent decline in fresh vegetables. The price of both lettuce and tomatoes dropped more than 20 percent Despite the fall, tomatoes are still 38.5 percent more expensive than a year ago. Fruit prices, particularly for oranges, are still suffering from the freeze that hit California early this year.

Meanwhile, vegetable prices are recovering from heavy rains on the West Coast Bv DAVE SKIDMORE Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON A steep drop in vegetable prices and a decline in gasoline costs held consumer price inflation to a modest 0.2 percent in July, the government said today. The small increase in the Labor Departments Consumer Price Index bolsters economists belief that inflation will not be a problem as the economy struggles out of the recession that began last summer. The lack of pnce pressures allows plenty of leeway for the Federal Reserve Board to stimulate economic growth with lower interest rates if that proves necessary to keep the recovery alive, Consume! prices in June also edged up 0.2 percenL They rose 0.3 under a darkening cloud in recent weeks following regulators charges that the Bank of Credit and Commerce International illegally acquired First American in 1982. BCCI, founded by Pakistanis, owned by Persian Gulf investors and based in Luxembourg, is engulfed in what may be the biggest banking scandal in history involving alleged massive fraud, laundering of drug money and support of terrorists. Last rr.cr,;h, a New York grand jury announced an indictment against BCCI, its Pakistani founder SeeBCCIPage All Bv MARCY GORDON Associated Press Wnter WASHINGTON Clark Cliffords abrupt resignation as the head of First American Bankshares Inc.

is intended to cut off the banking company from the widening BCCI scandal and reassure jittery depositors. First American, with $11 billion in assets and branches from New York to Florida, announced Tuesday that Clifford, one of the capitals most influential power brokers, was resigning as its chain man. Clifford, 84, and Washington-based holding company have been WEATHER TOMORROW HAZY A WAHM Complete forecast B14.