Hostage hopes soar as
Iran responds, passes bill
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Carter adminis
tration, encouraged that a breakthrough may be
imminent in the long hostage stalemate, said
today it has received a "substantive” Iranian reply
to the latest U S. proposals but still can't predict
an agreement to free the 52 Americans.
After affirming that it is willing to press the
negotiating effort right to the moment that Ronald
Reagan is sworn in next Tuesday, officials dis
closed at midafternoon that Deputy Secretary of
State Warren Christopher had been handed an
Iranian response through intermediaries in Al
giers.
According to an official State Department
statement, "The American delegation in Algiers
has received, through the Algerian intermediares,
a substantive Iranian response to the American
messages" which were sent to Iran on Jan. 2.
State Department spokesman John Trattner
said earlier today that while “important differ
ences remain to be resolved,” the United States
and Iran are moving forward to clear away the
“underbrush of technical detail” still blocking an
agreement.
He said Christopher remained on standby in
Algeria, where he has spent the past week clar
ifying the U S. position for Iran through the Al
gerian intermediaries.
Reports reached the department at midday
that Iranian and Algerian diplomats were meeting
in Algiers. Shortly thereafter, the Iranian state
ment was delivered to the Americans.
U S. negotiators had told Iran that Friday,
Jan. 16, would be the last practical day to strike a
deal with the Carter administration.
It is unclear what would happen if Friday
passed without agreement, but Muskie's com
ments indicated flexibility.
President Carter, in his televised farewell
address to the nation Wednesday night, said he
can’t predict what will happen in the intense
negotiations through Algerian intermediaries, but
he vowed to spend his last days in office trying to
bring the hostages home.
"I will continue as I have during the past 14
months to work and pray for the lives and the
well-being of the American hostages held in Iran,”
Carter said.
Other officials have said if a breakthrough is
near on Inauguration Day, they assume Reagan
simply will pick up where Carter left off.
The president-elect, asked about the hostage
situation as he arrived in Washington on Wed
nesday to await his inauguration, said, "I think
there is reason to be optimistic. I think we all are.”
Committee favors Haig, Bell;
FBI probe ahead for Donovan
v WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee voted 15-2 Thursday to
recommend Senate confirma
tion of Alexander Haig to be
secretary of state, despite
questions raised by some sena
tors about his role in the Water
gate scandal.
Haig, one of the more con
troversial of Pres.-elect Ronald
Reagan’s Cabinet choices, is
virtually certain to be confirmed
by the full Senate next Wednes
day, the day after Reagan is
inaugurated.
The two committee members
who voted against Haig's
nomination were Sens. Paul
Sarbanes, D-Md., and Paul
Tsongas, D-Mass.
Tsongas praised the former
White House chief of staff and
NATO commander for being
“capable, intelligent, tough,
pragmatic with a sense of his
tory and a knack of retaining his
options,” and predicted he
would “absolutely dominate this
administration."
But Tsongas said he opposed
Haig's confirmation because of
the risks involved, "the risks
inherent in having all those en
ormous skills not properly
focused by a dominant sense of
moral purpose. The risk of ex
pediency, despoiling the other
wise solid performance.”
At other confirmation hear
ings Thursday:
• The Senate Labor and
Human Resources Committee
postponed a scheduled vote on
New Jersey construction ex
ecutive Raymond Donovan to
be labor secretary and asked
FBI Director William Webster to
began an investigation of un
specified "new developments”
in Donovan’s case.
• William Smith of Los
Angeles, personal lawyer and
friend of Reagan, pledged
“vigorous protection of the
constitutional and statutory
rights of all our citizens” as the
Senate Judiciary Committee
began hearings on his nomina
tion to be attorney general. He
faces questioning about his
membership in two private
California clubs that exclude
women.
• The Senate Labor and
Human Resources Committee
quickly approved the nomina
tion of Terrel Bell, former U S.
commissioner of education, to
be secretary of education. Bell
said he would committed to
carrying out Reagan’s pledge to
strip the Education Department
of Cabinet status.
• After approving the Haig
nomination, the Senate Foreign
Relations opened hearings on
the nomination of Jeane Kirk
patrick, former political science
professor at Georgetown
University, to be U.S. ambas
^ Cults and the Occult^.
• An examination of the philosophical, metaphysical,
and religious roots of the most recent American cults.
• An historic and cultural view of the reasons for the
rise of cults.
• An examination of specific cults: T.M., Divine Sight
mission, Unification church, Ecbankar, many others.
Instructors: Richard Beswick and Doug Groothuis
Place: Koinonia Center, 1414 Kincaid, 484-1707
Time: The first evening will be Tues., Jan. 13th. The
following five classes will be on subsequent Monday
evenings, 7:00 pm.
\___/
sador to the United Nations.Five
days of exhaustive and some
times emotional questioning of
Haig during the committee’s
hearings did not finally dispose
of the Watergate issue, how
ever.
The committee disclosed that
lawyers for former President Ri
chard Nixon had moved to block
access to National Security
Council minutes on meetings in
which Haig took part in discus
sions of the bombing of Cam
bodia, Vietnam peace talks and
covert U S. operations against
the former Marxist government
of Chile.
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From Associated Pros* R sports
BOSTON, Mass. — The governor of Massachusetts on
Thursday ordered schools closed to conserve precious fuel,
while Florida orange juice producers jacked up their prices to
record levels almost before the ice on the citrus trees had
melted.
Across the frigid East, a cold wave that came in at
Christmas had eased up a bit, but light snow sprinkled the icy
sludge already on the ground in a wide area, waterways
remained blocked and some cities were running out of fuel to
keep their people warm.
With most residents of Massachusetts ignoring an appeal
to turn down their thermostats until an emergency supply of
natural gas could reach the state, Gov. Edward King ordered
gas-heated schools closed Friday to conserve the state's
supply of natural gas.
He also ordered all commercial customers of Boston
Gas. Co., the state’s largest gas utility, to turn down their
thermostats.
"My request for conservation is not giving us satisfactory
results," said the governor, who had declared an energy
emergency on Tuesday and asked residents to voluntarily
turn their thermostats down to 63 degrees. "The prospect of
industrial shutdowns within the Boston Gas Company’s
service area stands before us.”
King added, "The entire Northeast is on the edge of the
natural gas supply problem we are now experiencing.”
All Boston schools, which have an enrollment of about
65,000, will be closed Friday, School Superintendent Paul
Kennedy said.
SEATTLE — A coalition of environmentalists unveiled on
Thursday a proposal for a 216,000-acre Mount St. Helens
National Monument, an area almost as big as Mount Rainier
National Park.
The monument would stretch from the Lewis River on the
south to the Cowlitz River on the north. It would include lands
devastated by the May 18 eruption along with other areas
north and south that were hardly touched.
The Mount St. Helens Protective Association, which took
the lead in developing the plan, said a large area must be
protected to preserve evidence of the volcano’s earlier
eruptions and to provide comparisons with damage done May
18.
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