opinion
Clark's nomination
a Reagan affront
After inflicting bad environmental decisions with a general
disregard for the opinion of the American people, James Watt
finally tendered his resignation as interior secretary.
Watt chose to resign in what seemed to be a graceful exit,
although if he stayed on it's a certainty he would have faced a
Congress prepared to pass a resolution to oust him.
Watt dodged the bullet, so to speak. Still, with Watt gone the
American people breathed a sigh of relief.
Right away came the sweepstakes for Watt's successor. The
general opinion was that almost anybody could do a better job.
But with the nomination of William Clark, environmentalists
and anti-environmentalists, conservatives and liberals alike,
were stunned. Clark was a national security adviser and former
associate justice of the California Supreme Court. What kind of
a background is this for a Secretary of the Interior?
Being an old crony of Pres. Ronald Reagan is the foremost of
Clark's credentials. It's nice to have friends in high places. And
as far as credentials go there seems a lot more to worry about
with Clark, instead of Watt, in charge.
At least Watt had a background in environmental issues. Of
course, he consistently fell on the side of business over environ
ment. However, Watt was regularly apprised of all the issues sur
rounding the environment. Regardless of whether you approved
of Watt's policies they were at the very least based on available
information.
Clark's position is called pro-development, derived from his
decisions as an associate justice in the California Supreme
Court. Clark dissented against a majority ruling requiring an en
vironmental impact study on inland oil drilling. He also was the
only justice to contend San Diego's anti-billboard ordinance was
unconstitutional.
Not that we're advocating bringing back lovable Jimmy
Watt. Quite the opposite is true. Watt was a thoroughly bad
Secretary of the Interior, but he seems to bask in the reflected
glare caused by Clark's nomination.
In a way Clark's nomination is another affront to en
vironmental groups by Reagan. Designating Clark — who's
background in national security seems to betray a certain instan
taneous incomptency in the area of environment — is another in
a long series of Reagan appointments that are more callow than
qualified.
Watt's resignation isn't going to change much in the depart
ment of the interior. Watt's policies will probably be carried
through by Clark without alteration.
But the smart money isn't betting for a change for the better.
Keep vitriolic Helms
out of King's FBI file
Here's a singular instance: The Reagan administration is ac
ting properly. In this case it is through efforts to prevent access
to sealed FBI files on the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms' is trying to get King’s FBI
files to bolster his attempt to defeat the proposed Martin Luther
King day. Helms, ever vitriolic, will use the information in these
FBI files to his best advantage — and the worst for the slain civil
rights leader.
How accurate is the information in the FBI files? Probably
not very accurate.
When J. Edgar Hoover died, certain aspects of his reign as
director of the FBI came to light. Hoover was a man with more
than a little paranoia. He was paranoid about King and the civil
rights movement. Hoover was sure it was a communist plot (one
of many such plots) and set the FBI after King. The type of infor
mation the FBI gathered under the Hoover dynasty (as
demonstrated by others who have requested and seen their FBI
files under the Freedom of Information Act) was a mish-mash of
rumor, innuendo, outright lies and paid informants' testimony.
Sometimes they lucked-out and got a smattering of truth.
There's no reason to believe that King's FBI file isn't full of
such mud.
If Helms gets hold of King's FBI file he'll sling the most
damaging items, regardless of the truth, to stop the popular
movement for a King memorial day.
King is deserving of a day of memorial for all he achieved in
his public life as a civil rights leader. But his private life and the
doubtful information in the FBI files should be kept safe from
jackals like Helms.
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letters
Free postcards
“War is hell" and must be avoid
ed, but it is also eternal upon
Earth. Any simpleton knows even
neutral governments keep
military forces. The United States
also needs adequate defenses.
The United States needs a draft
and those who avoid draft
registration must be ferreted out
with effective measures.
I urge all those who agree with
these elements to acquire ASUO's
Solomon Amendment postcards
and rewrite them to support the
measure. Send them to your con
gresspersons immediately. In ad
dition, join the ASUO lobby net
work. Cive the network your
name, address, etc., so you will be
informed of their actions and may
further thwart their efforts.
Paul Parks, /r.
Smoking missile
Although the first reports of the
shooting down of the Korean
airliner seemed to defy any logical
analysis, the media coverage, the
public outrage and the political
posturing have followed a predic
table pattern.
Catching the Russians with a
smoking missile in the slaughter
of 269 innocent men, women and
children was a story made for
vituperative rhetoric, sensational
headlines and vilifying cartoons.
The puzzling inconsistencies in
early fragmentary reports and the
perplexing questions about what
actually happened and why could
wait for a calmer climate. Unfor
tunately for rational analysis and
intelligent reaction, the near
hysterical ferocity of the initial
response has so set the prevailing
attitude that subsequent revela
tions are perfunctorily discounted
or simply ignored.
The position of our government
seems to have changed from a
claim of irrefutable proof that the
Soviets acted knowingly, willfully,
and with a barbaric disregard for
human life to the position that if
they didn't know they were attack
ing a civilian airliner, they should
have, and so are just as guilty.
Since neither side is likely to
agree to submit all evidence, in
formation and witnesses to a
judicial procedure, whether the
Soviet action was aggravated
murder, manslaughter or self
defense will remain a subject for
academic speculation.
Not so academic is the question
of how those in the media who
played such a key role in fostering
frenzied accusations will adjust to
the revelation that the Soviet
leaders have judged their Own air
defense guilty of incredible in
competence. Members of the
media must face the question of
the extent to which they ignored
disturbing inconsistencies to ac
cept an official interpretation
without proper journalistic
challenge.
Since a communist regime feels
no compulsion to tell the truth,
perhaps the media feel comfor
table with manipulating facts to
make this evil empire look bad, or
perhaps they instinctively try to
avoid the serious risk of appearing
soft on communism.
The release of information on
the airliner tragedy has left our in
telligence community and our
military establishment somewhat
at odds. Either our intelligence
service has been grossly
overestimating Russian
capabilities or our military leaders
have been systematically exag
gerating Russian strength in order
to frighten us into unnecessary
defense spending.
But how could the Soviet
defense system have been so in
ept in tracking, identifying and
eliminating a huge, high-flying,
subsonic, civilian intruder?
We now know they were
seriously distracted by one of our
sophisticated spy planes. Since
one important mission of our elec
tronic surveillance is to activate
Russian radar, try to confuse it,
and then monitor results, was it
this type of operation that
rendered the Russian defenses
almost impotent for two hours?
Our intelligence reports about a
shakeup in the Russian command
indicate we can break Russian
codes and listen in to almost
anything that goes on. If we can
listen in, can we also talk back? If
computer whiz kids can penetrate
sophisticated computerized net
works, can we not assume that
our National Security Administra
tion can and routinely does
penetrate the Soviet defense
system and can even scramble
their signals?
Since modern spying amounts
to an ongoing electronic warfare,
could the airliner have been
caught in the middle of an elec
tronic interchange? Could this ex
plain reports of communication
problems and even be the reason
it strayed so far off course? Could
this be why the Russians, with
their electronic systems made
unreliable and their paranoia in
flamed, felt they had to shoot first •
and worry about consequences
later?
Gene Lehman
Correction
The Emerald regrets any
misunderstanding that may
have taken place regarding
the "open mike" editorial
Oct. 18. Maranatha
representatives have in
formed the Emerald that Bill
Class, who was cited as a
speaker, is not affiliated
with the group.
Although Glass was not
linked to Maranatha, they
maintain it was implied he
was.
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