world beat
Meese probe
findings nulled
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two
Office of Government Ethics
staff members concluded that
Attorney General-designate Ed
win Meese III violated govern
ment ethics rules, but the agen
cy director overruled them and
found there was no violation,
Meese’s lawyer said today.
Leonard Garment, attorney
for the White House counselor,
confirmed that the investigators
found violations in the federal
appointments of two men who
helped Meese financially. But
Garment said the preliminary
finding was changed after he
was given a chance to submit a
rebuttal,
Meese faces confirmation
hearings Tuesday before the
Senate Judiciary Committee and
the committee chairman. Sen.
Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., “has
officially requested” the two
staff members and their boss to
testify, according to panel
spokesman Mark Goodin.
The staff report was overruled
by David H. Martin, director of
the ethics office, who wrote
Thurmond on Jan. 24 that “Mr.
Meese is in compliance with ap
plicable laws and regulations
governing conflicts of interest.”
Martin did not return several
phone calls to his office.
The findings by the staff
members focused on Thomas
Barrack, a California real estate
developer who received an In
terior Department position, and
John McKean, who became
head of the Postal Board of
Governors.
McKean lent Meese $60,000
in two loans and Barrack helped
arrange the sale of Meese’s
California home, including len
ding some of his own money to
one of the purchasers. Both mat
ters were covered extensively in
the report of an independent
counsel, who investigated
Meese’s behavior and found he
violated no criminal law.
Garment said Meese received
no favored treatment in the
McKean loans — even paying
higher than market rates — and
added that Meese did not in
itiate the postal governor’s job.
...........
That was done by another White
House official, Michael Deaver.
Garment added that Meese
was not aware that Barrack was
financially involved in the sale
of his home when Barrack
received a federal appointment.
Garment said Meese believed
Barrack only helped find a
buyer without making any
financial commitment.
"The staff recommendations
were overuled by the head of
the Office of Government Ethics
as part of their routine recom
mendation and review pro
cess,” Garment said.
At the White House, deputy
press secretary Larry Speakes
declined comment saying, "I
don’t have anything on it
specifically, except Ed Meese
will be testifying tomorrow. I
presume the Senate will have an
opportunity to ask any and all
questions.”
The ethics standards, among
other things, forbid an official
from taking actions that “might
result in, or create the ap
pearance of.. .giving preferen
tial treatment to any organiza
tion or person.” They also urge
an official not to take actions
that create an impression that
he has lost "complete in
dependence or impartiality of
action.”
In another development,
Common Cause, the self-styled
citizens’ lobby, purchased a
full-page advertisement in the
Washington Post that quoted 20
newspaper editorials arguing
that Meese should not be the
next attorney general.
Said Speakes, “I wouldn’t
pass judgment on what Com
mon Cause does with their
money.”
Beirut captive
appears on tape
LONDON (AP) — A U S. Em
bassy political officer who was
kidnapped in Beirut almost a
year ago was shown on a
videotape Monday saying he
and two other missing
Americans were well.
In Washington, Cable News
Network reported that U.S. of
ficials saw another videotape
last summer that showed jour
nalist Jeremy Levin and two
others assumed to be captives in
Beirut. But the administration
urged that the matter be kept
quiet at the time.
The report said State Depart
ment sources had confirmed the
existence of the tape. Depart
ment spokesman Bernard Kalb,
however, refused comment on
the CNN report.
The tape obtained by
Visnews, a London-based inter
national television news agen
cy, showed William Buckley,
political officer of the U.S. Em
bassy in Beirut, standing alone
against a blank wall and
holding a copy of a Beirut
newspaper dated Jan. 22.
"Today, the 22nd of January
1985, I am well and my friends
Benjamin Weir and Jeremy
Levin are also well. We ask that
our government take action for
our release quickly,” Buckley
said in the 56-second video.
The tape did not identify the
Americans’ captors nor specify
any demands for their release.
The only previous demand has
come in calls from a group iden
tifying itself as "Jihad Islami,”
Islamic Holy War, calling for all
Americans to leave Lebanon.
Witnesses saw Buckley being
kidnapped last March 16 and
the Rev. Benjamin Weir, a
Presbyterian minister, being
kidnapped last May 8. Levin,
the Beirut bureau chief of the
Cable News Network, has been
missing since March 7 of last
year and was presumed to have
been abducted.
In Washington, Kalb said,
“We obviously welcome this
evidence that William Buckley
is alive and well and the indica
tion that Jeremy Levin and Ben
jamin Weir are also well.”
He said the release of all the
kidnapped Americans "remains
a top administration priority.”
The Cable News Network
report said a tape "came into
the hands of State Department
officials through Arab sources”
last July. The tape shows Levin
holding a newspaper dated July
5, 1984, and two other people
who are apparently hostages,
according to the report.
The tape shown in London
made no mention of two other
Americans missing in the
Lebanese capital, even though
some of the anonymous phone
calls have referred to five
Americans. The two are Peter
Kilbum, who failed to report for
work as librarian at the
American University of Beirut
last Dec. 3, and the Rev.
Lawrence Jenco of Joliet, 111.,
head of the Catholic Relief Ser
vices office, who was seen be
ing kidnapped on Jan. 8 this
year.
Visnews managing editor
Kevin Hamilton, who showed
the tape to reporters at Visnews
headquarters in London, releas
ed no information on how his
agency had acquired the tape.
He said no demands from the
captors had come with it.
"We do not see ourselves as
intermediaries or negotiators,”
Hamilton said. "We simply ob
tained the video.”
Jihad Islami is believed made
up of fundamentalist Shiite
Moslems loyal to Iran’s
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Islamic extremist groups also
have claimed reponsibility for
suicide bomb attacks on U.S.,
Israeli and French installations
in Beirut as part of a campaign
to drive all Westerners out of
Lebanon.
Panel scolds
U.S. schools
WASHINGTON (AP) — A
panel of children’s advocates
charged Monday that millions
of poor, handicapped and
minority students are being
cheated by America’s public
schools and that the rush to
raise standards could make life
worse for those at the back of
the class.
They said the plight of these
children, and the ways the
schools and government at all
levels have responded to it,
"support the worries of those
Asho fear the development of a
permanent underclass in
America.”
"The United States cannot af
ford to leave underdeveloped
the talents of millions of
children who happen to be bom
different by virtue of race,
language, sex or income
status,” said the panel headed
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by former U.S. Commissioner of
Education Harold Howe II and
Marian Wright Edelman, presi
dent of the Children's Defense
Fund.
They charged that minority
and poor children "do not mat
ter as much... to some school
officials," and that, in Howe’s
words, "state and local financ
ing of schools adds up to a con
spiracy to spend more money
on rich kids and less money on
poor kids.”
Howe also charged that Presi
dent Ronald Reagan has presid
ed over “an anti-childhood ad
ministration." He said he "did
not look for any relief' in
Reagan’s second term.
Howe and Edelman chaired a
17-member board of inquiry
that conducted a two-year study
of the schools for the Boston
based National Coalition of Ad
vocates for Students. Several
foundations supported the
study, including the Carnegie
Corporation, the Ford Founda
tion. the Johnson Foundation
and others.
The 162-page report, “Bar
riers to Excellence: Our
Children At Risk,” exhorts the
public and educators to put
equal opportunity back at the
forefront of the school agenda,
where the emphasis in the past
few years has been on raising
standards and striving for
excellence.
The report criticized school
districts that set up smaller
classes for gifted youths. That
"detracts from resources
available to all other youth,”
said the report, which ad
vocates keeping the gifted in
regular classes.
At a crowded news con
ference in an elementary school
auditorium, Howe said “the
doors of schools are more open
than they were 20 years ago" for
poor people, blacks, Hispanics
and students with learning pro
blems. But, Howe added, "we
found a lack of commitment to
making these students suc
cessful once they are in
school.”
Reports such as “A Nation At
Risk,” the influential 1983
study by the Reagan administra
tion’s National Commission on
Excellence in Education, have
generally called for tougher
standards across-the-board.
Howe and Edelman said
schools are using tests ex
cessively and doing little to
help students overcome
weaknesses identified on the
tests.
The dropout rate for blacks is
nearly twice that of whites, and
at the high school level blacks
are suspended three times as
often, they said.
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