EDITORIAL Unintelligent work in our intelligence I iif! i muni .Mates Hired .1 good sp\ mu mu oau ne was not one of our spies Aldrich liazen Ames, the Central intelligence Agent.y officer moonlighting as a Soviet sp\ was arrested earli er this week. The arrest brings questions to mind about the CIA. The agency is intelligent So intelligent it doesn't even know whom they have working for them. Ames had at cess to a wide selection of "top set ret" files while serving the CIA. Keep in mind he was hard ly a low man on the totem pole. As a matter of fact, he was chief of the counterintelligence branc h of the — you guessed it Soviet Union and hastern Europe. For some strange reason the 10 agents from our homo turf working in Russia, in intelligence, happened to have been removed while Amos was at work. All 10 of the t N agents were 1 onvic ted of treason and exet tiled by the Soviet authorities Now that is some good unintelli gent e work For some unintelligent reason a man working in our own unintelligent e agency was doing some intelligent things, but those working with him were too unintelli gent to set* it themselves Ames was earning $70,000 a year while working lor th'' CIA Vet for some reason he could afford a house that would have consumed nearly eight years of his salary alone Sound suspit ions7 Ames and his wife went on a i redit ( ard shopping spree, to say the least They ran up a t redit card debt that would have taken more than seven years of his salary tu pay off. (A bad bill to he stm k with seeing as pay ments are presumably hard to make \\ bile spending lime behind bars.) Ill coursir mi'V WUUJU JH’tTU tiufiju.in- Ufiii,>|nmmiun iw substantiate limit living situation - a Jaguar. And the total (ust for the house and tlm credit card bills, leaving the car out. would have been 15 years of (IIA pavchec ks. (The Soviets and the Russians paid him Si.5 million for his services.) Maybe the CIA should have looked into this. It certainly sounds a little unintelligent. One thing that Ames’ arrest proves is that spying still exists, and to little surprise Today the Cold War is something that merely exists in history books In the height of the Cold War the presence of spies was appar ently nocessarv The U S. was in need of intelligence information to keep on top of the arms rai <■ Hut that is merely a past chapter in a large volume of books A question that does evolve u> the importance of the CIA in the post Cold War era Certainly some intelli gem e will ( ontinue to be needed, intelligence in foreign governments who have an interest in the I S. govern ment, for example Hut it is estimated that $30 billion a year is spout on the spying industry. 1 hat is a great deal of mono} that could be bettor spent on other, more intel ligent things. The biggest unintelligent things in the scandal are the United States and Russia. Both are spending a great deal of money and energy trying to find the deep dark secrets that are buried in intelligence, but the two are allies, fig ure that out. Oregon Dail) Emerald P 0 BO* 31M. tUOCHi 0*1 GON 97403 The v >m,V' ' • 7 • , -ut> V eO diVy M l.i> ?’■ '/ t ,j Tuesday &< il Tnu-sday duf«ng the au■ c 1* the ' Co 1 .»l the I ’--vtn*.*> if Oegon f i^gere Oregon T* .• Uai*" uf the University Ff«lay ♦ Associated Pr#S* Th cm at So*e 300 o< the t i ap«rs *• p*o»ecutj*t>*e Managing Editor Editorial Editor Graphics Editor Freelance Editor Associate Editors I dwa CtV’ ■ • ■ t) Ju e News Staff M.» ;, tl.» f ifth©#. Sarah Mender sc ” H-sabolh R«0ft»ijwn). Ms-; Advertising Director M i ■ Advertising h i . .i. •» ., M.iv W ’ :*rve M~* .jwxJ T* Editorial Editor fVAhar.ft ,k»ff Pa.-».«> Photo Editor M. huw S'1 *if Supplements Editor S- to Night Editor M’h f* *• r ” K ,,; hv>s'e, SUKlrr1 . ..f : A. ' w ' ft Met-*' .« Me* - *• Hghev £dU.a**0ft Adm. sha.'' . . /. • - . ■ !),%% A • , : * .s f -■•*..> • .i M.t a t -e»ds Mah H»r rs V ” 1n ) l *> ; M i ■■ Me-.a *. T- «,,.i ** : < e Mm-vf. i n • •.. Step^ur ■« S*sso *«• Mt h-eie ft- A j. I *ev ;i A" • v,r - > General Manager Walter Production Manager M ' •* Roii Swthr Outf.i N . 't* Me ; i'* Teresa »'re ;<*" Ma- . ette Tr.. K&.sey At**** A ;.- A t'*e ■ Villager V.* Mr* ,i Sm T/e Tecs John tong. Graham Simpson Super usor Judy Connoll > P'cofi CoortAnafcy Shawna Abe** (Veg Desmond Tara Pyltchei Jennifer Roland Natl Thangv,*’. Clayton Yen 346-S511 Display Advertising 3M-3712 346-S512 Classified Advertising 346-4343 Oregon Ddily Emerald Fnday. February 25. 1994 WWxTTpPH) '^OuGutS OT’ , LETTERS Ludicrous I bis letter is -in attempt to respond to the ignorance tos ter ltd m Marius Meland's opin ion column m the Hmerald ('eh •I llis claim in regard to tin true state o! t nine in the 1 'lut ed States is ludicrous It is this sort of viewpoint which breeds a sot lets in whir h the eye is t on tinualU averted from the horror which muv lie directly before us llis allusion to the quiet, peaceful nature of Eugene does not consider what is going on when those streets are not illu minated hv sunlight And. espe i ially from the viewpoint of a woman (although in no way limited simply to women), 1 can assure him all is not as peaceful is his misted peri eption con ceives 1 here is no doubt the mass media plays a large, it not the onh part in the creation of the average l i S citizen's information base, a disturbing idea in itself However, aside from this realm, the reality ol the matter is submerged mi statistic s such os the fact that over one million homicides were i ommitted in the United States last year A revolution is under way in our midst, yet Meland continues to rely on the assumption that "there is no crime wave." Overall. 1 roly on the hope others will understand the flawed argument presented by Meland. I anticipate this will serve only as a printed version of such thoughts neiui rrmu History English Burl knows Mam thanks lor David Ttiom's Miorti balanced and thoughtful Feb 14 opinion piece in the Emerald It prompts these thoughts Assuming humanity is superior in some ways to other spei ,ies, who tares' When an individual obsesses over her/his "superiority" to other individuals, this is usually a symptom of immaturity, insecurity and egotism. I choose to believe that the merit of an individual cannot f>e measured by comparing that individual on some single, uniform scale with other individuals. Each individual has her/his own intrinsic value, and so dot's each species these ultimate values are incommensurable*; the\ cannot be meaningfully compared, prioritized and ranked Arc apples "superior'' to oranges? Mr I lium suggests "survival ol the fittest" as a uniform vardstick to measure species bv I guess that makes cot kroai lies superior. More power to them, I guess Is it possible that colonies of ants or bees have a c ommunal consciousness i omparable to our intelligent e7 It they did. would we know it' What about dens of rattlesnakes? Halls of Congress7 Did 1 just repeat myself? To quote Burl Ives (I'm middle aged with t hlldrun now and I can do really stupid-sounding things like quoting Burl Ives il I want to). " Mr Rabbit. Mr Rabbit, your ears are mighty long. Yes dear Cod. they're made that way But every little soul must shine shine livery little soul must shine." John Davidson ASUO Legal Services Bewildered I'm sorry lo hoar that there aren't enough hike wrecks on campus to keep lake Herg happy Hut don't be sad — 1 have a wonderful solution! Gather round, Emerald staffers, 'cause this is a neat idea you all should try. Here s tn\ idea f irst, all you Emerald folks come on out of that stuffy little office atop the KM I OK7 Now wait for your eyes to adjust; that sunlight sure is brighter than the fluorescents you're used to Wait! Don't hop into your shiny automobiles' No. try one of these bicycles instead No. no. there's no place for an ignition key. sport; you use your legs Steady, now. pedal around campus Whoops, that was u nasty spill! That’s all right, at least it made lake happy Okay, try again See the neat things that student groups are working on' Set; all the lectures and concerts and workshops that would make wonderful original articles? Imagine not having to fill space everyday with wire stories and silly editorials complaining alxiut bicyUe groups like Critical Mass and their requests for special lanes and covered bicycle parking. Mey, watch out tor the wet leaves ..! Oh dear — well, now you know why hit vi.lists complain about wet seats; that was a hig puddle, wasn't it? Yes. you can go hack to the offii e now I sure hope that little tour made von hnppv. Please come out again sometime and make us all laugh, instead of shake our heads in bewilderment. S.W. Conser Independent Studies OCA taraets James Patton doubts the ()rtigon Citizens Alliance tried to remove homosexual professors from their jobs through Measure 9 He challenged me to show where the OCA "attempted to remove professors" and he will then stand with me and others "for nine hours with a 'Ban the (X:A sign at Valley River Center" ((JL)tFeb. 14). Well, here goes, lames See you at Valley River Outer this Saturday. Just prior to the Measure 9 vote, OCA director Lon Mahon appeared at a local forum, lie was asked to clarify the intent of Measure if (who better to know7') Mahon explained that “any Oregon public school teacher or professor publicly identified as a homosexual should lose the right to teach even if he or she never mentions tin1 word homosexuality in the classroom" (Hegister-Guard. Oct it). 1902). 1 appreciate this challenge and opportunity invit ed !>v Patton, a political science major demonstrating an inquir ing mind. to clarify why many citizens have stood at Valley River Center these past four Sat urdays Our signs urge others to see Schindh'r's List and rei og nize the chilling parallels lietween Hitler's hate agenda against lews (homosexuals, gyp sies. disabled) and similar fas cist politics promoted by the OCA So perhaps we'll see Patton at Valley River (Uniter this Saturday (2 ft) to 5:00) Perhaps not If ho does show . I'd like to suggest he reconsider his 'Ban the OCA' sign, though For groups like the OCA have a right to exist, if only to remind us of the wrongs that can and do occur when disi rimination is tolerated. Carol Berg Eugene