World news
Senate intelligence to evaluate CIA’s role in Middle East
By Joseph Schuman
Pie Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Senate
intelligence committee will hold
hearings on the CIA’s mediating
role in the Middle East land-for
security accord to determine the
cost of tracking Palestinian anti
terror efforts and whether Ameri
can agents are at risk.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.,
the committee's chairman, said
Sunday he is troubled because the
CIA, within the agreement, would
play “a visible role.”
"What is the role of the CIA? Is
it to enforce a policy? Is it to be an
arbitrator? Is it to be bodyguards? I
think not,” Shelby said on "Fox
News Sunday.” “I think we have
to look at this.”
But Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright said the
agency is no stranger to providing
on-the-ground intelligence sup
port to diplomacy.
"The CIA has played roles pre
viously in terms of monitoring
and verifying other agreements ...
in the region,” Albright said on
CBS’s “Face the Nation.” She said
the CIA has been fighting terror
ism there since the 1996 anti-ter
rorism conference at Sharm el
Sheikli, Egypt.
Meanwhile, White House
spokesman Barry Toiv said Presi
dent Clinton telephoned King
Hassan of Morocco, Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt
and Crown Prince Abdullah of
Saudi Arabia on Sunday while on
a political fund-raising trip to Cal
ifornia.
He said Clinton “explained the
benefits of the agreement to both
sides, and he talked with them to
build on the agreement and on the
partnership between the Israelis
and the Palestinians by the Wye
talks to create a new atmosphere
not only between the two parties
but also between Israel and the
wider Arab world.”
The three Arab leaders were
“overwhelmingly positive” in
their support, the spokesman
said.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a
member of the intelligence com
mittee, disagreed with Shelby’s
apprehensions about expanding
the CIA’s role. On CNN's “Late
Edition,” Hatch said the spy
agency can play “a constructive
role in making sure that these two
sides get along and live up to
these agreements.”
Within the U.S.-brokered agree
ment concluded Friday between
Israel and the Palestinians, the
CIA would keep track of Palestin
ian efforts to arrest and punish ter
rorists as a way of assuaging Is
raeli security concerns. The deal
would create a three-party media
tion system in which Palestinian
and Israeli security officials could
present disputes to a CIA arbiter.
Israeli Prime Minister Ben
jamin Netanyahu said on CNN
that the CIA woidd be there to en
sure “that the things are done, ...
that terrorists do not come in and
go into ... Palestinian jails and
then leave by the proverbial re
volving door.”
Albright said the agency will
work in a “role which assists, to
try to deal with these issues with
out being personally involved. ...
We’re there, as we are in the peace
talks, always as the honest broker
as assisting in this.”
The Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence does not have
power to directly change the Is
raeli-Palestinian agreement,
though it has some authority over
U.S. intelligence spending.
Shelby said, “We want to know
how it is going to work, how long
the CIA will be involved, how
much it’s going to cost and what
are the dangers to the American
lives here.”
He said he also will discuss the
matter with Tenet, who has trav
eled to Israel and the Palestinian
territories four times since 1996.
The agency maintains offices in
the West Bank cities of Hebron,
Ramallah and Nablus, as well as
one in the Gaza Strip.
Tenet, in this week's Time mag
azine, said the CIA's Middle East
work “can have an enormous im
pact on the future, but the fact is
that we have to become a more ag
ile institution.”
lyphoon Babs devastates Taiwan, heads toward Hong Kong
The Associated Press
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Typhoon
Babs brought torrential rain and
landslides to Taiwan on Sunday
after killing at least 156 people in
the Philippines and leaving hun
dreds of thousands homeless.
The typhoon was centered
about 185 miles southeast of
Hong Kong by evening with gusts
already lashing the territory. The
storm was moving at about 6 mph
toward the south China coast
with sustained winds of 81 mph,
expected to come closest to Hong
Kong on Tuesday.
Babs caused torrential rain over
the whole island of Taiwan, with
Hualien and several other eastern
towns recording more than 20
inches of rain in 24 hours. Au
thorities evacuated hundreds of
people from their homes near
flooded rivers.
In Taipei, the Keelung River
swelled its banks. Parts of Hsichih
town were flooded in waist-high
water, and much of nearby Wutu
was also inundated. Rescuers
used rubber boats and trucks to
evacuate residents from apart
ment blocks, officials said.
In eastern Ilan, a man was
swept into the sea while fishing in
rough waters. Nine people were
injured when their van was hit by
rockslides in eastern Taitung, po
lice said.
Several domestic airports were
closed, and landslides halted traf
fic and trapped hundreds in
mountains in central Taiwan.
In Hong Kong, authorities
warned residents to take precau
tions as gusts of 64 mph were
recorded. The government
opened shelters, beaches were
closed, and fishing boats took
refuge in the harbor.
In the Philippines, President
Joseph Estrada declared four
provinces and a city in the worst
hit area on the southern tip of Lu
zon under a state of calamity,
meaning that officials will be able
to use emergency funds and
freeze prices of commodities.
The Philippine government's
Office of Civil Defense said the
death toll from Babs rose to 156
on Sunday. The fatalities includ
ed 71 people who died in land
slides in hard-hit Catanduanes Is
land and 41 people who
drowned, were electrocuted or
died in landslides in nearby Ca
marines Sur province.
Local officials said entire fami
lies died in the town of San
Miguel in Catanduanes, where al
most every house was damaged.
Residents began burying their
dead in two mass graves Satur
day.
Nearly 400,000 people were
forced out of their homes, disaster
relief officials said. Tens of thou
sands more were stranded as
ports were shut and ships forbid
den to sail.
ujoa is not ready tor more American news bureaus, President Castro says
By Anita Snow
The Associated Press
HAVANA — Cuban President
Fidel Castro has told top Ameri
can editors he is not ready to al
low U.S. journalists to operate
permanently on the island.
“Once they are established it is
hard to remove them,” Castro
told the top leadership of the
American Society of Newspaper
Editors during a six-hour meet
ing on Saturday.
Editors quoted Castro as say
ing that granting permission for a
bureau “is a matter of confidence
to be built step by step ... We
have had a lot of experience with
[American] journalists who are
biased.”
Still, Edward L. Seaton, ASNE
president and editor of The Man
hattan (Kan.) Mercury, said he
thought Castro listened to the
group’s arguments for letting
American journalists open of
fices in the country.
“I think we got across quite
well our message: that they need
to have print journalists from the
United States in Cuba,’’Seaton
said .ASNE has 870 members
from newspapers across the
United States.
Cuba grants U.S. reporters
work visas for a week or two.
The only U.S. news organization
that has Cuban government ap
proval to operate a permanent of
fice in the country is Cable News
Network. CNN opened its Ha
vana bureau, headed by corre
spondent Lucia Newman, in
March 1997.
The network is the first
American news organization to
operate a bureau in the country
since The Associated Press was
expelled in 1969.
The 32-member ASNE delega
tion, made up of the board of di
rectors and other top leaders, ar
rived in Cuba on Wednesday and
returned to the United States ear
ly Sunday after a four-day visit.
Besides Castro, the editors met
with Foreign Minister Roberto
Robaina, Vice President Carlos
Lage and Ricardo Alarcon, presi
dent of Cuba’s parliament.
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