A Pentagon inquiry into the bombing of the Marine compound in Beirut on October 23 has concluded that serious failures in the Marine chain of command contributed to the tragedy, according to Reagan Administration officials. One official said that “generals and admirals” in the European Command were included in the “sharp criticism.”
The U.S. Marines and French troops in Beirut were warned in an anonymous telephone call to leave Lebanon within 10 days or face a major attack. The caller said he represented a Muslim terrorist group.
President Reagan meets with the National Security Planning Group to discuss plans to keep shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf open.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak meets with PLO leader Yasser Arafat. Yasser Arafat and Hosni Mubarak conferred privately in Cairo for nearly two hours. The leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization touched down in Cairo late Wednesday by helicopter after arriving from Lebanon by ship at the Suez Canal port of Ismailia. The Egyptian President called Mr. Arafat “a struggler and a moderate leader.”
Washington praised the Cairo talk between Yasser Arafat and President Mubarak as “an encouraging development” toward reviving stalled peace efforts in the Middle East. Similar statements were issued by the White House and the State Department only hours after the meeting was denounced by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel.
Deputy Foreign Minister Yehuda Ben-Meir, who has run the Israeli Foreign Ministry since Yitzhak Shamir left it to head the government, has resigned, Israel television reported, quoting a resignation letter. Prime Minister Shamir has kept the foreign minister’s post for himself until he could find a replacement without upsetting the balance among the five parties in his ruling coalition. Shamir now is likely to come under pressure to fill the foreign minister’s post immediately. The front-runner for the job, observers have said, is Deputy Prime Minister David Levy.
The United States is ready to establish full diplomatic relations with the Vatican, perhaps by mid-January, Vatican sources said. The sources confirmed reports that President Reagan intends to make the move before Pope John Paul II’s annual audience before the diplomatic corps, scheduled for January 14. Reagan will name William Wilson, a longtime adviser who now serves as the President’s personal representative to the Vatican, as ambassador, the sources said. Last month, Reagan signed legislation repealing an 1867 law barring the use of federal funds for maintaining a diplomatic mission at the Vatican.
The West German Supreme Court refused to block deployment of U.S. cruise and Pershing 2 missiles, spoiling a last-ditch legal effort by anti-missile groups. The groups, seeking to keep the missiles out of the country, had urged the high court to declare the deployment unconstitutional and issue an injunction. But the court ruled that the decision to deploy the missiles was up to federal agencies responsible for effective national defense.
Two Soviet diplomats been asked to leave Sweden on suspicion of spying, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said tonight. The spokesman, Lars Lonnback, said the Swedish police board told the Government earlier this week about “certain Soviet intelligence activities” in Sweden. He said another Soviet citizen had also been asked to leave. He did not identify the three Soviet citizens.
The European Common Market has decided against renewing the economic sanctions it imposed on the Soviet Union after martial law was declared in Poland in December 1981, a senior executive of the trade bloc said today. “None of the member countries wanted to renew the sanctions in 1984, so they will lapse on New Year’s Day,” the official said. “There will be no formal announcement,” he said. “The measures will just die quietly.” A meeting of the Common Market’s executive commission, the last such session that could have proposed a renewal of the sanctions, ended Wednesday without action. The sanctions involved a ban on certain Soviet imports.
A U.S. bishop and priest are missing in Nicaragua. The government said that Bishop Salvador Schlaefer had been slain by anti-Sandinista rebels, but a spokesman for an Indian rebel group said both the bishop and the priest, the Rev. Wendelin Shafer, were alive. A spokesman for the Misura, an Indian rebel group fighting the Sandinista Government, said yesterday that both the bishop and the priest were alive. The spokesman said the two were traveling with 3,000 Indians fleeing the country into Honduras.
U.S. special envoy Richard B. Stone, reporting on his latest trip to Central America, told President Reagan there are encouraging signs that pressure is building for a regional dialogue, a White House aide said. After Stone’s 20-minute meeting with Reagan, one senior Administration official said “he (Stone) certainly sees more opportunity for dialogue there than he did when he began his mission.” Stone is expected to return to Central America for talks soon after the new year.
Leftist Guatemalan guerrillas stormed a government television studio, doused it with gasoline and set a fire that destroyed production equipment, police said. No injuries were reported but damage was estimated at $250,000. The guerrillas allowed station employees to flee the facility unharmed before they set it afire with gasoline bombs. Although police said leftist rebels were responsible, none of the country’s major guerrilla groups immediately claimed responsibility for the raid.
American-Canadian ties were jolted by a report that Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, had told a meeting of some 100 people that efforts by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau to encourage arms reduction talks were “akin to pot-induced behavior by an erratic leftist.” Mr. Eagleburger described the report as “grossly distorted.”
About 6,000 Communist rebels and sympathizers left their jungle strongholds in northern Thailand and surrendered to government officers in return for amnesty, Radio Thailand reported. Insurgent leaders handed over their flags, and other rebels presented their weapons and ammunition to the armed forces supreme commander, General Arthit Kamlangek, who reciprocated with photographs of the Thai king and queen, the broadcast said. Last month, nearly 700 guerrillas, including 471 Muslim separatists, surrendered to authorities.
Zimbabwe freed three white air force officers, nearly four months after they were acquitted in court of sabotage charges. Wing Commander John Cox, 36, and Lieutenants Barrington Lloyd, 32, and Neville Weir, 24, were among six air force officers found innocent in August of helping saboteurs blow up Zimbabwean planes in July, 1982. Three were soon deported to Britain, but the government refused to release the other three, saying it still believed they were implicated.
By a 5-3 margin, Americans think the defense policies of the Reagan Administration are bringing the United States closer to war than to peace, according to the latest Gallup Poll. In the latest survey, 47% say closer to war, 28% closer to peace, 15% do not see a change and 10% are undecided. The survey shows a substantial and growing number of Americans holding the view that President Reagan has not gone far enough in trying to bring about an agreement with the Soviet Union on nuclear weapons. The latest survey also shows widespread public support (77%) for an immediate, verifiable bilateral freeze with the Soviet Union on the testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons.
The President’s policies on food aid were called “inhumane” and “indecent” by Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Reporting the results of his own investigation, the Massachusetts Democrat called for a $2.5 billion increase in federal spending to combat hunger next year.
President Reagan participates in a Christmas message taping session for Hispanic Radio.
The chairman of a House defense appropriations subcommittee, Rep. Joseph P. Addabbo (D-New York), asked Army Secretary John O. Marsh to review plans to buy new camouflage fatigue uniforms after Grenada-based troops complained that the uniforms-a 50-50 cotton-nylon blend-were too heavy for warm-weather climates, retained heat, took a long time to dry and wrinkled and bagged easily. The Army thus far has bought 6.4 million sets of the battle-dress uniforms at $205 million and plans to buy more. The Army said earlier that it was aware of the problem and would test a new lightweight camouflage uniform made of 100% cotton.
Computer problems in the Columbia that delayed the space shuttle’s landing for eight hours two weeks ago were caused by tiny pieces of solder and gold that touched off short circuits, according to the national space agency.
G.M. and Toyota won approval to manufacture jointly Japanese-designed subcompact cars in California. In a vote of 3 to 2, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that the venture by the world’s No. 1 and No. 3 auto makers did not violate antitrust laws.
Silicon Valley faces rising congestion and housing costs, prompting many corporate and civic leaders to worry that the region may be deteriorating as a place to create new ideas and to do business. In recent years, the small strip of land south of San Francisco has become a cauldron of industrial and technological innovation. Some leading companies have already moved major operations to other places.
A posthumous pardon was denied by Georgia authorities to Leo M. Frank, a Jewish factory superintendent who was convicted in 1913 of the murder of a 13-year-old factory girl. He was lynched by a mob two years later in one of the nation’s worst outbursts of anti-Semitism. The chairman of the state panel said, “After an exhaustive review and many hours of deliberation, it is impossible to decide conclusively the guilt or innocence of Leo M. Frank.”
A former vending machine salesman, described by the government as a “classic bagman” in one of the Abscam cases, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $5,000. The sentence imposed in Washington by U.S. District Judge John Garrett Penn on John Stowe, 50, permits the defendant to be eligible for parole, and he could be out of prison in six to eight months. Stowe was convicted of bribery, conspiracy and aiding in bribery in the case of former Rep. John Jenrette (D-South Carolina). Jenrette, who was Stowe’s congressman, was sentenced to two years on December 9. The government charged that Stowe picked up the $50,000 bribe for Jenrette, and that he participated in the solicitation of another bribe.
California’s drunken driving law was unanimously upheld today by the state Supreme Court. The justices ruled that the 1981 law making it illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level of one-tenth of 1 percent was constitutionally sound. For a man of average weight that level would be the equivalent of about three martinis. The court dismissed arguments by Perry Olsen, a lawyer, that the law denied drinkers due process because they could not know when they had reached the legal maximum. The court favored state Attorney General John Van de Kamp’s arguments that the limit was a rational response to a major social problem: California’s annual average of 2,500 deaths and 68,000 injuries from auto accidents involving drinking drivers. The ruling resolved a conflict between two appeals courts that reached opposite conclusions. The California law is one of the strictest in the nation in its provisions for punishment.
The only doctor in San Saba, Central Texas town of 5,500 residents, was placed behind bars Wednesday for failing to make family support payments, and the sheriff had to escort him at least once to the hospital for an emergency. Nearly a dozen people picketed the courthouse today to protest the jailing. “We’ve been running back and forth to jail to talk to the doctor,” said Wadene Ivy, assistant administrator at the local hospital, the San Saba Clinic. Judge D. V. Hammond ordered Dr. Roy E. Lee held “indefinitely” until he comes up with $4,000. Dr. Lee was under a court order to provide $1,500 in child support and $2,500 in temporary support to his estranged wife, Linda.
An abandoned infant stricken with AIDS has found a new home but is too sick to leave the hospital in time for Christmas, health officials said today. The 15-month-old girl has been at Jackson Memorial Hospital for five months. Recent news reports of the plight of the infant, nicknamed Pumpkin by hospital workers, brought an outpouring of sympathy. Florida’s Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services examined hundreds of offers before selecting an unidentified Miami couple. Now she must get healthy enough to leave the hospital, Jay Kassock, a state spokesman said. Doctors say Pumpkin is expected to live only three years. No cure has been found for AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which robs the body of its defenses against disease.
Dozens of families in Noel, Missouri lined up for free groceries, toys and clothes today, beneficiaries of a wealthy businessman who agreed to spend $90,000 on the needy to stay out of jail for financial irregularities. The businessman, Donald O’Brien, 55 years old, pleaded guilty in November to a misdemeanor charge of misapplying funds from the State Bank of Noel, of which he is principal owner. As part of a two-year probation sentence, he agreed to pay for up to $90,000 in food, clothing, toys and heat for 100 needy families in largely rural McDonald County. Mr. O’Brien could have been sentenced to up to one year in jail and fined $1,000, Federal District Judge Scott O. Wright said. But many people wrote urging that Mr. O’Brien, who formerly employed 700 at a chicken plant and related businesses, be kept out of jail in return for community service.
A federal appeals court in Chicago ordered a new trial in a patent infringement suit brought against Sears, Roebuck & Co. by the inventor of a quick-release socket wrench. The decision, handed down by a seven-judge appeals court panel, overturns an earlier ruling that dismissed an $8.2-million federal jury award to Peter Roberts, of Red Bank, Tennessee. Roberts, 38, invented a “quick-release” socket wrench in 1965 while working as a clerk in a Sears store. In ordering a new trial, the appeals court said the trial judge erred by allowing the jury to decide a question of law that he should have decided himself.
Most types of eye protectors designed for racquetball players are useless and may actually worsen injuries caused by the high-speed impact of a ball, according to a new study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Impacts of racquetballs traveling at 65 m.p.h. cause the frames and lenses of most eyeglasses or eyeguards to break, say researchers at the University of Illinois Hospital who performed the study. Speeds can reach 127 m.p.h., the researchers said.
American “Hardy Boys” actor Parker Stevenson (30) weds American actress Kirstie Alley (31); they divorce in 1997.
Free-agent reliever Kent Tekulve re-signs with the Pirates. In 1983 he had 18 saves and a 1.64 ERA for Pittsburgh.
Pete Rose wins a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and is awarded a $36,083 tax refund for 1978.
Indiana Pacers win, 133-132 in Denver to end a 28 NBA game losing streak on the road.
The NHL New York Islanders score 3 shorthanded goals against Washington Capitals.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1253.65 (-1.32).
Born:
Greg Smith, MLB pitcher (Oakland A’s, Colorado Rockies), in Alexandria, Louisiana.
Blake Davis, MLB second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman (Baltimore Orioles), in Newport Beach, California.
Onrea Jones, NFL wide receiver (Arizona Cardinals), in Clarksville, Tennessee.
Jennifer Hawkins, Australian model, television presenter and beauty queen, Miss Universe 2004, in Holmesville, New South Wales, Australia.
History Diaries 