A redeployment of the U.S. Marines in Beirut to United States Navy ships offshore has been ordered, President Reagan announced. At the same time, he said that American naval and air forces would now attack any units behind Syrian lines that were firing into the Beirut area, breaking with the practice of firing only when American citizens were threatened.
It may take up to a month for the American marines to turn over the task of guarding the Beirut airport to the Lebanese Army before redeploying to ships offshore, White House and Pentagon officials said. They said that work on a phased redeployment was beginning last night.
Lawmakers from both parties praised the redeployment of the 1,600 Marine contingent in Beirut to American naval craft offshore. But many legislators expressed the view that President Reagan’s decision was an acknowledgement that his policy in Lebanon had failed.
A pullout of Britain’s contingent in Beirut was considered likely. Senior Government officials in London said that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was on the verge of ordering Britain’s 115-member military force to leave Lebanon.
Muslim militiamen completed a takeover of predominantly Muslim West Beirut, and the United States Embassy evacuated nonessential staff members and families. Fighting broke out along the so-called green line that divides Christian East and Muslim West Beirut. Lebanese Army units began breaking apart along religious and political lines. A marine was wounded seriously when the American military compound came under mortar attack.
An exiled Iranian general was slain, together with his brother, on a crowded Paris street by gunmen described by the police as professional assassins. The key Iranian general from the late shah’s regime was shot and killed, along with his brother. Several Islamic groups claimed responsibility for the assassination of General Gholam Ali Oveissi, who had been condemned to death by the regime of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The general was considered responsible for a bloody suppression of Khomeini supporters in 1963 and for the army’s opening fire and killing hundreds of demonstrators in 1978, when he was military governor of Tehran. That event was considered crucial in leading to the fall of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
Soviet forces savagely attacked an Afghan town in one of a series of offensives that have killed hundreds in the southern Shomali Valley, Western diplomats in India and Pakistan reported. They said the Soviets entered Istalef, 25 miles north of Kabul, before dawn last Thursday and shot and bayoneted suspected guerrillas, as well and women and children. As the troops withdrew, tanks and helicopters then bombarded the town, the diplomats said.
The Soviet Union denounced the United States at two international conferences. In Stockholm, at the European security conference, Igor Andropov, son of the Soviet president, accused the West of “deliberately planning a nuclear war.” Andropov said the Atlantic Alliance’s rejection of proposed treaties of nonaggression and no-first-use of nuclear arms show its war plans are in an advanced stage. At a U.N. disarmament conference in Geneva, Soviet delegate Victor L. Issraelyan accused the United States of sabotaging arms talks to gain military superiority.
Representatives of the news media should go along on future U.S. military operations on a “pool” basis, a national media organization told a Pentagon panel. John Seigenthaler, representing the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi, said the group supports the idea of a pool arrangement, in which one journalist would represent several news organizations. Seigenthaler, publisher of the Nashville Tennessean, testified before a panel formed to fashion. guidelines for coverage of military operations in the wake of the media’s exclusion from the initial phases of the U.S. invasion of Grenada.
Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld urged the West German government to pressure Chile to extradite former Nazi colonel Walter Rauff, who invented mobile gas chambers used to exterminate Jews during World War II. Chilean government officials last week rejected an Israeli government request for the extradition of the 77-year-old Rauff for trial. A West German Justice Ministry spokesman said the government has no plans to formally request the extradition of Rauff but plans to exert pressure on the Chilean government through other channels.
Greece today denounced the Civil Aviation Agreement that has existed since 1946 between Greece and the United States, asserting that the accord was financially detrimental to Greek commercial aviation and that the trend was getting worse. The government-run press agency also reported that the government had denounced its civil aviation agreements with Hungary and the Netherlands for the same reason and asked for renegotiations. The government spokesman, Dimitrios Maroudas, said the formal notification was signed by Foreign Minister Ioannis Haralambopoulos and delivered to the United States Embassy. But Mr. Maroudas said the present agreement and flights would continue for the next year, during which time negotiations for a new agreement would take place between the Civil Aviation authorities of the two nations.
Mr. Maroudas said the agreement was denounced because it gave unlimited possibilities to United States airlines to include Athens both in their European routes and as a stopover for Middle East destinations. He added that the agreement left little margin for one or the other side to refuse such landing rights, “the end result being that the lion’s share was taken by the American airlines, to the detriment of Olympic Airways, our own national carrier.”
A United States Army soldier who falsely reported being kidnapped by West German antimissile protesters will be discharged from the Army but not prosecuted, the authorities said today. The West German police said no charges would be pressed against the soldier, Specialist 4 Liam T. Fowler of Port Orange, Fla., who has returned to the United States and faces administrative discharge from the Army. Sgt. 1st Class James Cramblet, a spokesman for the Pershing missile brigade where Specialist Fowler was based in Schwabisch Gmund, said the Army had also decided against taking any disciplinary action against Specialist Fowler.
Specialist Fowler, 21 years old, disappeared after guard duty January 13. He called his wife to say he was being held hostage by six West Germans threatening to kill him unless the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s new Pershing 2 nuclear missiles were removed. Two days later, he turned up unharmed. The West German police said he admitted under questioning that he made up the abduction story because he was afraid to confront his wife after failing to pick her up from work.
Salvadoran presidential candidate Roberto D’Aubuisson gives as much importance to former U.S. Ambassador Robert E. White “as he does to a cockroach,” a spokesman for D’Aubuisson’s rightist Arena Party said. White has accused the Reagan Administration of concealing evidence linking D’Aubuisson with the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero in 1980. The Administration has denied White’s charge.
Argentina ordered the expulsions of a former Bolivian president, General Luis Garcia Meza, and a former Bolivian interior minister wanted in the United States on cocaine-smuggling charges. The Interior Ministry said that Garcia Meza and Colonel Luis Arce Gomez will be stripped of the political asylum bestowed on them by Argentina’s former military government and will be expelled because they threaten “national security and public order.” The ministry said it has been unable to locate either man and both are now considered fugitives from justice.
Mozambique has expelled a white leader of the African National Congress, the main guerrilla group fighting white minority rule in South Africa, an official source said today. The official said Mozambique evicted the rebel leader, Joe Slovo, after security talks with South Africa. There was no immediate official comment from Maputo, Mozambique’s capital. But in Lusaka, Zambia, the guerrilla group said Maputo officials had told it of “certain demands communicated to them by the Pretoria regime concerning the A.N.C.” Mr. Slovo, a Lithuanian-born Communist who fled South Africa in 1962, is second in command of the military wing of the African National Congress.
The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs approved international controls today on a wide range of drugs used in making the world’s most commonly consumed tranquilizers. The substances will now be scheduled under international drug control treaties, subjecting their movement to monitoring and their medical distribution to prescription. The 40-member commission, the chief United Nations policy-making body on drug control, voted at a special session to schedule 33 substances chemically known as benzodiazepines and used in making sedatives and tranquilizers. The move followed reports that illicit drug traffickers were moving increasingly into synthetic and psychotropic drugs.
Canada defeated the United States, 4-2, in the start of hockey competition at the XIV Olympic Winter Games. The Canadians were inspired by a goal after only 27 seconds and a goalie who had thought he would be barred from playing. The youthful band of Americans hardly had time in this tournament to enjoy its status as defending champion. And now they must play Czechoslovakia Thursday night in a game they must win or face virtual elimination from medal consideration. The Czechoslovaks, seeded second behind the Soviet Union in the 12-team, 2-pool tournament, took 66 shots on goal today in a 10-4 rout of Norway. The Soviet team looked even more impressive, getting 75 shots against Poland while winning by 12-1.
Radio Free Europe, which had sought 12 news-media credentials for the XIV Olympic Winter Games, will receive none, the International Olympic Committee said today. Radio Free Europe is financed by the United States State Department. The United States Olympic Committee had approved the request for accreditation, but the Sarajevo organizers rejected it. The organizers and the I.O.C. then offered a compromise that would have allowed five credentials, but Radio Free Europe rejected that.
Two American astronauts flew out, up and away from the space shuttle Challenger free of any lifeline and propelled by tiny jets. The two space fliers, Captain Bruce McCandless 2nd of the Navy and Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Stewart of the Army, became in effect the first human satellites. The successful test 170 miles aloft was an important step toward future operations to repair and service orbiting satellites and to assemble and maintain large space stations.
President Reagan addresses the National Convention of High School Principals about introducing prayer back to schools.
President Reagan attends a fundraiser for Nevada’s Republican Party. Recent Democratic Presidents “ravaged” the nation with inflation and induced a wave of “national self-doubt as never before experienced in this country,” according to President Reagan. He told Republicans at a fund-raising luncheon in Las Vegas that their campaign strategy should focus on the Administration of President Carter.
The White House, protected by new concrete barriers against truck bombs, may still be an easy target for terrorists who use underground tunnels, investigators for a public interest group said. A spokesman for the Better Government Association, a nonpartisan group that monitors government for waste and inefficiency, said there are two sets of tunnels — one for utilities and the other for steam heat. The two sets link together, the spokesman said, and offer White House access to anyone who studies detailed blueprints available to contractors through the General Services Administration.
The Senate approved, by a 63-24 vote, legislation to relax federal law so unconstitutionally seized evidence can be introduced at a criminal trial if the officer acted in “good faith.” Pushed by the Administration, the measure is one of a series of crime bills under consideration by the Senate. Anticipating a filibuster on other legislation to revive the death penalty for federal crimes, Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker Jr. (R-Tennessee) filed a cloture petition, which would limit debate on the bill if approved by the Senate Thursday. Until then, the Senate will debate the death penalty, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1972.
Western governors told a Senate panel that acid rain must be cleaned up, but that it would be unfair for states that already have reduced pollution to be forced to pay for cleanup efforts in states that have refused to act. “The question which has pitted the various regions and industries of this country against one another is not an environmental issue at all, but a raging battle over economics,” said Governor Scott M. Matheson of Utah. Most of the cleanup must be done in the Ohio River Valley, where older plants burn high-sulfur coal. The cost of cleaning them up will be enormous.
Multibillion-dollar costs of cleanups of hazardous waste sites are cited in an internal Environmental Protection Agency report. The study estimates that the Federal Government will have to spend at least $8.4 billion and up to $16 billion to clean up the most dangerous sites.
Paul A. Volcker warned that Congress and the Reagan Administration did not have much time to try to trim the record deficits in the Federal budget and in the nation’s balance of trade. Mr. Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, told the House Banking Committee that the projected deficits “pose a clear and present danger to the sustainability of growth.”
Radical changes in high schools are proposed in a new national study that would limit admissions to students who have mastered the basics of literacy, arithmetic and citizenship. Under the proposals, the curriculum would be narrowed to academic courses for all students, omitting such subjects as vocational and physical education.
Gary Hart accused Walter Mondale of displaying a lack of strong leadership, contending he exhibited “caution until consensus forms.” A speech by Senator Hart in Council Bluffs, Iowa, echoed Senator Alan Cranston’s recent criticisms of the former Vice President.
The superintendent of the Florida State Prison has confirmed that he shared drinks with the last two Death Row inmates to be executed, but said, “I do not feel uncomfortable at all with what we did.” Superintendent Richard Dugger said he drank Scotch with Robert Sullivan before his execution last November 30 and shared drinks with Anthony Antone, who was executed January 26. The practice came to light in a report by J. Thomas Wright, staff director of the House Criminal Justice Committee.
Early results showed Cleveland residents have approved a bitterly disputed plan to loan $7.5 million in federal grant money to a private developer to build a steel mill that will mean nearly 400 new jobs. With all precincts reporting, the vote was 46,134, or 53%, in favor of the loan plan and 41,226, or 47%, against it. Mayor George Voinovich had supported the $67-million mill, saying it would mean new jobs and $800,000 in tax revenue.
A “serious safety problem” with 851 Grumman Flxible buses prompted New York City’s transit authority to scrap the entire fleet and consider suing the buses’ manufacturer, Transit Authority President David L. Gunn announced. Gunn said the buses have “an obvious potential for fire” due to steering and front-axle defects. He warned of serious service disruptions beginning this morning that could last for months. The Southern California Rapid Transit District has had similar troubles with its 230 Flxibles.
A burly lawnkeeper who asserted he had been driven insane by pesticide poisoning was convicted of first-degree murder today for strangling a customer in her back Massachusetts yard last spring. David Garabedian, 22 years old, faces mandatory life in prison without parole. Judge Robert Barton of Middlesex Superior Court did not indicate when he would pronounce sentence. “We didn’t give much credence to the pesticide poisoning,” commented one juror.
A search is under way today for three missing vials of radioactive material that were part of a shipment apparently misrouted on the way from Chicago to Frederick, Maryland, the authorities said. John Potter of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the liquid material was relatively harmless as long as it stayed in the lead shields in which it was shipped. Mr. Potter said the material, encased in battery-sized containers, could be hazardous if handled improperly or if kept in clothing pockets near the body. Two teen-agers found seven of 10 missing canisters early Saturday morning while playing near a shopping center parking lot in nearby Fairfax County, Virginia. The youths reported their discovery to the county police. Fire and health officials returned to the scene Monday but were unable to locate the missing canisters, which were destined for the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, the authorities said. The missing box was traced to the Amersham Corporation, a Chicago-based pharmaceutical company.
An increasing number of small earthquakes shook the crater of Mount St. Helens today, and scientists watching from nearby ridges for signs of an explosive eruption warned that the volcano could “go any time.” Pressure caused by the movement of molten rock under the mountain continued to build and small rockslides tumbled off a huge lava dome in the volcano’s shattered crater. The quakes, recorded by seismic monitors, were caused by gases from magma fracturing rocks inside the dome, experts said.
This severe winter, which officials say has contributed to 6,000 deaths, set records for the day’s cold in nearly a dozen Dixie cities from New Orleans to Jacksonville, Florida. Up to 16 inches of snow fell in the mountains of North Carolina and West Virginia. Three persons were killed in traffic accidents on icy highways in Virginia during the night, increasing the death toll to 38 in the latest surge of wintry weather that began sweeping out of Canada over the weekend.
“Boy in the Bubble” David (born without immunity system) touches his mother for 1st time at age 12.
Michael Jackson is awarded a 4-foot-high platinum disc by CBS.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1180.49 (+6.18).
Born:
Trey Hardee, American decathlete (Olympic Silver Medal, 2012), in Birmingham, Alabama.
Dominique Byrd, NFL tight end (St. Louis Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Washington Redskins), in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Kevin Westgarth, Canadian NHL right wing (Los Angeles Kings, Carolina Hurricanes, Calgary Flames), in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada.
Petr Kanko, Czech NHL right wing (Los Angeles Kings), in Pribram, Czechoslovakia.
Died:
Brooks West, 67, actor (Richard-“My Friend Irma”).
History Diaries 