The chance presence of bodyguards assigned to the British Ambassador in Beirut appeared to have saved the United States Embassy from total destruction and greater loss of life when it was devastated Thursday by a car bomb. The bodyguards may have killed the suicide bomber before he could reach his goal, a driveway under the embassy where an explosion would have caused the building to collapse. The British guards, believed to be members of the elite Special Air Service commando unit, opened fire with their machine pistols. It was these guards, according to Western diplomatic sources, who are presumed to have killed the suicide car bomber. At least one of the highly trained and experienced British bodyguards is certain that he hit the driver and saw him slump over in his seat. The van then careered into a parked truck on the right side of the road, bounced off and exploded. It left a crater more than six feet deep.
The vulnerability of the embassy in Lebanon to a car-bomb attack was partly the result of a failure to coordinate security arrangements between the State and Defense Departments, according to Reagan Administration officials. The Defense Intelligence Agency, in a classified report completed last week, concluded that security at United States Embassy installations in the East Beirut area was inadequate and that the buildings were vulnerable to terrorist attack, national security officials said. Administration officials said the report was an internal study prepared to assess the danger to agency employees in Beirut and was not distributed to senior State Department officials until today. Senior State Department officials said they were aware of the threats described in the report. They challenged the paper’s assessment that the embassy was not adequately protected but said they agreed with the report’s conclusion that more defenses were needed. “We were doing our best to complete the construction of barricades,” one official said.
The State Department, according to Administration officials, decided in May to move the United States Embassy in Beirut from predominantly Muslim West Beirut to a suburb of the Christian sector of the city, partly on the assumption that a heavily armed contingent of about 80 United States Marines would help provide security until barricades and other protective devices were in place. But in June, the officials said, the Defense Department decided to remove the Marines from Lebanon when the embassy staff moved into the new quarters on July 31. The State Department reluctantly accepted the decision and proceeded with the move on the ground that overall security was significantly better at the new site than in West Beirut, even without the marines, the officials said. Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, said the decision to pull the marines out was based on “the collective judgment of the U.S. Government that that was the proper thing to do.” He said the White House “did not object” to the decision and, after the bombing, did not consider the departure of the marines a mistake.
Washington will propose to Moscow that the two countries step up their contacts through more Cabinet-level meetings, according to Administration officials. They said President Reagan would make the suggestion to Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko next week. The officials said it was hoped that the increased contacts would lead eventually to a meeting between Mr. Reagan and the Soviet leader, Konstantin U. Chernenko. The purpose of the proposal, which will be made when Mr. Reagan and Mr. Gromyko confer at the White House next Friday, will be to overcome the refusal of the Soviet Union to resume negotiations in Geneva on medium-range and strategic arms. Moscow has said it will not resume talks on those subjects until the North Atlantic Treaty Organization dismantles the new American missiles being deployed in Europe.
The new idea, according to a State Department official, is to end dependence on the Geneva formats and allow talks by high-ranking officials on more than one topic. This was the practice followed when Henry A. Kissinger was Secretary of State for President Nixon and President Ford, and when Cyrus R. Vance was President Carter’s Secretary of State. They each made trips to Moscow for talks that touched on many areas of concern. Mr. Gromyko, in those years, also made trips to Washington, and also met with Americans in Geneva and New York. A senior official said today, “We want to build a sustained dialogue and we’re not wedded to any particular format.”
The European Common Market’s unemployment in August rose to 11 percent of the working population, from 10.9 percent in July and 10.4 percent 12 months before, the trade bloc’s statistical office said today. The agency said 12.4 million people – the most for any summer month – were jobless in the nine of the bloc’s 10 members included in the survey, up 148,000 from July. Greece is not included in the jobless figures, because of differences in how it measures unemployment.
A search for mines in the Red Sea was extended today after an explosion Thursday that damaged a Saudi ship and the recent discovery of devices believed to be mines. The French, who had planned to break off their search Thursday, instead extended it, perhaps for as long as a week. And the Italians sent their search vessels into the Gulf of Suez at Egypt’s request. The explosion Thursday involving the Saudi passenger vessel Belkis was the first reported in the Red Sea or Gulf of Suez since Aug. 15. It brought the number of ships damaged by underwater explosions to 19 since July 9. A military source said it was “a possibility” new mines had been planted since mid-August. He called such a possibility “pretty remote,” however, because the area has been under surveillance.
Two Iranian judges who hit a Swedish fellow judge this month at the tribunal settling American and Iranian financial claims defended their actions today and accused the Swede of favoring American claimants. The United States has demanded that Iran replace the two judges, Mahmoud M. Kashani and Shafey Shafeiei, but Tehran has not replied. The tribunal suspended work on major cases this week until the dispute is resolved. In the first official Iranian statement on the incident, all three Iranian judges on the tribunal said the Swede, Nils Mangard, was responsible for unfair payments to Americans. They said he had favored the United States in every case in the last three years. The statement was made in a letter to the president of the tribunal, Gunnar Lagergren of Sweden. The Iranian judges gave no details of the attack September 3, but they referred to it indirectly, saying: “The Iranian arbiters have maintained their silence for three years despite this totally unjust situation, and what happened on September 3 is an announcement that this silence has come to an end.”
A total of 431 Sikh extremists captured in a battle between separatist guerrillas and the Indian Army at the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June will go on trial next month, the Press Trust of India reported today. The news agency quoted security officials as saying the Sikhs would be charged with waging war against the Government and could be sentenced to death if convicted.
A Sri Lanka Navy patrol fired on three boats bringing Tamil rebels from southern India to Sri Lanka today, killing 25 guerrillas and destroying the boats, officials said. India has repeatedly denied charges by Sri Lanka that the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu is giving refuge to the guerrillas, but the navy has increased patrols off Sri Lanka’s northern coast to prevent guerrillas from traveling back and forth. Today the Sri Lanka Parliament endorsed a presidential order extending a 16-month nationwide state of emergency for another month after a Government spokesman reported that guerrilla violence was continuing. Meanwhile, President J. R. Jayewardene unveiled a plan aimed at ending the island’s ethnic conflict, but the main party of the minority Tamils said it was disappointed with the proposals.
The South Korean Government said today that it would take “necessary” legal action against Kim Dae Jung, the exiled opposition leader, if he followed through on his announced plan to return home from the United States late this year. A statement from the Justice Ministry did not explain what it meant by “necessary steps, according to the law.” But a political adviser to President Chun Doo Hwan suggested that Mr. Kim might be forced to resume a prison sentence that was suspended two years ago so he could seek medical treatment in the United States. “He may have been told through a third person that the government does not countenance his return,” said the adviser, Hong Soon Young. Mr. Kim’s arrival, he said, “may be an incident that contributes to political and social instability.”
More than 2,000 Philippine police and soldiers charged anti-government demonstrators holding an all-night vigil outside President Ferdinand E. Marcos’s presidential palace this morning. Helmeted riot police, some wielding clubs and others rifles, chased about 3,000 demonstrators through rain-slick streets as explosions from the grenades rocked the heart of Manila. Hospitals reported that five people were wounded: three with head wounds, a girl who collapsed from tear gas and a policeman hit by shrapnel. On Friday, tens of thousands of demonstrators filled downtown Manila, shouting slogans against “the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship,” high inflation, low wages and abuses by the military. They marched to the Mendiola Bridge, which leads to the presidential palace, but the police had barricaded the crossing with barbed wire, steel shields and water cannon. Most of the demonstrators left, but about 3,000 remained and occupied the intersection for 15 hours. They bedded down for the night and planned to hold a mass this morning.
Left-wing guerrillas fought a gun battle with the police and then held 50 people hostage at a Bogota school today, the police reported. They said 10 of the rebels escaped and five surrendered. The police said one guerrilla was killed and two policemen were slightly wounded in the brief gunfight before the rebels fled into the high school building and a siege began.
The President and First Lady participate in a signing ceremony for Proclamation 5236, making September 23-29, 1984 National Drug Abuse Education and Prevention Week. President Reagan, declaring that America had “come to its senses about drug abuse,” said today that his Administration would redouble its fight against drug traffickers and try to “take the customers away from the drugs” through education. Mr. Reagan, who made his remarks at an awards ceremony honoring individuals active in combating drug abuse, also signed a proclamation making next week National Drug Abuse Education and Prevention Week.
The President and First Lady attend dinner at the house of Rudy Lee-Hines, 7, the President’s African-American penpal. In the evening Mr. Reagan, bearing a wrapped jar of jelly beans, paid a surprise visit to a 7-year-old pen pal in the predominantly black Congress Heights section of the city. He stayed for a fried-chicken dinner with the family of Rudolph Lee-Hines, a second-grader who met the President when he visited Congress Heights Elementary School March 12. They have exchanged about five letters since then.
Farmers seem generally receptive to President Reagan’s initiative this week to keep more debt-ridden farmers from being forced off the land, although they say it is more of a “first step” than a final solution to the nagging financial problems of the agricultural sector. On Tuesday, Mr. Reagan announced a package of Federal loan guarantees, interest subsidies and other steps to ease financial pressures on farmers caught between low crop prices and high costs and interest rates. In interviews as the President traveled Thursday to Iowa, the heart of the corn belt, several farm leaders said they sensed the winds of politics as well as those that sweep the prairies every harvest time. Despite the President’s denial, they saw election-year politics behind Mr. Reagan’s plan and a similar program announced recently by Walter F. Mondale, his Democratic opponent. With a few exceptions, farmers’ reactions were partisan. But they all acknowledged the convincing power an incumbent President has compared to a challenger’s paper proposals.
President Reagan plans to make a campaign trip to Ohio and Wisconsin next week, the White House has announced. Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, said the President would travel Wednesday to Bowling Green, Ohio, to address students at Bowling Green State University and to Akron to meet with employees of the Timken Company’s Faircrest Steel Plant. Afterward Mr. Reagan will go to Milwaukee to speak at Heidelberg Park before returning here that evening.
Walter F. Mondale blamed the Reagan Administration today for security lapses at the United States Embassy in Lebanon and said President Reagan “owes the American people answers about this tragedy.” “It is abundantly clear that protection of our embassy was clearly inadequate,” Mr. Mondale said at a news conference a day after a suicide car-bomb devastated the Embassy in a suburb of East Beirut.
“Yesterday’s tragedy indicates a serious failure of security,” Mr. Mondale said, “and it suggests that few lessons have been learned and applied from the massacre of our marines and the earlier attacks on our embassy in West Beirut and our embassy in Kuwait.” The Democratic Presidential candidate repeatedly declined to use the word “blame” when asked about President Reagan’s responsibility, but said at one point, “The President is clearly to blame – let me put it this way – clearly responsible, for overall policy and direction” in Beirut.
Geraldine A. Ferraro, in California, proposed the President might like to return to “Reagan Country” a few years earlier than he plans. She spoke to a tumultuous rally of Democrats in a local union hall in Santa Ana in a confident mood that reflected the electric response and large crowds she has attracted this week.
A tentative auto labor contract was agreed upon after 16 hours of bargaining by negotiators for the United Automobile Workers and the General Motors Corporation. The three-year agreement would reportedly provide modest wage increases, added pension benefits and job security safeguards.
Wall Street analysts praised the pact tentatively agreed upon by the United Automobile Workers and the General Motors Corporation.
A 40-month soft coal contract that would avert selective strikes and provide a modest wage increase and new job security safeguards was agreed on by negotiators for the United Mine Workers and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association.
The prime lending rate was reduced to 12¾ percent, from 13 percent, by the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, the nation’s fifth-largest bank. It was the first decline in the key lending rate since February 1983, when the rate was reduced to 10½ percent, from 11 percent. No other major bank followed Morgan Guaranty’s move, but a number of them are expected to do so soon.
A new list of toxic waste sites prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency was made public by Representative James J. Florio, Democrat of New Jersey, who accused the agency of delaying its issuance for political reasons.
Convicts started burning a nursery in Loughman, Florida. State officials had ordered the burning of the eight acres of young orange and grapefruit trees because they were contaminated by a virulent disease that threatens Florida’s $2.5 billion citrus industry. The owners, Alan and Tammy Sweet, began building the nursery four years ago, at first working on their hands and knees to plant seedlings.
The baptism of a 7-year-old Jewish boy involved in a custody battle between his parents has been annulled by the Roman Catholic Church, and a priest said it appeared to be the first such case on record. “In the published literature I did not find anything that would indicate that someone ever challenged the validity of a baptism,” said Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh, who investigated the case for the Archdiocese of Miami. The annulment of the baptism of Robert Roffman was declared by Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy at the request of Robert’s father, Barry Roffman, a teacher at the junior high school of the Homestead Jewish Center. Mr. Roffman said he had reared the boy as a Jew, and that when his mother, Maria Isabel Castrillo, had him baptized last March, Robert had little knowledge of what was happening. The father said he had protested to the archdiocese immediately.
Farmers could import workers from other countries more easily under a major compromise agreed on by House and Senate negotiators conferring on a comprehensive immigration bill.
Roger A. Gauntlett, an Upjohn Company heir originally sentenced to “chemical castration” and five years probation for raping his teen-age stepdaughter, was resentenced today to 5 to 15 years. The action came after a public outcry that the first penalty had been too lenient. Visiting Circuit Judge Jack W. Warren of Ingham County gave Mr. Gauntlett 237 days’ credit for time served. Mr. Gauntlett pleaded no contest in July 1983 to criminal sexual assault. On Jan. 30, Kalamazoo County Circuit Judge George Borsos sentenced Mr. Gauntlett, the great-grandson of W. E. Upjohn, to five years’ probation, the first year to be served in jail. Judge Borsos ordered treatment with Depo-Provera, a drug produced by Upjohn and used experimentally to reduce the male sex drive. He termed the treatment “castration by chemical means.” In State Supreme Court August 24, a Court of Appeals ruling that threw out the Depo-Provera portion of the sentence was upheld.
Five consecutive days of rain left vast areas of southern Texas inundated today, forcing more than 90 people out of their homes and causing up to $50 million in damage, officials said. Representatives of Governor Mark White’s emergency management division planned to tour eastern Cameron and Willacy counties so the Governor could determine whether to declare the flooded areas eligible for disaster funds. Ninety-two people from low-lying areas remained in a church evacuation shelter in Los Fresnos overnight. “A slow, steady rain gives a lot of good underground moisture,” said Calistro Loya, agriculture agent in Willacy County. “I think you’ll see some benefit from this in next year’s crop.”
Galaxy-C, a Hughes Corporation communications satellite, is launched by NASA with a Delta rocket.
In the only team race left for the New York Yankees, they moved one game from second place tonight by defeating the Detroit Tigers, the American League East champions, by 5–3. In the even more interesting individual race, Don Mattingly grabbed the league hitting lead from Dave Winfield. The Yankees won by scoring two runs in the sixth inning on bases- loaded walks. Milt Wilcox walked Butch Wynegar, forcing home the tie-breaking run, and Bill Scherrer walked Mike Pagliarulo, sending home the second run a minute later. The Tigers scored three runs in the first inning, two on a homer by Alan Trammell, but John Montefusco recovered quickly and limited Detroit to one hit in the next five innings. Dave Righetti pitched the last two innings and picked up his 28th save. Mattingly, who only six days ago was 10 points behind Winfield, singled once in three official times at bat, maintaining his average at .346. Winfield was hitless in four times at bat and dropped three points to .344.
Rookie Jim Traber makes his debut in Baltimore, first by singing the national anthem before the Boston Red Sox game, then by designated hitting. The Red Sox are unimpressed, clipping the Orioles 8–0. Traber had sung the national anthem a number of times before minor league games.
George Brett, still hobbled slightly with a pulled hamstring, with a grand slam, and Steve Balboni homer in the Kansas City Royals’ five-run 7th as Kansas City beats the Oakland A’s, 7–4. The victory snapped a two-game losing streak for Kansas City, which remained a half-game ahead of California and a full game ahead of Minnesota in the American League West. Kansas City trailed by 4–2 when Steve Balboni led off the seventh with his 27th homer, which came off the reliever Lary Sorensen (5–13). One out later, Don Slaught singled, Onix Concepcion bounced into a fielder’s choice, and Willie Wilson singled to bring on Dave Leiper, who walked Lynn Jones to load the bases ahead of Brett’s second career grand slam. The victory went to reliever Frank Wills (2–3), as the A’s saw their three-game winning streak collapse.
The California Angels edged the Texas Rangers, 5–4. Bobby Grich hit a one-out single in the eighth inning, knocking in the pinch-runner Gary Pettis and snapping a 4–4 tie. Brian Downing, who already had three hits, walked to start the eighth against Ricky Wright (1–1). Then Reggie Jackson laid down his first sacrifice bunt since September 2, 1972, to advance Downing to second. Pettis ran for Downing and scored easily when Grich ripped his single down the left-field line.
John Butcher pitched an eight-hitter and rookie Kirby Puckett sparked a six-run first inning with a leadoff single and a two-run double to lift the Minnesota Twins to a 7–3 win over Cleveland. Butcher (13–9) shut out the Indians over the first seven innings. The Twins scored five runs in the first inning against starter Don Schulze (3–6), who did not get anyone out. Puckett led with a bunt single, his 23rd of the season, and scored on a triple by Ron Washington. Mickey Hatcher followed with an run- scoring single. Kent Hrbek tripled down the right-field line to drive in Hatcher, and Randy Bush walked to chase Schulze. Tom Brunansky struck out against the reliever Steve Farr, but Gary Gaetti singled in Hrbek and moved Bush to second. Tim Teufel singled to load the bases and, after Farr struck out Tim Laudner, Puckett doubled to right, driving in Bush and Gaetti.
The Milwaukee Brewers downed the Toronto Blue Jays, 5–1. He’s pitched this season for the team with the worst record in the league, but former Dodger Don Sutton has had another big season. Sutton held the Blue Jays to four hits in seven innings at Toronto to earn his 280th victory. In improving his record to 14–12, Sutton won for the ninth time in his last 12 decisions.
The Seattle Mariners defeated the Chicago White Sox, 5–1. Jim Beattie pitched a six-hitter, Ken Phelps hit a home run and Danny Tartabull drove in two runs for the Mariners at Chicago.
The rookie Kurt Kepshire pitched a seven-hitter, and Andy Van Slyke drove in three runs as the St. Louis Cardinals shut out the Cubs, 8–0, and sent Chicago to its fifth straight defeat. Kepshire (5–5) struck out four and walked one on his way to his first major league complete game. The outcome left Chicago in the same position in which it started the night. Any combination of Chicago victories and losses by the second-place Mets totaling three would move the Cubs into postseason play for the first time in 39 years. St. Louis banged out seven hits and scored three times off the Cub starter Scott Sanderson (8–5) in the first four and two-thirds innings.
The New York Mets stayed mathematically alive last night by beating the Montreal Expos, 6–2, and then Dave Johnson stood in the manager’s office staring at his television set. In rich color, the Chicago Cubs were losing their fifth straight game, and now they led the Mets by six and a half with eight to play. Mookie Wilson, George Foster and Ray Knight hit home runs off Dan Schatzeder, and Foster knocked in three runs with three hits. And Sid Fernandez broke his five-game losing streak, and pitched into the sixth inning to win for the first time in a month.
The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5–1, as Tony Pena drives in 3 runs and Johnny Ray picks up the game-winning RBI for the 4th game in a row, setting the National League mark.The Pirates broke a 1–1 tie with a four-run seventh inning against Jerry Koosman (14-14).
The Atlanta Braves defeated the San Diego Padres, 3-1. With their first division title already clinched, the Padres weren’t really too interested in this game at San Diego. The Braves, battling to finish second, received four-hit pitching from Rick Mahler, who struck out nine and improved his record to 12–9. Steve Garvey played only one inning to stretch his errorless string to 181 games.
The Cincinnati Reds downed the Houston Astros, 5–2. Mario Soto held the Astros to six hits in eight innings and drove in three runs with a double, single and fly to gain only his second victory in the Astrodome. Soto (16–7) struck out six and walked three before Ted Powers took over in the ninth.
The San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5–1. Bob Brenly scored the deciding run in the second inning on rookie Alejandro Sanchez’s triple. Bill Laskey (9–13) got the win. Fernando Valenzuela took the loss, despite only allowing six hits. The last three Giants runs were unearned.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1201.74 (-14.80).
Born:
Joaquín Árias, Dominican MLB third baseman, second baseman, and shortstop (World Series Champions-Giants, 2012, 2014; Texas Rangers, New York Mets, San Francisco Giants), in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Carlos Rosa, Dominican MLB pitcher (Kansas City Royals, Arizona Diamondbacks), in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic.
Benjamin Wildman-Tobriner, American swimmer (Olympic gold, 4×100m freestyle, 2008; World Championship gold, 4×100m freestyle, 2007; 50m freestyle, 2005), in San Francisco, California.
Dwayne Bowe, NFL wide receiver (Pro Bowl, 2010; Kansas City Chiefs, Cleveland Browns), in Miami, Florida.
Derek Hagan, NFL wide receiver (Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans), in Northridge, California.
Quinten Lawrence, NFL wide receiver (Kansas City Chiefs), in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Wale [Olubowale Akintimehin], American rapper of Nigerian heritage (The Gifted), in Washington, District of Columbia.
[Ed: Sadly, Betsy would die just five months after this photo was taken.]
History Diaries 