St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 1

0 In i9 VOL. 115, NO. 178 Copyright 1993 SUNDAY, JUNE 27. 1993 (5) FINAL 5-STAR .1" MBtt rsjsfi Don am 3 Attack Is Response To Plot To Kill Bush Confessions, Past Bombs Fixed Blame Compiled From News Services WASHINGTON U.S. forces launched Tomahawk missiles against an Iraqi intelligence target in Baghdad based on "compelling evidence" of a plot to assassinate former President George Bush, President Bill Clinton said Saturday.

In announcing the attack, Clinton repeated a statement of U.S. resolve first uttered in the Revolutionary War against the English: "Don't tread on us." performed as they were supposed to" and that they "landed in the target area where they are supposed to be." Iraqi officials claimed that the missiles hit residential areas, causing civilian casualties. Reporters in Baghdad said explosions lit up the night sky early Sunday. From the Baghdad press center, smoke from what appeared to be a huge blaze could be seen. The intelligence headquarters was selected because it was the "nexus of High-tech weapon fights old-fashioned terrorism 8A Baghdad appear taken by surprise 8A In Jersey City, crowd surrounds mosque 8A By Charlotte Grimes Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Confessions of two Iraqi suspects and comparisons with other Iraqi terrorist bombs led U.S.

intelligence officials to pin the plot to assassinate former President George Bush on Iraq. "The Department of Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency have concluded that Iraq planned, equipped and ran the terrorist operation that threatened the life of President Bush in Kuwait City in April," the White House said in a statement released Saturday night as senior intelligence officials detailed their evidence. According to these officials, the FBI and the CIA spent two months interviewing the 16 suspects now on trial in Kuwait for the assassination plot and conducting forensics tests of the bombs allegedly built to blow up Bush. The largest of the bombs was 80 kilograms of explosive hidden in the body panels of a Toyota Landcruiser, which authorities say had been smuggled across the Iraqi border into Kuwait during the night of April 12. (Bush visited Kuwait City April IS.) The bomb had the power to kill people within 400 yards, according to forensic experts.

One of the suspects now on trial, Wali al-Ghazali, was supposed to have parked the Landcruiser at Kuwait University near where Bush and the Emir of Kuwait were to appear. Al-Ghazali also was given a "bomb belt" to wear and kill both himself and Bush in a kamikaze attack if the car bomb failed, a senior U.S. intelligence official said. See PLOT, Page 9 Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said 23 cruise missiles were fired, 14 from the destroyer Paterson in the Red Sea, and nine from the guided missile cruiser Chancellorsville in the Persian Gulf.

Powell said an early assessment indicated that "all 23 the provocation" against Bush, Powell told reporters ip a Pentagon briefing. He said it was a walled installation in Baghdad that had been struck during the Persian Gulf War and has since been rebuilt. See IRAQ, Page mm VI '1 rl i -v-r LB i r- 1 I 'ICS Mississippi Tells Casino Who's Boss Flood Docks Queen; Gambling Goes On By Fred W. Lindecke Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Four days after the Casino Queen began cruising, East St. Louis' big, new gambling boat was tied up Saturday by order of the Mississippi River.

Gambling continued, but the cruising stopped after Capt. William S. Streckfus brought the boat back from the 9 a.m. cruise. An old pro at Old Man River, Streckfus looked up as the boat went under the Poplar Street Bridge.

The stacks cleared the bottom of the bridge by only four feet. "It's prudent for us to stop cruising," said Streckfus. "We're tied up until Mother Nature decides otherwise." People were getting prudent all along the Mississippi River north of St. Louis as water from heavy rain in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin moved south. From St.

Paul, to St. Louis, rising waters' threatened to close a 500-mile stretch of the upper Mississippi and halt shipping. "We are predicting this will be the second-highest flood level on record for the Mississippi," said Denise Yale, spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Rock Island, 111. Along the Mississippi in St.

Charles County and across the river in Grafton, residents have been advised to move out. Gerald "Windy" Nairn has seen many floods come and go in his 29 years as mayor of Grafton. But being an old hand doesn't make it any easier, he said. Nairn issued an order Friday for residents of a trailer park to move their homes just as they See FLOODING, Page 7 Studies Cite Dangers Of Pesticides Government Wants To Reduce Risks By Bill Lambrecht Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Bracing for a long-awaited report on problems with pesticides, the federal government said for the first time that it plans to force a reduction in dangerous chemicals used on American farms. In an unusual step, three key aides to President Bill Clinton issued a statement Friday saying they intend to reduce risks from pesticides in a variety of ways.

The aides were David Kessler, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Carol M. Browner, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy. Their unexpected words underscore the importance of a report from the National Academy of Sciences, scheduled for release Tuesday. The report is expected to say that infants and children are threatened by the prevalence of pesticides in the food supply and that laws give them little protection. The statement by Clinton's key advisers said the administration also would look closely at a second report by the Environmental Working Group, a private organization in Washington.

That report, scheduled for release on Monday, concludes that children are exposed to an especially heavy dose of pesticides because of the types of food they eat, especially fruit. "The first thing we say is: Keep eating fruits and vegetables," said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group and a former St. Louisan. "But there are some risks in the food See PESTICIDE, Page 7 Don't throw out the strawberries, say consumer and environmental groups. 7A I i i 9 a I St Head Up: The ball sails past Mets shortstop Tim Bogar as the Cards' Ozzie Smith heads for second base.

Tewksbury Keys Cards' 4-2 Victory Bob Tewksbury pitches six-hit ball for eight innings to win his fourth decision in a row as the Cardinals beat the Mets 4-2 in New York. IF Jerry Naunheim Jr.Post-Dispatch. Floodwaters from the Mississippi River lapping across Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard just north of the Eads Bridge on Saturday. City Gambling On State Deadline St.

Louis officials risk losing millions if they miss a deadline for casino license applications for a site at Laclede's Landing. ID Expert Tames College Costs For Parents Projections Of Right Amount To Stash Often Exaggerated Mr. Clinton Retaliates (EDITORIAL) Two Cheers For The Budget (EDITORIAL and CARTOON) mmmm v- nil 1 -V i I i I f. 2B I I 1 ,1 By Jim Gallagher Of the Post-Dispatch Staff You've read the numbers and wept. Do you want to send your baby to Harvard? You'll have to save $1,731 every month for the next 18 years, according to a projection from Mark Twain Bank.

Do you fancy Washington University? Cough up $1,642.65 monthly until your hair is gray. The University of Missouri at St. Louis? That will be $169 a month. Projections of college expenses, and the savings needed to meet them, are enough to panic parents with the prospect of a life spent driving rusty Chevettes and eating spaghetti dinners. Now along comes Thomas Eyssell, a finance professor at UMSL, with this message for parents: Relax, Mom and Pop.

Things may not be that bad after all. Many projections published in newspapers and magazines exaggerate the monthly savings needed to send a child to college, Eyssell says. "It's far more than people actually have to put away," he said. The projections usually assume you'll need four years of savings on hand when you write that first freshman tuition check. You really don't, and the money you don't use the first year will keep earning interest until you need it.

See COLLEGE, Page 6 ArtsEntertainment Books 5C Classified 2-68G Editorials 2B Everyday 1-14C Movie Timetable 13C News Analysis Obituaries 8-9D Real Estate 1G Reviews 2D St Louis 1-10D SrylePlus 1-4S Travel 1-6T i) A Touch Of Class 6th-Graders Take Their Graduation To Girl In Hospital By Hector Tobar 1993, Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES The sixth-grade graduation ceremony was so important to Esmeralda Pena that she dragged her mother out to buy fancy pearl-colored shoes to match her new white dress. Then came the unthinkable. Esmeralda, 12, was just across the street from the shoe store when a drunken driver fleeing from police veered his car onto the sidewalk and struck her. Esmeralda suffered a critical brain injury, lapsed into a coma and appeared near death. But her teacher, Jose Roberto Vasquez, never lost hope.

Although nurses said she could neither hear nor see him, he took the bus to the hospital twice a day to hold her hand, massage her feet and whisper news of the coming graduation. Fourteen days later, Esmeralda awoke. And on Thursday, teacher Vasquez and her classmates gathered in her room in the Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center to re-enact the sixth-grade graduation she missed. The re-enactment celebrated not only the girl's recovery, but also the unwavering devotion of her teacher. Carmen Garner, principal of the elementary school in South Central Los Angeles, said: "This was something no one here asked him to do.

He has children of his own, but they live in Mexico. He had this feeling that if this was his child, this is what he'd do." At the re-enactment, the classmates wept as a still-groggy Esmeralda sat in a wheelchair and accepted her diploma from Garner. Omar Alfaro, 12, broke down after singing the first few lines of "Heal the World." He wiped away the tears before finishing the tune. Vasquez, 46, a dapper Mexican native with salt-and-pepper hair, leaned over to embrace his bedridden student, who wore See PENA, Page 8 Larry WilliamsPost-Dispatch Tom Eyssell, a professor at the University of Missouri at St. Louis.

He says many projections exaggerate the monthly savings needed to send a child to college. A Few Clouds 'Hiked Police Board Secretly 'Tried' Chief In '88 Scheetz Had Refused To Promote Friend Of State Senator, Angering Board Member FORECAST: Sunday: Partly cloudy, warm and more humid. High 89. Sunday night will be partly cloudy. Low 73.

Monday: Slight chance of a thunderstorm. High 91. Other weather, 2A POST-DISPATCH WEATHERBIRD ma pat, or By Michael D. Sorkin Of the Post-Dispatch Staff 1993, St. Louis Post-Dispatch In a secret tribunal, St.

Louis police commissioners put their police chief on trial five years ago after he refused to promote an officer who was under investigation for suspected criminal activities. The officer, Robert M. "Bobby" Baker, is a friend of one of the state's most influential politicians Senate Majority Leader J.B. "Jet" Banks. For refusing to recommend Baker's promotion, Chief Robert Scheetz faced a charge of insubordination and possible dismissal.

Scheetz retired three years after his trial. "Jet" Banks has repeatedly shown his clout with the Police Department 1 0A It was apparently the first and only time that the Police Department put a police chief on trial, police historians said. The trial took place in 1988 inside the wood-paneled conference room on the sixth floor of police headquarters, where the five police commissioners hold private meetings. No records were kept. Only a handful of top police officials ever were told anything and they were sworn to secrecy.

Clarence Harmon, Scheetz's successor as chief, said he never was informed about the secret trial. "I didn't want it to become detrimental to the department," said Robert J. Baer, the president of the Police Board during Scheetz's trial. The trial raised the threat that a police chief can be forced to defend himself against ouster for resisting what he believes are illegal orders from a single member of the Police Board. Today, a new chief Harmon is resisting having one board member President James F.

Conway telling him how to run the department. The trial also illustrates what can happen when powerful "aces" try to influence decisions within the Police Department. Despite reforms intended to prevent outside See ACES, Page 10.