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USPS 091-380
VOLUME 71 - NUMBER 39
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA — SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1993 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913
PRICE:30 CF^-'Tq
first African
American To
Serve As
Joint Chief
Head
Role Model
On Fashion,
But No
politics Yet
By Susanne M. Schafer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gen.
Colin Powell is in very good spirits
as te prepares to retire as chairman
ol itic Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Appearing before the National
pitss Club on Tuesday, Powell
(jlated how Yasser Arafat, the
(liairman of the Palestine
Liberation Organization, was asked
by a reporter why he’d come to the
While House in a "smartly tailored
aniform" during the signing of the
Hkicast peace accord.
"And he remarked, ‘Why not?
Chairman Powell wears a
iniform,”' Powell said, standing
all in his dark olive green uniform,
stirs and medals glinting in the
icicvisioii lights just two days
before his retirement September 30.
"So even in my declining days I
ad myself a' fashion role model,"
ibc jencral quipped to laughter and
ipplause.
The general also had a quip ready
about the demise of communism
®d the transformation of former
Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev.
1 discover that, among other
ibings, he has become an
Bvironincnialist, and he is setting
ip his office at a United States
Irray base, in the Presidio in San
Francisco. Is this a great world or
Powell asked, joining the
iiilicncc in a robust laugh.
But on the one question most
yoplc want to know — will he run
public office? — Powell was as
(ghi-lippcd as ever.
"Activc-duly military . officers
avc no business talking about
dusan political matters, and so
lobody knows what party I belong
lot don’t belong to or may belong
1, There is total confusion as to
hat my political philosophy might
tmight not be," Powell said.
And after more than three
tades in military service, the
jaieral said, that is the "way it
lould be." "It’s part of our code.
Wc serve the nation, we serve the
American people, and the
iipiesentative of the American
, the president of the United
Slates, commander-in-chief of the
forces as determined by the
[olilical process. So for that reason,
BMC of us do it, not just Colin
Powell," he explained.
The general said he has hopes to
tontinue to serve the nation "in
some capacity. ... Whether that is
[olitical or not remains to be seen. I
live nothing inside of .me at the
Boment saying it has to be
political. I think there are many
rays to serve the nation."
AT&T Newsletter Shows Ape on Phone In Africa
Outraged NAACP Calls for
Boycott of Long-Distance Carrier
GENERAL COLIN POWELL
Ron Brown At Three
Meetings With Accused
Businessman, Sources Say
Itv Marcy Gordon
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown’s
inccling in February with a
Vietnamese businessman was
purely social and involved no
business discussions, Brown’s
attorney said Monday.
Reid Weingarten, a former
federal prosecutor whom Brown
recently hired, also denied a
published report that Brown
Iirovided a government limousine
to bring businessman Nguyen Van
Hao to the Commerce Department
for the February meeting.
Weingarten also confirmed news
reports Sunday that Brown met
with Hao three times, in November
ami December of 1992 as well as in
February of this year, but the
attorney said Brown never agreed
to Hao’s proposals.
A federal grand jury in Miami has
been investigating allegations that
Brown accepted $700,000 from the
Vietnamese government in
exchange for helping lift the U.S.
trade embargo against that country.
Brown has denied the allegation,
made by Binh T. Ly, a former
business partner of Hao. Both Hao
and Ly live in Florida.
The February visit to Brown’s
olTice was made by Hao, longtime
Brown friend Marc Ashton and
Ashton’s sister-in-law, Lillian
Madsen, tlie lawyer said.
Wcingtirtcn contradicted a report
Sunday by The Miami Herald that
Brown provided Hao, Ashton and
Madsen w ith an official limousine.
The three "traveled in their own
car; it was purely social,"
Weingarten said in a telephone
interview. "There waS no
discussion whatsoever" of business
matters, he said.
Weingarten said Ashton
contacted Brown in OeWber about
Hao’s proposal to create a new
company that would help western
businesses invest in Viemam. After
Clinton’s election in November,
Brown met with Hao and Ashton in
Florida and Hao asked Brown to be
attorney for the new company, the
lawyer said. "Ron listened politely
and at the time there was absolutely
no commitment that Ron would be
involved at all," Weingarten said.
Hao later traveled to Vietnam to
discuss his idea.
About three days after Brown
was nominated as Commerce
secretary by Clinton on Dec. 12,
Brown met Hao again and "flatly
and respectfully declined" Hao’s
offer, Weingarten said.
Brown was chairman of the
Democratic National Committee
last year and played a key role in
President Clinton’s election
campaign.
The lawyer said Brown would not
be available for comment Monday.
In a statement released Sunday
night. Brown did not address the
question of the meetings but
reiterated his denial of last month
that he ever accepted any money to
assist Viemam.
President Clinton publicly
announced his support of Brown
Wednesday.
By David L. Dillard
In what may appear to be fun and
games to American Telephone &
Telegraph’s Focus magazine
editors, African Americans are
outraged at the drawing of an ape
in Africa using the telephone
instead of a human.
Meanwhile, the NAACP has
waged an economic boycott against
AT&T for what local officials call
"blatant racism."
The protest was spearheaded by
the state NAACP after receiving
numerous telephone calls from
disgruntled AT&T employees. The
Slate chapter started the boycott
Monday, September 20, by
discontinuing its long distance
carrier service with AT&T and is
urging blacks to do the same.
"NAACP local, state, regional
and national offices have received
numerous calls from across the
country from outraged citizens,
who likewise decided to withdraw
their economic support of AT&T,
and have also changed to another
long distance carrier," said Ms.
Mary Peeler, the state chapter’s,
executive director.
The illustration, which appears in
the "Fun ‘N’ Games" section of the
September issue of the company’s
in-house publication, shows an ape
using the telephone on the African
continent, while four other
continents — North America, South
imerica, Asia and Europe — show
human beings.
The stale NAACP called for an
immediate apology to not only
AT&T employees and the NAACP
but also to Africans, African
Americans and the general public.
"The magazine is global," Ms.
Peeler said. "Our feeling is it goes
beyond apologizing to the
employees."
AT&T said it does not take
responsibility for the illustration.
The company has not decided on
whether to make a public apology,
but AT&T Senior Vice President
Marilyn Laurie released an apology
to the employees (week before
last).
"I am appalled and personally
deeply sorry about the racist
illustration that appeared in the
September issue of Focus," Laurie
wrote. "I am aware of how much
this has angered, hurt and
embarrassed people in AT&T —
particularly our African American
associates andtheir families. . . .
Finally, while the staff of Focus
magazine takes full responsibility
for the illustration, the illustrator is
not an AT&T employee but a
freelance artist hired by our design
firm."
Burke Stinson, an AT&T
spokesman, said the drawing was
done by New York freelance
illustrator Michael Moran, who
gave the illustration to Steve
Phillips Design, a New York-based
firm that designs AT&T’s
publication.
"The art director apparently
didn’t see it or was not troubled by
it," Stinson said. "We’re taking
steps now in this very emotional
process (to correct the problem)."
Stinson said the publication has
fired the illustrator, but that no
action has been taken against
AT&T’s editorial board. He said
there are four minorities on the
publication’s staff.
(Continued On Page 2)
This illustration appeared in an AT&T magazine, showing an ape
using a telephone in Africa. Users on other continents are depicted as
hnmans.
U.S. Seeks To Become
Partner With South Africa
By George Gedda
WASHINGTON (AP) — With
the approval of a multiracial
governing council in South Africa,
the Clinton administration and
Congress are moving quickly to
end U.S. curbs on ties with that
country and to become a parmer in
its development.
The Senate acted Friday to
normalize economic relations with
South Africa, and the House is
expected to take similar action in a
few days.
The action by the Senate came
shortly after African National
Congress President Nelson
Mandela appealed to the world
community to end all economic
sanctions against South Africa,
except oil and arms until the 1994
elected government is in place.
Mandela issued the appeal in a
.speech at the United Nations, then
flew to Washington where he told
delegates to an international
economic development Congress
they should "seize this historic
moment" and invest in South
Africa.
He predicted the new order in
South Africa would adopt policies
on taxation and repatriation of
profits that investors will find
allractivo.
President Clinton said Mandela’s
call for the removal of sanctions
and the creation of the mixed-race
council were "watershed events" in
South Africa’s movement toward a
non-racial democracy. He urged
swift action on removing sanctions.
The Senate voted to rescind a ban
on U.S. support for South African
loan requests at the International
Monetary Fund and also to allow
the U.S. government to finance
American exports to South Africa.
Clinton also called on U.S. states,
counties and cities to move quickly
to lift their sanctions. The Senate
legislation contained similar
language.
Clinton said he has asked
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown to
lead a mission to South Africa to
explore trade and investment
opportunities.
State Department spokesman
Mike McCurry said government
resources will be used to assist
South Africa’s economic recovery
in a variety of ways.
The Senate bill also encouraged
U.S. investment in South Africa
once multiracial elections arc held
on April 27, 1994. It also seeks
expanded U.S. trade to South
Africa and lifts resfriclions on U.S.
assistance.
"Removal of sanctions is a first
step," said Sen. Paul Simon, D-111.
"We will have to assist South
Africa. There will have to be
commercial investment." In 1986,
the Congress overrode President
Reagan’s veto and approved a
series of sanctions against South
Africa, most of which were
repealed two years ago . by
President Bush in recognition of
the steps President F.W. de Klerk
had taken toward dismantling
apartheid.
Black Caucus Leads Defense of PAC Funds
Copyright Congressional
Quarterly 1993
By Beth Donovan
WASHINGTON — If political
tiion committees are just moneyed
ttial interests, why is the
Bgressional Black Caucus — a
Http that represents some of the
W disadvantaged Americans —
ddcnly leading the charge to
Jend PACs? Because they have
( because they can — that’s the
#tion of many African American
>iise members and academics
to have watched this year's
•tpaign finance debate evolve,
hesident Clinton has urged
•tigress to curb "the power and
tHuence of political action
■titmitiees"; the Senate in June
i*d a bill that would get rid of
them altogether. But PACs, which
are formed by businesses, labor
unions and other interest groups to
pool contributions from their
members, arc a key source of funds
for House races. PACs may donate
up to $5,000 per election to a
candidate, with primary and
general elections counting
separately.
It has long been clear that House
DemocraLs would not go along with
a ban on PACs. But the potential
impact on minority districts,
scarcely mentioned a year ago, is
providing a new rationale for PAC
backm.
As they gear up for a high-profile
October debate, white Democratic
leaders in the House are all too
happy to let the newly fortified
black caucus put its populist spin
on the fight for PACs.
Black members say they must
defend PACs because minority
candidates face demographic and
societal obstacles to fundraising.
PACs, they say, empower their
voters and provide minority
candidates with one of the few
available sources of money.
Disfricts represented by blacks
arc disproportionately poor, and not
many constituents can afford to
contribute very much to political
campaigns. Outside their districts,
African Americans often lack the
elite school and boardroom
contacts that form lucrative
fundraising networks for many
white candidates.
"We just don’t have the
resources," says Rep. Eva Clayton,
a first-term Democrat who
represents the district with North
Carolina’s lowest per capita
income. "If your district is poor,
you’re not wealthy and you’re
excluded from affluent circles, it’s
hard to raise money." Politically,
black members can afford to
defend PACs because their
constituents care far more about
bread-and-butter economic issues
than political reform. Moreover,
members say, it is just common
sense to their voters that the only
way to counter wealthy interests is
to gather many small contributions
in PAC pots.
"The enormous fear of PAC
money, is rooted, in white,
Frotestant, puritanical traditions,"
says Frank A. Sorauf, a political
scientist at the University of
Minnesota. "The minority
community is just not as easily
played upon with PAC bashing."
Congress has been debating
campaign finance for more than a
decade, but this is the first time that
the black caucus has played a
prominent role. A task force headed
by first-term Rep. Corrine Brown,
D-Fla, was set up just before the
August recess to address concerns
about the potential for restricting
PACs.
Freshmen, who make up nearly
half of the 38 House Democrats in
the black caucus, pushed the issue
of minority candidate reliance on
PAC money to the fore.
They got the attention of Speaker
Ihomas S. Foley, D-Wash., at a
inceting of the entire Class of 1992
in February. According to several
participants, many blacks, along
with women and Hispanics, told the
Speaker that strict new limits on
PACs would disproportionately
hurt them and, perhaps most
significantly, that they were not
afraid to publicly fight for PACs.
Then in March, when freshman
Democrats met to put the final
touches on a much advertised
"reform" plan, a late push to
include a PAC ban was quashed
after Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C.,
stood up and said he could not
support a plan that would hurt
campaigns of black candidates.
(Continued On Page 2)