6The Daily Tar HeelWednesday, October 26. 1983
0 latlg Star
91st year of editorial freedom
Kerry DeRochi, ew
ALISON DAVIS, Managing Editor JEFF HlDAY, .disacuifr Editor
LISA PULLEN, University Editor JOHN CONWAY, C7y Efitor
Christine Manuel, State and National Editor
MICHAEL DeSiSTI, Sports Editor
Melissa Moore, News Editor
KAREN FlSHER, Features Editor
Jeff Grove, Arts Editor
CHARLES W. LeDFORD, Photography Editor
Withdrawal from Lebanon not an option
Leaky legislation
What price secrecy?
If you ask the Reagan administration, no cost, including First Amend
ment freedoms and individual dignity, is too exorbitant when it comes to
making absolutely certain that federal employees practice the golden vir
tues of silence. While administration concern over the necessarily con
fidential nature of its workings is understandable, the Reagan administra
tion's paranoid persistence in its effort to expose some 2.5 million civilian
and military federal employees and 1.5 million employees of government
contractors to possible he detector tests is not only absurd but also scary.
Last March, Reagan issued an order allowing the use of polygraph
exams during the investigation of government leaks. His order also re
quired more than 100,000 government workers who handle classified in
formation to sign a prepublication review agreement that would allow the
federal government to censor any manuscript, fiction or nonfiction, writ
ten during or after a term of government service.
Just last week, Reagan's March proposals once again entered the
political limelight. The Justice Department announced its support for the
use of random lie detector tests in the screening of government employees
cleared for so-called Special Access Programs and informed all govern-
ment agencies of their rights to employ the tests. The Senate last week
passed a bill delaying for six months the administration's lifelong censor
ship efforts but did not prevent the preposterous polygraph proposal.
Preposterous because polygraph tests are not even submittable as
evidence in most criminal courts in this country. They are not reliable.
Dr. John H. Gibbons, director of the Congressional Office of
Technology Assessment, admitted that the instrument employed in
polygraphing detects not deception but fear. Gibbs has admitted his
doubt concerning the instrument's validity in investigations of
unauthorized disclosures of government information. How then can the
possible dismissal of a federal employee be justified by a test that has not
a margin, but a gulf, of error? Shouldn't federal employees enjoy the
same legal rights as criminals, who are innocent until proven guilty
beyond a shadow of a doubt?
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard K. Willard has even sug
gested that the tests be administered to government employees at random
points in time as a condition of maintaining access to special information.
That's a humiliating and dehumanizing affront to 4 million people whose
past behavior has not merited such distrust.
While the lifelong censorship proposal, which seems a flagrant viola
tion of First Amendment freedoms, did not pass the Senate, it still stands
a chance to pass the House. The lie detector tests are quickly becoming a
reality. The two together demonstrate a disturbing paranoia in a govern
ment which concerns itself too strongly with the covert sanctity of its own
operations and too limply with the liberties and freedoms that make
citizens in this country proud to be Americans.
Facing facts
When the House last week voted to cut off covert support for guerrillas
trying to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, it sent
yet another message of disapproval to the Reagan administration over its
"secret war'' in that country. For the Democratic-controlled Congress, it
was a cool appraisal of grim, Central American reality. The CIA opera
tions are likely to fail, and U.S. aid to the so-called "contra" guerrillas
can do little more than continue the long history of American interven
tion in Central America by which we win battles and lose the support of
the people.
There is no question that life under Sandinista rule is harsh, barbaric
and counter to fundamental, traditional American values. As House Ma
jority Leader James C., Wright Jr., D-Texas, said, the Sandinistas have
"very nearly completed the transition to a police state." Wright criticized
the Sandinistas for conditions he observed in Nicaragua during a visit
there earlier this month with the Kissinger commission on Central
America, saying that "they do pose a threat to their neighbors."
U.S. involvement has produced no change in Nicaraguan policies, and
the country has become no less antagonistic toward its neighbors, despite
all CIA efforts to the contrary. For example, CIA operations have clearly
failed to stop the flow of Nicaraguan arms to El Salvador leftists.
As Wright said, any effort to dislodge the Sandinistas has to be done
"the right way, and that way is to call upon the Organization of
American States." Through that organization the United States can let
the force of diplomatic agreements remind the Sandinistas they have
broken the promises of the early days of their revolution.
Any moves by the Reagan achninistration to help the Sandinistas
through covert actions will only result in increased U.S. military involve
ment. It will also threaten to pull Honduras, from which the CIA
operates, into the spreading conflict that threatens to engulf Central
America. Now it is up to the Senate to recognize what the House has
already realized, that covert aid will not solve the economic, social and
political problems in Nicaragua, or in Central America.
The Daily Tar Heel
Editorial Writers: Frank Bruni, Charles Ellmaker and Kelly Simmons
Assistant Managing Editors: Joel Broadway, Tracy Hilton and Michael Toole
News: Tracy Adams, Dick Anderson, Joseph Berry hill, Angela Booze, J. Bonasia, Keith
Bradsher, Amy Brannen, Lisa Brantley, Hope Buffington, Tom Conlon, Kathie Collins, Kate
Cooper, Teresa Cox, Lynn Davis, Dennis Dowdy, Chris Edwards, Suzanne Evans, Kathy
Farley, Steve Ferguson, Genie French, Kim Gilley, Marymelda Hall, Andy Hodges, Sue Kuhn,
Liz Lucas, Thad Ogburn, Beth O'Kelley, Janet Olson, Rosemary Osborne, Heidi Owen, Beth
Ownley, Cindy Parker, Donna Pazdan, Ben Perkowski, Frank Proctor, Linda Queen, Sarah
Raper, Mary Alice Resch, Cindi Ross, Katherine Schultz, Sharon Sheridan, Deborah Simp
kins, Jodi Smith, Sally Smith, Lisa Stewart, Mark Stinneford, Carrie Szymeczek, Liz Saylor,
Mike Sobeiro, Amy Tanner, Doug Tate, Wayne Thompson, Vance Trefethen, Chuck Wall
ington, Scott Wharton, Lynda Wolf, Rebekah Wright, Jim Zook, Kyle Marshall, assistant
state and national editor, and Stuart Tonkinson, assistant university editor.
Sports: Frank Kennedy and Kurt Rosenberg, assistant sports editors. Glenna Burress, Kimball
Crossley, Pete Fields, John Hackney, Lonnie McCullough, Robyn Norwood, Michael Pers
inger, Julie Peters, Glen Peterson, Lee Roberts, Mike Schoor, Scott Smith, Mike Waters,
David Wells,.Eddie Wooten and Bob Young.
Features: Dawn Brazell, Clarice Bickford, Tom Camacho, Toni Carter, Margaret Claiborne,
Karen Cotten, Cindy Dunlevy, Charles Gibbs, Tom Grey, Kathy Hopper, Dana Jackson,
Charles Karnes, Joel Katzenstein, Dianna Massie, Kathy Norcross, Jane Osment, Clinton
Weaver and Mike Truell, assistant features editor.
Arts: Steve Carr, Ivy Hilliard, Jo Ellen Meekins, Gigi Sonner, Sheryl Thomas and David
Schmidt, assistant arts editor.
Graphic Arts: Jamie Francis, Lori Heeman, Ryke Longest, Jeff Neuville, Zane Saunders and
Lori Thomas, photographers.
Business: Anne Fulcher, business manager; Tammy Martin, accounts receivable clerk; Dawn
Welch, circulationdistribution manager; William Austin, assistant circulationdistribution
manager; Patti Pittman, classified advertising manager; Julie Jones, assistant classified adver
tising manager;. Debbie McCurdy, secretary receptionist.
Advertising: Paula Brewer, advertising manager; Mike Tabor, advertising coordinator; Laura
Austin, Melanie Eubanks, Kevin Freidheim, Patricia Gorry, Terry Lee, Doug Robinson and
Anneli Zeck ad representatives.
Composition: I'NC-CH Printing Department
Printing: Hinton Press, Inc. of Mebane.
By KEITH BRADSHER
The cost of the lives of more than 200 American ser
Our involvement in Lebanon can be justified on grounds blatt Conservative Druze clergy, who fin much of the
The Druzes have been armed by both the Syrians and
the Israelis in the past few months. Although currently
armed by the Syrians, the Druzes have few reasons to ac
tually support the interests of a foreign power in their
native Lebanon. They accuse the Syrians of ordering the
murder of the father of the present Druze leader, Walid
ranging from the moral and idealistic to the starkly
geopolitical.
It is selfish and possibly racist to say that the lives of 200
members of our volunteer armed services are more impor
tant than the fate of two-and-a-half million Lebanese who
could be subjected to massacre and counter-massacre
were we to withdraw. It is short-sighted to advocate
withdrawal without considering the loss of American in
fluence in the Middle East that would follow the victory at
last of a Soviet-sponsored Syrian state in that region. It is
narrow-minded to argue withdrawal without mentioning
that we are not there alone, but in conjunction with our
European allies.
The interests of the factions involved the Lebanese
Maronite Christians, the Lebanese semi-Moslem Druzes,
the Lebanese Shiite Moslems, the Syrians and the Israelis
must be evaluated.
The Factions
The political domination of Lebanon by Maronite
Christians dates from Lebanese independence four
decades ago, when the Maronites formed a larger per
centage of the population than they now do. The present
government of Amin Gemayel is essentially Maronite. In a
partitioned Lebanon, Gemayel would control little more
than a barony composed of part of Beirut and a little ter
ritory to the north of Beirut. In a united Lebanon,
Maronite power would have to be diluted enough to re
flect their diminished percentage of the total population
yet not so much that the Moslem majority could walk all
over the rights of the Maronites.
Extremists in the Maronite Phalangjst militia were
responsible for last year's massacres in the refugee camps
outside Beirut. We openly support Gemayel and the
moderates. It has been suggested that without our
presence in Lebanon the extremists in the Lebanese army
might overthrow Gemayel.
Now that the Maronites and their Phalangjst militia
have been militarily humiliated and all but driven out of
Druze leadership, distrust Syrian socialism and maintain
close links with their Israeli brethren.
The Shiite Moslems have been the most impoverished
and illiterate Lebanese community. With close to a million
members, they have become Syria's largest community.
Gemayel's Lebanese army, although officered largely by
Maronites, is 60 percent Shiite. Unfortunately, the Shiite
militia is beginning to fight the army in the southern slums
of the status quo, which currently gives all factions an in
centive to pursue a diplomatic solution. Under no cir
cumstances, however, should we allow our commitment
to escalate beyond the level of air and sea bombardment
of forces seriously threatening Lebanese army positions.
Full-scale intervention would enable Syria to present itself
to the Arab world as the heroic defenders of Arab soil,
battling Western colonialism. Syria would then have an in
terest in further conflict.
An American withdrawal would remove the incentives
for the Druze, Shiite and Syrian factions, all of which
could then stand to gain from continued warfare. The
resulting carnage would tend to produce a partitioned
Lebanon. If the Syrians do not take Beirut in the parti
tioning then Lebanon will become a power vacuum. The
An American withdrawal would remove the incentives for the Druze, Shiite and
Syrian factions, all of which could then stand to gain from continued warfare.
The resulting carnage would tend to produce a partitioned Lebanon.
of Beirut. More than a hundred revolutionary guards
from the Shiite regime in Iran are now agitating among
Shiites in Syrian areas of Lebanon. Continued instability
in Lebanon will increase Iranian anti-U.S. influence in
Lebanon.
Syrian president Hafez Assad has five motives for med
dling in Lebanon. He wants a friendly government in
Beirut, because recent Syrian regimes have tended to be
overthrown by Syrian exiles plotting in Lebanon. He
needs to acquire a territorial bargaining chip to baiter with
the Israelis for the return of the Golan Heights, the loss of
which most Syrians blame on Assad and his unpopular
political party. A success in Lebanon would also firmly
establish Syria as the major Arab power.
Finally, success in Lebanon could give Assad the
strength to escape partially the Soviet embrace which he
was forced to enter after losing heavily last year in
Lebanon. Here lies an opportunity for us to calm Syria
through military aid.
The Israelis want peace. They want to keep the PLO
out of Lebanon and to safeguard northern Israel from ter
rorism. A stable, independent Lebanon barring the PLO
from all of its territory would be ideal for Israel.
In a united Lebanon, Maronite power would have to be diluted enough to reflect
their diminished percentage of the total population yet not so much that the
Moslem majority could walk all over the rights of the Maronites.
the Chouf hills outside Beirut, the opportunity exists to
persuade the Maronites to accept some loss of political
power in a reunited Lebanon. Shiite and Druze leaders
have already said that in a reunited Lebanon they would
accept the perpetuation of the rule that the president must
always be a Maronite.
No Withdrawal
As long as the Western powers retain their unflinching
commitment to the multinational peacekeeping force, the
military situation would appear to be a stalemate. Our
military involvement should be limited to a maintenance
collection of small, weak states that would result from
such a partitioning would all but require continuous med
dling by Israel and Syria and would invite agitation by the
Soviets and the Iranians. More years of instability in
Lebanon, and thus in the Middle East, are not in our in
terest. The Camp David process and discussions of the
Palestinian question are on hold until Lebanon emerges
from ferment.
If partitioning included a Syrian-backed regime in
Beirut, then Syria would control northern Lebanon. This
would be even less in our interest. Such a Syrian success
would not end the Lebanese turmoil, either. As the
Druzes now resist the attempts of the Lebanese army to
control the country, so would the Maronites resist the
Syrian army.
Further, Syria has cast herself as the nemesis of the
United States. For it to succeed would put in question our
credibility and will power. Conservative Arab oil states
would question the value of a friend who quails at the loss
of fewer than 250 lives.
A final factor that cannot be forgotten in any discus
sion of withdrawing is that we are in Lebanon as part of a
multinational peacekeeping force. Our French, Italian
and British allies are in Beirut with us. It would be
hypocritical for us to withdraw after years of questioning
the loyalty and commitment to Western unity of our
NATO allies on issues ranging from grain and high
'technology sales to the Soviets to sanctions against
Poland. Honorable withdrawal can only come with the
consent of our partners in the peacekeeping force.
To withdraw now would not only gratify the desires of
the murderers of more than 200 U.S. Marines. It would
condemn two-and-a-half million people to more years of
chaos.
Keith Bradsher, a sophomore economics and political
science major from Arlington, Va., is a staff writer for
The Daily Tar Heel.
ids for half a century
State officials put
end to practice
By WAYNE THOMPSON
It was a bright June morning at the
breakfast table in Raleigh. H. Al Cole Jr.
casually buttered his toast and sipped his
coffee. As his wife spooned some
scrambled eggs onto his plate, she gave
her husband the morning paper. The
news this day almost made him choke on
his toast a North Carolina construc
tion company had been indicted for rig
ging a bid.
"Well, we woke up one morning to
read that the Rea Construction Com
pany in Charlotte had rigged a bid for
the Byrd airport in Richmond," said
Cole, the special deputy attorney general
who directed the state's bid-rigging in
vestigation. "Rea also admitted to rig
ging a paving bid in Wake County, so we
began our investigation there."
For the other officials in the Attorney
General's office, breakfast wasn't any
better. Bid rigging had always been a
rumor to them. Sure, they had heard
that bid rigging was a problem in North
Carolina. They had heard that bid rig
ging had been going on since the state
started paving roads a half century ago.
But they were rumors.
Now the rumors were facts in news
print. The investigation began.
At first, the going was tough for Cole
and his staff. "North Carolina is one of
the few states in the nation without an in
vestigative grand jury," said J. Douglas
McCullough, first assistant U.S. attorney
for North Carolina's Eastern District.
With no jury to gather and review evi
dence, Cole and his regular staff of five
had to beat a lot of pavement. "This in
vestigation by the state was done by pure
sweat and walking and talking," he said.
Eventually, the attorney general's office
enlisted the services of the State Bureau
of Investigation.
Now, three years after North
Carolina's investigation began on the
breakfast table, state officials are wind
ing down their actions against bid rig
gers. "We're going to continue to
monitor bid rigging," Cole said. "But
bids are on the whole lower than they
used to be, and we think most bid rigging
is over."
Both the state's investigation and the
U.S. Justice Department's own investi
gation uncovered a world of contractors
where bid rigging is considered part of
the business a business with all hands
in the cookie jar of inflated profits from
state highway projects. State Highway
Administrator Billy Rose said bid riggers
cost taxpayers an extra 10 percent for
every project. For minor projects, that
averages an extra $10,000; for interstate
projects, an extra $100,000.
Bid rigging in North Carolina is
nothing new. "In talking to some bid rig
gers, we were told that it had been going
on for 30, 40 and 50 years," Cole said.
SURPRISE!
(
"Some second-generation owners said it
was that way when they took over."
Here's how contractors would rig
bids. The night before the state was to
open a bid, highway contractors would
meet and decide which company would
win the contract. The other companies
would submit inflated bids, knowing that
eventually it would be their "turn" to
win a bid and reap huge profits.
Most of those huge profits were
reaped by the paving industry. A major
paving firm must have an asphalt plant,
and the average construction costs for
such a plant start at $1 million.
"When a company puts that much
money in a facility, they want to get it
back as soon as possible," Cole said.
The locations of asphalt plants create
regional monopolies. In the northeastern
part of the state there are two paving
firms, and since there is not enough work
for more companies to enter the area,
these companies can name their price.
Also, asphalt can't be hauled for more
than 25 to 30 miles without reheating it.
"The paver has pretty much got locks on
the project," Cole said. "Nobody can
compete with him."
Areas where most of the paving occurs
the Research Triangle, Charlotte and
the rest of the Piedmont are more
competitive. "We are seeing a lot more
bidders than we used to," Cole said.
Highway projects in the state mean
hundreds of millions of dollars. Cole
estimates that the Dickerson Co. of
Monroe did about $103 million worth of
state business from 1975 to 1981.
Ashland-Warren Corp. of Ashland, Ky.,
' did $100 million worth of work for the
state in that six-year period. Dickerson
and Ashland-Warren were convicted of
bid rigging, with Dickerson paying $1.7
million in civil settlements and Ashland
Warren paying a $6 million fine the
largest fine ever imposed on a U.S. com
pany in an antitrust case.
Altogether, 52 companies have
negotiated civil settlements of $15.1
million with State Department of Justice
officials. Twenty-four paving firms
agreed to settlements and interest pay
ments of $12.1 million, 19 electrical com
panies paid just under $2 million, and
nine utilities contractors paid $1 million
for rigging bids on projects. Federal
authorities, using investigative grand
juries, indicted 24 companies operating
in North Carolina and received guilty
aSi
pleas or convictions against 38 execu
tives. Only one trial ended in an acquit
tal. Despite the laundry list of convictions,
North Carolina is just one state among
many with a bid-rigging problem. The
federal government's own investigation,
code named "Road Runner," has led to
indictments and convictions in Ten
nessee, Virginia, South Carolina and
Georgia. Federal investigations are con
tinuing in other southeastern,
midwestern and Pacific states.
Has the investigation had an effect?
It's hard to tell. "Bids are a low lower
than they used to be, but I've noticed
they have been creeping up in the last six
to eight months," Cole said. But he add
ed that the investigation has shown con-
tractors that North Carolina will not
tolerate bid rigging. One of the results of
the investigation was the bid-rigging
statute that went into effect on Sept. 1,
1982.
Under the statute, bid rigging became
a felony with fines up to $1 million per
corporation and $100,000 per individual.
The statute also gives state agencies the
right to remove a company from the
state's qualified bidders list a list of
companies that the state will accept bids
from for three years. And the statute
grants the judge the right to revoke a
contractor's license. Without a license, a
contractor can't get business.
State authorities claim that bid rigging
is over, and they point to the low bidding
on the Raleigh Durham Airport Authori-
ty's grading project as an example. An
engineer with the Authority disagreed.
He said the Authority did get a lower bid
than its own estimate $7 million in
stead of $1 1 million. But the cause of the
low bid was the economy, not the state's
investigation. ".There's not that much
work to go around," he said.
The engineer, said bid rigging won't
end in North Carolina, but contractors
will be a little more careful. He pointed
to the bid-rigging statute's provision that
takes contractors off the qualified bid
ders list for state highway projects for
three years. "Municipalities and authori
ties use the same bidders' list that the
state uses," he said. "If you're off their
list, you're off our list."
But the convicted companies are back
on the list and back in business. R.G.K.
Inc. of Burlington, a paving company,
was one of the companies convicted of
bid rigging. A company spokesman who
asked not to be named called the in
vestigation unfair. "It's not a matter of
Joe and I getting together and saying,
'I'll raise mine if you'll raise yours.' It's a
matter of survival."
That "survival" has cost taxpayers
hundreds of millions of dollars. The fines
levied by the state pale in comparison.
The guilty companies should be taken
off the qualified bidders list for good.
Until that is done, bid rigging will con
tinue. Wayne Thompson, a senior broadcast
journalism major from Roanoke, Va., is
a staff writer for The Daily Tar Heel.