European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 05, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Inside stripes d Star wars test called successful Page 2 c parents do the teaching at Home schools Dally Magazine q cardinals beat mets royals Down Angels Page 21 the stars authorized unofficial publication for vol. 44, no. 170 saturday october 5, 1985 to forces Fyk Dolly of Sondo q 8693 a Beirut terrorists report murder of american hostage Buckley Beirut a a shiite moslem terrorist group says h has killed american hostage William Buckley in Retalia Tion for Israel s raid on Plo Headquarters in Tunisia the leading Independent newspaper said Friday. Islamic jihad stated it has carried out the execution the daily an Nahar said in its report accompanying the terrorist group s statement which the paper published in its Friday morning editions. The same text also appeared in a leftist newspaper. As Safir. An Nahar said the statement and a color photograph of Buckley were delivered to the newspaper s West Beirut office at 1 . Friday. The paper published the photo  statement written in ungrammatical arabic said we declare that in revenge for the blood of our martyrs we announce the execution of the resident american agent in the Middle East and the first political officer at the american embassy in Beirut William Buckley right after the publication of this  they re telling us that by the time we got the paper out he d be dead said an official at an Nahar. There was no other word on Buckley s Fate and . Embassy officials could not be reached for comment. William Buckley in a photo taken by terrorists. In Washington. White House Deputy press Secretary Larry up cakes said he White House had no Independent confirmation of the report. Stale department spokesman Joe reap said we have nothing on it. We arc of course checking  Buckley 57, one of six americans hat islamic jihad claims it is holding hostage was kidnapped March 16, 1984, outside his Home in Beirut. He was a political officer at the . Embassy in the lebanese capital. Buckley held in Captivity he longest of any of the Ameri cans had a lard in the photograph and was wearing a Gray track suit with yellow stripes across the Chest. There was no indication when or where the photo was made. He appeared to be wearing the same clothes As in a Polaroid photograph issued by islamic jihad May 16 along with photos of three other americans and two frenchmen. An israeli air strike tuesday divas Tai the Palestine liberation organization Headquarters in a suburb of Tunis the tunisian capital. Government sources said 61 palestinians and 2 tunisians were killed. The islamic jihad statement declared that beyond any doubt the israeli raid was carried out and planned joint see Buckley on Page 28 Atlantis launched with secret payload Atlantis the newest space shuttle zooms skyward while the oldest ship. Enterprise sits As a tourist attraction. Cape canaveral not five military officers flew into space thursday aboard the new space shuttle Atlantis on a secret Mission for the department of de sense. It is the second time in the shuttle program that a flight has been devoted to military objectives. The exact launching time which had been one of the Best kept secrets of the Mission was 11 15 . The $1.2 billion Atlantis Rose on Bright flames through a Cloudy Florida sky to begin its Maiden voyage. Officials of the National aeronautics and space administration following strict Security rules imposed by the Pentagon would not disclose even after the fact whether the liftoff had occurred on schedule. Earlier they said Only that the launching would be in a three hour window which was later extended to four hours because of the threat of bad weather. The secrecy is part of efforts to make it More difficult for the soviet military to Monitor the shuttle Takeoff and to discover the identity and Mission of the payload. Penta gon officials say. Despite the precautions however a primary objective of the Mission is widely reported to be the launching of a pair of Jisoo million military communication satellites. Designated discs Iii for defense satellite communications sys tem the satellites arc reportedly to be stationed 22,300 Miles above the Earth where they would relay messages to american military forces around the world. The Atlantis is the fourth and final shuttle to join the nation s Fleet of winged spaceships. Its flight Marks the 21st Mission of inc shuttle program. After liftoff from the Kennedy space Center the ship i b pierced a Cloud and apparently headed on a course taken y most shuttles especially those whose objective is to launch satellites into the 22,300-Milc-High orbit. This puts it in an orbit that crosses the Equator at an Angle of about 28 degrees. On each orbit the Atlantis would thus Fly As High As 28 degrees North of the Equator and As Low As 28 degrees South. In accordance with Security rules the space Agency gave out Little information about the flight. No space to ground communications were released to the Public and there was no Post launching news conference. Nearly five hours after the Atlantis took off Mission control in Houston released a Brief statement. On the Maiden voyage of Atlantis it said the Crew is doing Well and All systems on Board the orbiter Are performing sat  space Agency officials said no other status reports would be issued for the duration of the Mission which might last a week or More. On thursday the Public countdown clocks were started nine minutes before liftoff As dictated by the department of defense. Reporters and photographers at the press Cen Ter then hurried to a nearby area to View the launching. Had an Accident occurred on the launching pad that exposed inc secret payload so curly officials would have collected processed and reviewed film from civilian photographers in inc area according to a memorandum signed by space Agency and Pentagon officials. The commander of the Atlantis air Force col. Karol j. Bobko is flying his third space shuttle Mission. The Pilot is air Force it. Col. Ronald j. Grabe. Other Crew members arc Marine corps maj. David c. La ilmers. Air Force maj. William a. Pails and army it. Col. Robert c. Stewart. Gorbachev offers to reduce nukes by 50% Paris a Mikhail s. Gorbachev disclosed details thursday of a new plan for reducing is. And soviet missiles by up to so percent and offered to talk with France and Britain about cutting their Independent nuclear forces. The soviet Leader outlined three major elements of Bis plan in a speech to French legislators to Cut by half the number of . And soviet missiles capable of reach ing each other s territory and prohibit space weapons to talk with France and Britain on reducing their nuclear arsenals and to re move some of the medium Range soviet missiles targeted on Europe. He said the soviet Union is cutting Back its ss-20 medium Range missiles in Europe to 243, the number he said were deployed in june 1984, before nato began deploying 572 cruise and Pershing ii missiles in Europe. Nato said recently that 441 of the soviet missiles had been sited. There can be no victors in a nuclear War Gorbachev said. It is time to draw a practical conclusion from this to Stop the nuclear arms  a few Days ago we proposed to the government of the United states to come to terms on the total prohibition of space strike arms for both sides and to reduce really radically by 50 percent the nuclear arms capable of reaching each other s Terri tory he said. Gorbachev was not specific about the weapons involved. But definition could go see Gorbachev on Page 28