European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 5, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday april 6, 1987 the stars and stripes Pago 7 to quiz Webster wednesday Washington a the Confirma lion hearing for William Webster presi Dent Reagan s nominee to be Cia director will be held wednesday the Senate Intelli gence committee has announced Webster who has won respect during his nine year tenure Sis Fri director in expected to be questioned closely about the Fri s role in the Iron Contra affair. But one source said the commit lick has not developed any evidence to suggest the nomination is in rouble. The committee May release portions of testimony taken last Yew from attorney general Edwin Meuse 111 during its hear ing on the rut Contra affair r. Meese asked Webster on oct. 30 to sus Pend an Fri investigation into Southern air trans port a Miami based air freight company linked to resupply efforts for the con tra rebels and which also was employed by the Cia to handle aim shipments Toiran Mccase s request which Webster granted is among Webster subjects or inter Solo he committee along with the Fri s role in subsequent investigations of the arms sales and the fund diversion scheme. The Fri began investigating Southern air last october after a plane carrying arms was shot Down Over Nicaragua and american freight handler Eugene Hasenfus was captured the plane car ried documents linking the Crew a Southern air Mccase later that month asked that Webster suspend the Agency s probe apparently fearing any disclosure thai could jeopardize arms shipments to Iran which the administration hoped would Lead to the release of american hostages in Lebanon. Webster put the probe on hold for nearly three weeks. The committee May also release a de classified transcript of me Csc s testimony dealing with the weekend of nov. 22. When the attorney general discovered the diversion of funds to the Central. Webster reportedly agreed at that Lime not to Taring the Fri into the investigation immediately and the attorney general conducted his weekend probe informally and without experienced criminal attorneys present documents were destroyed or altered about that time and investigators arc looking into whether Meese i actions May have damaged the government s ability to discover the truth. Webster 63, was named last month to succeed William Casey who retired from the Cia Post after surgery for a brain tumor. Reagan s earlier nominee Casey Deputy Robert Gates withdrew from consideration for the Job after his nomination ran into intelligence com Mittee scepticism Over the Agency s role in the Iran Centra affair. Hetero Sexto aids epidemic exaggerated Chicago up fear of a heterosexual aids epidemic has been very much exaggerated by an influential 1985 army study that reported soldiers were getting aids from prostitutes when the soldiers  lying about their sexual activities a health official said. Rather aids is Likely to trickle into the heterosexual population Over the next 10 years said John Pottol director of infectious disease at the Elpaso county health department in Colorado Springs Colo. There s this idea thai there s going to be this real flood of heterosexual cases and i Don t think we re going to see that Potterat said. Why panic the entire population when in Point of fact the Riskis very very Santa lir but while acknowledging heterosexuals Are prob ably less Likely to contract aids than Ore homosexuals a researcher from the Federal centers for Dis ease control in Atlanta emphasized the risk does exist it s perfectly Clear the virus is not spreading As fast in the heterosexual population said or. Tom Peterman of the cd but i Don t think there s any question that transmission occurs. The ques Tion is whether it occurs  patient s charges levelled in a letter to the Jour Nal of the american medical association last week refuelled a continuing debate Over the transmission of the Sims that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome. In 1985, or Robert Redfield and his colleague sat Walter Reed army Hospital published the first study appearing to document heterosexual aids transmission outside third world countries. The researchers interviewed nine men carrying the Virtu whose Only admitted High risk activity was heterosexual Intercourse with prostitutes. Although the study was later criticized by scientists questioning the truthfulness of soldiers asked by military doctors to admit to punishable offences the researchers defended it � but Poltera said there is Good evidence Sug Gesting the soldiers lied to investigators and were infected through classic High risk activities in  or homosexual Contact Potter Al and his associates tested their Hypoth Esis by interviewing 20 soldiers infected with the aids virus. A larger proportion admitted to these activities than in the military . David Wright one of the Walter Reed re searchers defended the army studies and said the Hospital has since seen a number of men who were infected sexually by spouses who contracted the virus from blood transfusions which pretty much proves that it can  "1 Don t know what the frequency with which it occurs but it docs occur and it s important to realize that he said. No one wants to Ali Csc that there is heterosexual transmission and maybe that s Why they Don t want to believe us pot Cral argued however that evidence of pc male to Malc transmission is Saint and infection from heterosexual Intercourse unlikely us least fur men. Court approves fraud charges for sergeant York overcharges san Francisco a a Federal appeals court on Friday allowed criminal fraud charges to proceed against general dynamics corp. And four executives including a former Nasa administrator for alleged Cost overruns on the sergeant York air defense gun. By a 2-1 vote the 9th . Circuit court of appeals ruled that a Federal judge in los Angeles should have allowed the criminal Case to continue rather than halting it in september and referring a key question of contract interpretation to a Pentagon Board. The referral was an impermissible delegation of a judge s decision making function said the appeals court opinion written by judge Betty Fletcher. James Gallagher a lawyer for the company decline comment. Defense the gun mounted on a tank was supposed id shoot Down planes and helicopters defense Secretary Casper Weinberger halted the project in August 1985, saying it did t work. An indictment by a Federal grand jury in december 1985 said general dynamics and the four executives overspent the contract and tried to hide the costs by shill ing $7.5 million to other defense department accounts. Prosecutors said the net loss to the government was $3.2 million because not All the spending had been approved. One defendent James Beggs an executive vice presi Dent and director of Genera dynamics during the con tract period was administrator of the National aeronautics and space administration at the time of the indictment. Me resigned from Nasa last year after the challenger explosion that killed seven astronauts. The other defendants Are Ralph makes Vrh a company vice president and supervisor of the Pomona calif., Plant where the guns were being built and David Mcpher Sonand James Hansen jr., chief project officers. The charges of conspiring to defraud the defense department and six counts of making false statements arc punishable by up to five years in prison and $70,000 in incs for the individuals and a $70,000 Fine for the Corn general dynamics based in is. Louis was briefly sus Pended from All military contracts but was reinstated Early lost year. The Central Issue in the criminal Case is a dispute Over the meaning of the sergeant York contract which was slated to be a firm fixed Price lust efforts  the government contended it was a fixed Price con tract and that it was improperly overcharged when Gener Al dynamics billed additional spending to two other Dod accounts. The company contended the Best efforts language meant that it was required Only to Dothe Bestil could with $41 million and could charge any other spending needed on the project to the separate accounts. . District judge Ferdinand Fernandez said last fall he was not prepared to dismiss the charges without a interpretation by experts he ordered the Case halted until the contract was interpreted by the armed forces Board of contract appeals an administrative Agency that judges military contract disputes. The Board refused to take inc Case in february saying it had no jurisdiction Over a criminal Case referred from Federal court in reversing Fernandez s action the appeals court said a judge can refer issues in a Case loan administrative Agency that regulates a particular Field but that the Abca is not such an Agency. Nuclear disaster team formed new Orleans a Occidental Petroleum chairman Armand Hammer is bankrolling an International team of experts to Fly anywhere in the world to help out in event of a nuclear disaster according to a doctor who aided victims of the chernobyl Accident. We Hope to have it functional on the anniversary of the chernobyl Accident april 26," or. Robert a Cale said at the convention of the american College of physicians. Meanwhile a scientist at Law rence Uver More National Laboratory in California reported that Only harmless traces remain in the atmosphere from the radiation Cloud created by the soviet Acci Dent any health dangers outside the soviet Union now lie in the food chains of animals in scandi Navia and Europe Tom Sullivan said. Ii la a Bone marrow specialist Hammer at inc University of California at los Angeles school of Medicine said Hammer was providing Money and an air plane for inc response team. It will be sort of the red Adair of nuclear Energy Gale said referring to the expert in copping wild Oil Wells it will Fly to the site of any nuclear Accident to give advice about response and  Gale said the team will be made up of five or six people each of whom will have a backup. The Armand Hammer Center for advanced studies in nuclear Energy and health which was formed in july with Gale As its president will keep tabs on the team members whereabouts 24 hours a Day and Fly them to the site of any nuclear Accident. Gale said. He said the team will be made up of experts from the four nations which have treated victims of nuclear War or accidents Japan the United states Russia and France where victims of a 1926 nuclear reactor acc dentin Yugoslavia were treated. Meanwhile Gate said the United Stales and soviet Union arc cooperating on medical treatment of inc Cher Nobyl victims. The United Stales has sent several Hundred kits to lest thyroid victims and blood samples from chernobyl Vic Tims arc being Analysed at the Lawrence Livermon lab oratories he said. A lifetime study of the 13s.ooo soviets who were closest to the reactor Wilt probably Coil about i6u million a year about the same As studies of atomic bomb victims at Hiroshima and Nagasaki Gale said. The Gry Aiesi attention is being Given to 2-i.ogo people who received heavy doses of radiation he said. In a group thai size. Gale said it can be expected that 400 people will develop cancer and 200 will die or i i. The 24.000 most severely exposed chernobyl victims Are expected to develop an additional so to 100 cases he said