European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 11, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                J Page 28 a a a the stars and stripes tuesday december 11,1990weather backs up mail in Frankfurt by Crystal la Freano staff writer bad weather hatted . Mail trucks at the Frankfurt terminal monday stranding tons of mail destined for distribution Points throughout Germany and the Benelux about 25 mail trucks were stopped from delivering mail at 11 . Because of poor Road conditions caused by Snow and sleet said it. Col. Edward Stanford commander of the 7025th air postal so at Ramstein a which manages the air Ter Minal. Military officials declared a a Road condition Ted for Many areas of Germany. Under that condition general guidelines Recomb Pep that Only emergency missions be driven said Jim Boyle a spokesman for . Army Europe. The prohibition was to be lifted when weather conditions improved. Since mail volume More than doubles during the Holiday season the one Day transportation delay could cause significant delays in mail delivery. Stanford could not predict the Impact on mail scr ice should the severe conditions continue. A the problem now is that the planes Are arriving All the time. They Haven to stopped a Stanford said. As Long As mail comes in but does no to go out the backlog will increase especially now that a a tidal wave of Holiday mail is arriving. Most of the mail that arrives at the mail terminal at the Frankfurt Airport is bound for Germany Belgium Luxembourg and the Netherlands. It is sorted for major army mail centers and air Force bases and transported there by truck mail workers just recovered from a backlog that began dec. 3 when the facility a automated conveyor belts broke Down Stanford said. Mail sorting was halted for a Day while workers made the switch from the automated system to a slower manual method of sorting. The conveyor belts have since been repaired. Postal workers had the backup under control when the weather shut Down the outgoing mail flow he  Page 1 monday and roads were extremely Slippery. Traffic was at a standstill for about 30 Miles in both lanes on autobahn 6 Between Heilbronn and Niernberg according to the German automobile club and a. Their information Center was advising motorists to use Snow tires and carry tire chains. The heaviest snowfall occurred in Stuttgart Germany where about 5 inches of Snow prompted officials at Vii corps Headquarters to Send its non essential workers Home shortly after noon. In the Kaiserslautern military Community non Essen to Tel personnel were allowed to go Home about 2 ., and shuttle bus services and  Iose Down. Flight operations at Ramstein a Germany halted except for military Airlift come flights that took off during Breaks in the weather. Incoming flights were diverted to Rhein main a when the Snow intensified at Ramstein about 2 ,. / the weather officer at Rhein main said the base went to code yellow about 2 ., but did not halt any flights a yellow code Means the sky a ceiling was Low but not below the 1,300-foot minimum. At 3 ., the ceiling was 1,500 feet and visibility was 4,290 feet. The minimum visibility allowed for flying is 2,640 feet. At the Frankfurt International air Dor t there we ire delays up to 30 minutes for incoming flights and for More than an hour for some outgoing align is an Airport spokesman said. Delays of an hour or More were reported at the Cologne Bonn Airport a Lufthansa spokesman said. The Snow was a Welcome sight at the armed forces recreation Center in Garmisch Germany said Public affairs spokesman Harry Connors the approximately 30 inches of Snow that fell in the Alps the past week has allowed the opening of several ski areas in Garmisch and Berchtesgaden the Hausberg in Garmisch received 20 incites last week which allows skiers to ski to the Bottom for the first time in four years. Connors said the German forecast Calls for Snow to continue until Friday in the Mountain Region. A contributing to this report it att writer Peggy Paul Don in a Attr lao it torn ski Luk Britt in Darmstadt. Hostage from Page 1 Bassy in Kuwait to the embassy in Baghdad on aug. 24, the deadline set by Saddam Hussein for diplomats to leave the occupied country. A i heard him Tell so Many lies,.�?T Mooneyhan said of the iraqi Leader. A i done to think in body believed we were leaving until we were up on the air plane a the colonel and the 17 service members with him All destroyed their . A we had no status a he said of their time in Iraq a we were very careful. We usually went out in pairs if we went out. We did no to know exactly How we stood because we did no to have any uniforms and so if he Saddam had gone to War and they came in and policed us up we were spies. At least that show i saw it. We tried to run the embassy As Best As we could. A there was food if you knew where it was going to be Quot he said a i had the Best scrounge in the world Quot Mooneyhan has Strong opinions on Saddam who has agreed to release thousands of his so called �?~�?~guests.�?�. A a we be got to go in there and kick his ass. There a no other Choice a Mooneyhan said. A the Guys started two wars in 10 years. He s got a wealthy country but he spends All his Money on  also waiting to catch the flight Home monday was Mike Hanson who eked out an existence on the run for More than four months in Kuwait. Hanson said he heard rumours during his ordeal that americans would be Tukan to a Safe havens if they were captured by  but i wanted to maintain control a he said. So from Early August until a few weeks ago he kept moving. His first close Call came when iraqi soldiers broke Down the door of his apartment in Early August. He got away and then moved regularly from one abandoned apartment to another. Once he returned to his place v �?o1 figured they a been there once so it was either a very stupid move or a very Clever  Hanson a return to his ravaged borne was Soo Dis erupted by looters. A i had to drive them off and somebody told the iraqi soldiers where i was so then i had to escape from the soldiers again. I stayed on the roof for a couple of Days.�?�. Hanson a librarian at Kuwait University had another encounter with the iraqis several Days later. A they had me in custody but i was in disguise a the Chaseburg wis., native said. A and with just my rudimentary arabic they let me  he lived with a Friend until his capture a few weeks ago. He was moved to a site where he was a human shield with five British citizens. He Wasny to sure what Type of work was done there. A it had a warm Shower that Sall i cared about a he said. Hanson was unaware of the . Military buildup before his weekend release a i just Hope there Isnit a War a he said. Thomas Kreuzman 38, of Holiday fla., said he spent 23 Days hiding in an air conditioning duct with his dog. They lived on dry Spaghetti and sneaked out at night for water he said. Randal Warren 49, a construction worker from Charleston mo., described hiding out on the top floor of an apartment House keeping the curtains closed the entire time and going Barefoot to hold Down the noise. A palestinian and a turkish Friend brought supplies about every two weeks Warren said. Robert Vinton of Santa be n.m., said he was held South of Baghdad at an Oil refinery after being picked up aug. 18 on a Street in the iraqi capital. / a it was like a gulag a the 58year-old Vinton said. He _ was held with up to eight other foreigners at a time. Although he said a we were mostly left  Joseph Lammerding 35, of Sacramento Calif said that after visiting has parents he planned to return to the Gulf to help push the iraqis out of Kuwait. Lammerding who spent four months in hiding in Kuwait said the iraqis brutally retaliated against kuwaitis who were trying to offer resistance and protect foreigners. A sometimes they would shoot one member of a . Sometimes the entire family. They taped and plundered literally Quot said Lammerding no described him self As an adviser to the kuwaiti military. He had lived in the emirate since 1983,. Contributing to tilt report the Atio stated pre in Frankfurt of rampaged it. Quot. Trained. The first to leave Baghdad Iraq were a group of. About 200 hostages mostly italians who arrived in Rome on sunday aboard an italian chartered Jet. British consular officials said that some 350 passengers a including 277 britons four americans and an unspecified number of other westerners a had been assembled at a Baghdad hotel in preparation for a flight to  canadians and 152 americans who had flown sunday from Baghdad to Frankfurt Germany left monday afternoon for the United states . Consular officials said. Other americans were taking later flights to the United states. ,. About 13 hours earlier the americans and 101 britons had arrived in Frankfurt aboard an iraqi airways Airliner. The britons flew on to London a Heathrow Airport monday. A i am looking Forward to walking in the Green Fields of Kent without a Man saying a hey mister you can to go there a and without a Man with a Kalashnikov assault Rifle telling what i can or cannot do a said Harvey May 45, after arriving at Heathrow. / the britons were greeted by their families and Douglas Hogg a Junior foreign minister who told the London broadcasting company that Saddam would be driven out of Kuwait if he failed to comply with All the , resolutions passed against him. The , Security Council has demanded that Iraq withdraw unconditionally from Kuwait and restore its government controlled by the Al Sabah family As Well As release All hostages. But iraqi officials were defiant on monday. Y a a Kuwait is for Iraq whether in the past present or future and we will not Compromise one Iota on kuwaiti territory its Waters or the Money and investment of the buried Al Sabah dynasty Quot information minister Latif Jassim said in an official iraqi news Agency statement monitored in Nicosia Cyprus Al caddis a the Organ of the iraqi ministry of defense said monday a the first priority of iraqis principled stance toward the Gulf crisis is recognizing its right to Kuwait province on a basis of geographic and historical  p r 5 a Furth Germany a amps a German police have arrested five employees of the army regional contracting office and the owner of a German building firm in connection with a scheme involving More than $1.4 million in bribes. The five employees Are accused of accepting bribes in return for awarding contracts to German building contractors on various projects for several years said by vat Behrschmidt a spokesman for the Nurnberg Justice ministry. The arrests began nov. 6,three of the five suspects have confessed and returned the Money they received to investigators Behrschmidt said monday. Authorities have received More than 2 million Marks so far from the woman and two men who have been released from custody he said. Two remaining civilian female employees Are being held in custody. The owner of a German building firm also has been arrested for allegedly offering bribe the spokesman said. F a the arrests follow an investigation that began about a year ago when the affluent lifestyles of some contracting office employees attracted attention. The army a criminal investigation come started the investigation then called in the German criminal police. A we have the impression we Are stirring up a swamp a District attorney. Gerhard Holzheid said. Authorities anticipate that there will be. More arrests and More Money returned As the investigation continues Behrschmidt said he was unable to give further details about the pending cases. A spokesman for the regional contracting office was unable to be reached for comment late monday