European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 24, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Leslie Gelb monday june 24, 1991. The stars and stripes Page 13 commentary excuse if i were a japanese Leader listening to All the anti japanese whining and hysteria and double Standar Ditis in the United states i might become an America Basher. A it americans have turned Japan bashing into a cottage Industry from Congress to the Harvard business review to Detroit to the Cia to main Street and to a recent Book hawking a future War with Japan. The japanese Are finally getting frustrated Ana angry about All this and May Start bashing Back. The. Bashing business europeans joining in could spiral out of control with the most serious consequences despite the commendable efforts of president Bush and prime minister Kaifu. A a a. A a a beyond argument Japan a Economy is More protectionist than ours and we should press very hard to change this. That said the japanese make two telling Points americans Are not such pure free traders As they pretend and solutions to Many . Complaints lie not in Japan but in America. Look at the structural impediments initiative the Central dialogue Between the two countries on removing barriers to Trade and investment. In these exchanges we Are asking Japan to do some sensible things like combating its anti competitive business practices. But we Are also demanding that the japanese save less and spend More governmental funds. In other words we Are telling them to go on a consumer Binge and in crease government deficits or in effect to adopt the self destructive policies of the Reagan administration. Fortunately for them they Are riot so dumb they Are blowing extra government Money into infrastructure and strengthening their Economy and what is Japan asking us to do in these talks among other things to lower our Federal deficit to lower interest rates and stimulate investment to increase our savings rate to the same end to improve our Public educational system and Jush our corporations into longer term business strategies. In sum Tokyo is urging us to take the very Steps any american with half a brain knows we ought to be taking in our own self interest. Remember the voluntary restraint agreement on Auto sales we cornered into limiting their Auto exports. They did so and then also started manufacturing More cars in the United states to the Delight of the communities where they settled and thereby increased their total Auto sales in America. Such experiences Are part of an established pattern we Cut an agreement with them. They fulfil it to the letter but Are Clever enough to find other ways to gain advantage. We accuse them of violating the spirit of the agreement and then Issue a new set of demands. If . Auto manufacturers and autoworkers would Stop making such demands and whining for a moment they might stumble on the principal cause of their decline their. Japanese competitors for the most part have designed and made belter american mania about Japan goes Well beyond autos Down to some intriguing new machinations by the Cia. A recent Cia sponsored study by the Rochester Institute of technology Calls Japan Quot non democratic and a a racist and argues that Tokyo is headed for world dominance unless challenged by the West. Is the Agency to justify its Post cold War Persona. Searching for a new threat to supplant Moscow such Japan bashing certainly finds resonance among americans who feel More menaced by Japan than the soviet Union a 72 per cent to 20 percent according to a business week Survey. The japanese do not help themselves much either. Even when they act generously they do so in begrudging ways that earn them no credit a As happened with their $13 billion contribution to the persian Gulf War. Our protestations surpass our important and legitimate grievances. Our complaints suggest a loss of competitive nerve among american businessmen and workers. A a. V a a. Their Japan bashing supported by a legion of politicians and Well paid consultants begins to smell like an excuse Tor not dealing with our own shortcomings c now York time James j. Kilpatrick Vermont enjoys a kind of postcard image Hon est Yankee tradesmen perfect Maple syrup Pink checked skaters in a landscape by grandma Moses. Given that wholesome picture it May be difficult to imagine a criminal Justice system that is altogether Rotten but that a the Way it is in Vermont. That observation comes from a Reading of depositions and trial transcripts in the outrageous cases of Susan Sweetser and sue Kremelberg. The two Young women have been doubly raped a first by a criminal named Robert l. Percy and second by the system. After serving As a truck Driver in Vietnam and getting. Discharged for drug abuse. Percy returned to Vermont. In 1972, he raped a College student in Montpelier. His sentence was Light a Only six to 12 years in prison but a Public defender cot him out in 1980. A forensic psychic Trist or. William Woodruff warned at the time that Percy was a Quot Verv dangerous Man who probably would rape again. The warning went unheeded. Shortly after his release on dec. 7, 1980, Percy abducted Susan Sweetser at gunpoint beat her choked her. Forced her to engage in Oral sex and raped her repeatedly. She was 21 b three months pregnant with her first. It child. Percy was arrested 10 Days later then released on bail of Only $5,000. Vermont is Friendly to felons. On Jan. 16. 19s1. While free on this Token bail. Percy abducted sue Kremelberg taped her hands with electrician s tape raped her again and again and drove her into Connecticut. Alter nine hours of terror she escaped at a traffic Light in Brookfield. Police caught him now we get to the Rotten part Percy went on trial Lor the rape of Susan. Sweetser in october 1981. His primary defense was insanity by reason of Quot Post Vietnam a jury found him guilty and the judge sentenced him to 16 to 20 years in prison. State appointed defense lawyer appealed. It Wasny to until january 1986 that Vermont s supreme court reversed the conviction on a Legal technicality having nothing whatever to do with the Issue of guilt or innocence. Two More years went by. Percy was tried again found guilty again and this time sentenced to 18 to 20 years. Two More years went by while the second conviction was appealed. Las october this second conviction was affirmed but Perry a lawyers moved for re argument. Nut until May 15, 1991, just a Lew Vve eks ago did the court get around to denying the motion. Thus ended the Sweetser Case 10 years and five months alter it began. The Kremelberg Case followed the same maddening course of trial conviction Appeal reversal and retrial. Percy s second Appeal is pending in the state supreme court but Oral argument is not expected until next year. Under Vermon Haw a Public defender May demand endless exhausting emotionally draining depositions. The two Young women have been compelled to testily again and again to their brutal and degrading expend ence. Defense counsel have raised one legalistic objection after another. At one Point having participated in the delays defense lawyers moved for a dismissal Lor want of a speedy trial. The motion was denied. You May read the appellate opinions from beginning to end and find scarcely a single sentence in which the courts of Vermont have expressed concern Lor the two women. A woman s right not to be raped is not a right that seems to be taken very seriously by the judges of Vermont. Precisely the same thing May be said of course of justices Marshall Blackmun and Stevens of the . Supreme court. They Are endlessly coldly impersonally obsessed with the rights of a criminal to the exclusion of the rights of the people of Vermont cannot escape responsibility for the ordeal the victims have suffered. Vermonters have elected a state legislature that is Compla Santly agreeable to the demands of defense lawyers. Bills to Reform bail procedures and to limit depositions have been tabled. The Tightwad voters have refused to create an intermediate court of appeals with the result that the state supreme court is hopelessly mired in a swamp of Long pending cases. Susan Sweetser took a Law degree in the midst of these proceedings. She has lobbied hard for Reform of the system but her Ellerts have gone now Here. Quot i he worst part of this entire Nightmare Quot she says Quot is that the system which allowed my Case to languish Tor 10 years and sue s Lor 10-plus years is still in place intact \ ii mails so it goes in Vermont so it goes. A u v prov a
