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Today's Hot LZ Links
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Monday, July 17, 2000
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Missiles:
Cohen: We Need Missile Defense

Defense Secretary William Cohen, travelling in Australia,
reacted to a successful Iranian missile test by reiterating his belief in the need for a limited missile defense system. Mike Corder reports the story for Associated Press.

"Iran tested its Shahab-3 ballistic missile, with a range of 800 miles, on Saturday. Tehran is developing a longer-range Shahab-4, which it claims will be used to carry satellites into space and not for military purposes."



Vietnam:
McHenry [IL] Pays Its Respects

A one-half size travelling replica of the Vietnam
Veteran's War Memorial was in Petersen Park in McHenry, Illinois for the weekend. Over 400 people attended a silent vigil
that marked the start of the visit on Friday night, and as many were there for departure ceremonies yesterday. Terry
Tabor of the Chicago Daily Herald reports.

"[Dale] Pitts [of McHenry, a WW II vet,] remembers looking forward to his son [Dana]'s return home from Vietnam. However, that excitement turned to grief when he learned that his son's helicopter was shot down by Vietnamese soldiers on Nov. 2, 1967. Dana put off his return to go on another mission.

" 'He had the orders (to return home) in his back pocket,' Pitts said. 'He was 20 years old.' "



Mideast Peace:
Talk, Tension, Quiet, Demonstrations

It's slow slogging at Camp David. Arafat and Barak
would like to make a deal. They both know a deal will
be hard to sell to large parts of their constituencies.
In the Middle East, the constituencies are making
noises. Both leaders realize that a fleeting window in time is open,
through which a deal can be driven. Failure means the
next window, when it comes, will be smaller. Tense stuff. Prayer, as always, is recommended. Some reports from around the globe:

 
'Silent' summit yields only rumors
Boston Globe report
by Anne E. Kornblut

 
Hamas, Fatah pressure Arafat
to resist concessions
Jerusalem Post report
by Lamia Lahoud

 
Failure at Camp David may ignite
'powder keg' in South
[Beirut] Daily Star report
by Nicholas Blanford

 
Today's Daily Press Review
Summary of Palestinian press reports
by the PLO Ministry of Information

 
Settlers: Rally will tip scale against Barak
[Israel] Ha'Aretz report
by Nadav Shragai

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Today's Hot LZ Links
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Sunday, July 16, 2000
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World War II:
WP Urges Memorial Go-Ahead

This week a commission in Washington, D.C. can give
final design approval to a World War II memorial to
be placed on the Mall.

There's been a long controversy over the siting of the
memorial. A decision to place it on the Mall
was made back in 1996, but opponents have continued to
fight that.

Today's Washington Post has an editorial in favor
of granting final design approval for the memorial,
placed as planned on the Mall.

"Opponents contend that the war memorial would mar one of the nation's great democratic vistas. We think they are wrong. The victory of democracy over totalitarianism in the last century deserves to be prominently remembered. The proposed memorial will do so while enhancing, not marring, the Mall."



Sierra Leone:
UN Troops Rescue 233 of Their Own

Several hundred United Nations peacekeepers have been held
hostage in Sierra Leone for two months.
Food shipments were recently cut off. The situation was
deteriorating. On Saturday, heavily
armed UN troops moved in and freed the hostages. Here's a report by John Goldman in The Los
Angeles Times.

"... [helicopter] gunships provided support for the attack on the rebel stronghold of Kailahun in the eastern part of the country about 200 miles from Freetown, the capital."

"Some reports from U.N. personnel in the field said the rebels had suffered 'serious casualties.' The operation involved as many as 1,000 U.N. troops."

" 'The use of force in a U.N. mission to extract its personnel from the area had become inevitable,' [U.N. Secretary General Kofi] Annan said in a statement."

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