The long run

The Clinton administration conceded Oct. 1 that U.S. troops will remain in Bosnia until at least mid-March, missing a promised Dec. 20 deadline for their return home. But Defense Secretary William Perry insisted that the mission extension did not signal the beginning of an extended U.S. military presence in Bosnia. Meanwhile, Bosnia's three presidents-a Muslim, a Croat, and Serb-held their first meeting since being elected Sept. 14. The meeting was delayed for days because the three could not agree on a meeting site.

Solving the "why"

There is very little mystery left concerning the murder of four Cuban-American pilots who were shot down by Cuban fighters over the Florida Straits this past February. The who, what, where, when, and how are answered. Now a congressional panel will seek the why. "We want to put everybody under oath, because we have been lied to, misled, and stonewalled by everybody, including the Air Force," said an angry Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) of the House International Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. Since WORLD's Aug. 3/10 cover story reporting the possibility of U.S. government complicity in the shootdowns, the panel has already held one hearing-Sept. 18-and two weeks ago issued subpoenas on 38 people, plus assorted official documents relating to the incident. According to a GOP source on the panel, the inspector general of the Defense Department has been asked to look into the matter. Congress will want to know why the U.S. military did nothing to stop Havana's assault on American citizens. Mr. Burton promises more hearings this month. WORLD's story quoted government witnesses who testified under oath that the Air Force was made aware of the danger approaching the American pilots. "What does it take to bring a proper reaction from the U.S. Air Force to Cuban MiGs heading for the Florida coast?" Mr. Burton asks. "We have a potentially serious breach of U.S. security which must be explained." This comes on the heels of a Miami Herald report Oct. 1 that revealed the Clinton administration in December 1994 tried to make sweet with the Fidel Castro regime by ending all CIA covert operations in Cuba. The paper also reported the sudden dismay of White House officials after it became clear Mr. Castro wasn't the soft touch they thought he was. In the hours following the murder of the four Brothers to the Rescue pilots, the Herald reported, Clinton officials even considered a cruise missile attack on the Havana base from which the Cuban MiGs took off. That idea obviously was shot down, too.

Inside prison walls

A fellow Florida prison inmate bludgeoned to death a convicted child killer, who was serving a 34-year sentence for the 1982 torture and starvation death of a five-year-old girl. Donald McDougall was killed Oct. 1 hours after he voluntarily left a protective isolation cell to reenter the general prison population. Said a prison spokeswoman: "Inmates have a code of honor ...for certain crimes. Even hardened criminals hate a child killer." In California, the serial killer known as the "Night Stalker" was married Oct. 3. Richard Ramirez, a professed devil worshiper, is on death row for sexually abusing and murdering 13 people. His bride: a 41-year-old magazine editor who said she fell for Mr. Ramirez 11 years ago after seeing his photo on TV when he was being hunted by police. n Foundation fraud The founder of a now-bankrupt foundation was charged Sept. 27 with defrauding hundreds of ministries, charities, and other non-profits in what prosecutors described as the largest charity fraud case in history. John G. Bennett Jr. faces 82 fraud counts in an alleged pyramid scheme that snookered a wide range of groups, but primarily affected evangelical organizations. The Foundation for New Era Philanthropy made a name for itself by promising non-profits that, if they would simply deposit funds with the foundation for six months, they would get double their money back through the generosity of a group of anonymous philanthropists. According to the indictment, the anonymous benefactors never existed, and New Era was a fraud right from its start in 1989. Prior to the foundation's sudden collapse last year, many non-profit groups actually did have their money doubled by New Era-courtesy of funds coming in from other groups that were signing up. After the collapse, some 80 Christian organizations banded together to help develop a plan for restoring money to those groups that had lost funds. That plan, which would restore up to 65 cents on the dollar, was approved in August by a bankruptcy judge. It is being appealed by several New York charities.

The privileges of office

The White House Oct. 1 claimed executive privilege in withholding from Congress a memorandum from FBI Director Louis Freeh to the president that some lawmakers believe is highly critical of the administration's policies on illegal drug use. Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole said the memo will show "how bad" the anti-drug effort has been-"so bad," he said, "they don't want to get the whole story out."

Takeoffs and landings

ValuJet Airlines, the discount carrier grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration after a deadly May crash in the Florida Everglades, returned to the air Sept. 30. The airline reinaugurated service with $19 one-way fares. Business was brisk. The same day, four-year-old Kiwi Air Lines shut down most of its routes and filed for bankruptcy protection. This summer, the FAA grounded four of Kiwi's jets for two months because of questions about pilot training and recordkeeping.

The zero hour

Just two hours before the start of Fiscal Year 1997, President Clinton signed into law Sept. 30 a $389 billion catch-all spending bill that funds nine Cabinet agencies-and contains all $6.5 billion of the extra spending demands the president made of congressional Republicans. "In real terms, it's a draw," said Robert Reischauer, former head of the Congressional Budget Office. "The total amount being appropriated is about what was appropriated last year adjusted for inflation. There is no significant reduction or addition to discretionary spending." Senate Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) considers significant the estimated $53 billion in discretionary spending Republicans have prevented Democrats from spending in the two years since the GOP won control of the Congress. Chump change, scoffed Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), who called the Republican spending bill "a remarkable retreat." What so amused the Democrats? The FY '97 spending total puts the federal government on a path to a $285 billion deficit by 2002, the year Republicans 12 months ago had projected they would achieve a balanced budget. It won't happen without stopping the automatic spending growth scheduled for Medicare and Social Security-issues on which $35 million in campaign commercials paid for by the AFL-CIO have hammered Republicans. (The GOP went to court Oct. 3 to demand the Federal Election Commission act on complaints the ads violate laws against using compulsory union dues to influence federal elections.) Besides the big deficits, Democrats didn't get everything they wanted. The bill included an immigration reform measure Senate liberals fought bitterly, a provision barring international family-planning aid from organizations that perform or promote abortion, and a $500,000 reimbursement for legal expenses for fired White House travel director Billy Dale.

Run it like a business

Hoping to further shake up Chicago's public schools, the city's school administration put 71 elementary schools and 38 high schools on academic probation Sept. 30. Fewer than 15 percent of the students at those schools scored at or above the national norm on standardized reading tests. Outside "management teams" will be brought in to figure out whether the schools can be improved or if they should be shut down. Earlier this year, new school CEO Paul Vallas instituted mandatory summer school for about 100,000 low-performing students and blocked the promotion of 1,500 students who couldn't meet reading requirements.

Challenging decency

U.S. military commissaries and base exchanges sell millions of dollars worth of pornographic magazines every year, a practice scheduled to end Dec. 22 when anti-porn legislation passed by the 104th Congress takes effect. Porn peddler Bob Guccione, publisher of Penthouse magazine, isn't taking that lying down. He announced Oct. 1 that he will file a federal lawsuit challenging the Military Honor and Decency Act. He claims it's unconstitutional.

Watery grave

A Peruvian airliner crashed into the waters of the Pacific Ocean Oct. 2, apparently killing all 70 on board. Seats and other debris were spread out for several miles. The pilot had reported a problem with the Boeing 757's navigational equipment within minutes after takeoff from Lima.

Beg your pardon

White House Whitewater spokesman Mark Fabiani Sept. 30 had no comment on a letter from 220 members of the House of Representatives (all but three of whom are Republicans) demanding that the president put up or shut up about Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr. The letter challenged Mr. Clinton to prove his charge that Whitewater felon Susan McDougal was being held in contempt of court because she was refusing to lie about him and Mrs. Clinton to please Mr. Starr. "This is an extremely serious charge about the integrity of Kenneth Starr," the letter noted. "If there is even a grain of truth to support this charge, you should produce that 'evidence' immediately or withdraw your claim." Mr. Clinton made the unsubstantiated charge in an interview a week ago with PBS's Jim Lehrer in which he also seemed to dangle the prospect of a presidential pardon before Ms. McDougal. For her part, the former Clinton business partner denied seeking a presidential pardon. In a jailhouse interview with CNN Oct. 3, Ms. McDougal said she "can't see how" the president could pardon her without hurting "his presidency and his place in history."

Unabomber update

Theodore Kaczynski was indicted Oct. 1 for the bombing death of a New Jersey advertising executive. It is the third murder charge facing Mr. Kaczynski, who is suspected of carrying out a nearly two-decade bombing campaign in protest of the modernization of American society. Last month, a federal prosecutor said investigators had found a series of journals in which Mr. Kaczynski admitted to carrying out each of the attacks.

More evidence on China

The international pro-life group Human Life International released photos and other evidence further documenting the deliberate starvation and neglect of children in Chinese orphanages. Steven Mosher, HLI's director of Asian affairs, charged that China's "state-run orphanages have become an adjunct of China's population control program," which restricts the number of children parents can have. Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch/Asia, a United States-based monitoring organization, reported that thousands of Chinese children die each year in Chinese orphanages as the result of an official policy known as "summary resolution." Under that policy, children are singled out for starvation to keep the orphanage population stable, the organization said

Good cop, bad cop

Before reporting to the White House for negotiations with PLO chief Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telegraphed his first punches on television. Mr. Netanyahu appeared on ABC's This Week with David Brinkley Sept. 29 to accuse Palestinian law-enforcement officials of inciting the worst West Bank violence since the 1967 Middle East war. As for the tourist tunnel under Muslim religious sites in the West Bank, which reopened that day, Mr. Netanyahu declared it "will always be open." In Washington Oct. 1, the Israeli leader shook hands with Mr. Arafat and the two met for hours together with Secretary of State Warren Christopher and President Clinton-to little effect. Said a spokesman for Mr. Christopher: "Serious differences remain." As the mini-summit ended in Washington, three days after Mr. Netanyahu on television criticized Mr. Arafat for failing to "police his police" on the West Bank, new rioting broke out on the outskirts of Hebron.

Extreme measures

An Iowa woman who wanted a baby is facing kidnapping and murder charges after allegedly shooting to death a single mother, Therese Lund, and taking her six-week-old child. The crime apparently was cold blooded. Police said Kimmi Hardy had faked a pregnancy for several months. When she called friends over for a shower after the "birth," the scheme began to unravel. One of the shower guests realized the baby was not a newborn and alerted authorities. The trial continued in Illinois in the case of three people accused of killing a woman and slicing the unborn child from her womb. Prosecutors say one of the defendants wanted to raise the child herself. The three also are charged with murdering two of the dead woman's older children because they witnessed the crime.