Across the Nation

General defends refueling in Yemen

WASHINGTON - The former Marine general who arranged for U.S. warships to refuel in Yemen defended his decision yesterday before a Senate panel, saying all ports in the region are "rats' nests ... for terrorists."

In the first hearing on last week's terrorist attack on the USS Cole that left 17 sailors dead, retired Gen. Anthony Zinni told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Yemeni coast is a "sieve" for terrorists, and that its port at Aden is the best of many undesirable locations to refuel.

Zinni, who headed the Central Command in 1998, when the contract to refuel Navy ships at Aden was negotiated, said some previously scheduled refueling stops there had been canceled due to terrorist threats.

But he said a U.S. presence in the Persian Gulf must be maintained to protect the economy in a region that produces more than half the world's oil. And he personally took responsibility for the decision to refuel at Aden, although he said it had been made in close consultation with security and intelligence officials.

On Oct. 12, a small boat carrying powerful explosives blew a giant hole in the USS Cole as it refueled in Aden harbor, killing 17 sailors, injuring three dozen and leaving lingering questions about protection of military personnel abroad.

Although the State Department recently reported that Yemen remains a haven for terrorists, Zinni said he is convinced the Yemeni government wants to work with the United States to combat terrorism.

He said he had not compromised security considerations in a bid to improve relations with Yemen, and argued that it's important to cooperate with Yemen so it doesn't become as problematic for the United States as such nations as Afghanistan, where Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, a prime suspect in the attack, is sheltered.

Clinton attacks Bush for clouding issues

WASHINGTON - In remarks laced with humor, sarcasm and trenchant partisan rhetoric, President Clinton yesterday departed from a planned speech on education and instead lit into the GOP and George W. Bush, accusing them of trying to "cloud the issues" and distort the administration's record.

Appearing before cheering congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill, Clinton brutally critiqued Bush's performance in his final debate with Vice President Al Gore on Tuesday night, saying at one point "I almost gagged" when Bush claimed credit for HMO legislation in Texas that he originally vetoed.

Clinton also blasted Republicans for dragging out year-end budget negotiations over education, Medicare, the minimum wage and a host of other issues. He threatened to force lawmakers to stay in town by signing temporary spending bills - necessary to keep the government open-lasting only one-day.

"Can you imagine a Democrat going home and running for re-election saying, 'Vote for me so that next year I can finish last year's business'?" Clinton said. "Now we wouldn't do that and we shouldn't let anybody do that. We need to stay here until we resolve this."

Clinton's comments, especially those about Bush, were among his most pointed of a campaign season in which he has largely stayed on the sidelines - at the request of the Gore campaign. The attack surprised even his own aides - some fretted it might anger the Gore camp - yet pleased congressional Democrats who have been unhappy with what some consider Gore's failure to draw sharp distinctions with the GOP ticket.

During an interview taped yesterday with ABC's Regis Philbin, Gore said that he hasn't conferred much with Clinton about his campaign.

"Because it's something that you really have to do on your own," Gore said. "It's a new time, with new challenges."

But some Democrats who attended the combination speech and pep rally praised Clinton for eloquently defining the differences between the two parties and suggested that the president could give an important boost to Gore and congressional Democrats in the final weeks of the campaign.

"To the extent he pokes fun at Bush, it helps Gore," said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., added: "We have missed the boat in every debate, every time Bush has said that (Clinton and Gore) haven't done anything in eight years. It's an incredible assertion. I think the president is extremely good at making clear what the facts are."

Florida Everglades restoration begins

WASHINGTON - The House yesterday approved the first phase of a $7.8 billion plan to restore the Florida Everglades, one of the largest such environmental projects in the United States.

More than half of the 300-mile-long Everglades ecosystem has been destroyed through decades of flood-control efforts that, while benefiting farms and new housing communities, disrupted the natural water flow. The legislation, part of a larger water resources bill, authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin a 36-year project to restore the natural flow of water into the Everglades.

The water resources bill was approved by the House, 394-14.

The Senate approved a similar version of the bill in September, virtually assuring that the Everglades restoration project will become law. But differences between the two bills must be reconciled.

The Everglades is the largest remaining tropical and subtropical wilderness in the United States. In 1948, however, Congress directed the Corps of Engineers to reroute the natural water flow to control flooding in southern Florida, which was then on the verge of a population boom. The work changed the balance of the ecosystem, threatening indigenous plants and animals with extinction.

Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., chairman of the subcommittee that drafted the House bill, said that it represented "our best hope to save the Everglades, to protect the egrets and alligators and to restore the balance between the human environment and the natural system in south Florida."

Under the legislation, the Corps of Engineers would work to restore more than 1.7 billion gallons of fresh water a day to the natural system - water currently lost to the sea.

Other provisions in the bill would authorize various flood control, waterway navigation and environmental restoration projects by the Corps of Engineers.