American Airlines to blame for Cali crash, says judge
     MIAMI (September 11, 1997 9:33 p.m. EDT) -- A federal judge
 Thursday found American Airlines guilty of willful misconduct in a
 1995 crash in Colombia that killed 159 people. The airline immedi-
 ately said it would appeal.
     U.S. District Judge Stanley Marcus said he struggled with the
 decision but concluded there was nothing for a jury to decide. He
 issued what is called a summary judgment ruling and canceled the
 trial.
     "Simply put, no reasonable jury could find that acts of the
 pilots of Flight 965 -- and in particular the pilots' decision to
 continue their descent at night from a grievously off-course posi-
 tion in mountainous terrain -- amounted to anything less than
 willful misconduct," the judge wrote.
     Mauricio Reyes, one of four survivors, said he was relieved,
     "I think the truth won in the end," said Reyes, now a 21-year-
 old University of Miami junior. "We haven't been able to go on with
 our lives because of this."
     American disputed the ruling and said it would appeal.
     "Neither the airline nor our flight crew intentionally took
 action that resulted in the accident," the Forth Worth, Texas-based
 airline said in a statement. "We regret that Judge Marcus' ruling
 will prevent us from presenting evidence to the jury that proves
 our pilots were clearly not guilty of willful misconduct."
     The crash happened when the Boeing 757, en route from Miami to
 Cali on Dec. 20, 1995, strayed from the planned path and flew into
 a mountain.
     Colombian investigators blamed the plane's crew in the disaster,
 which came after a series of mishaps in the cockpit. Pilots entered
 the wrong codes in a flight computer, which took the plane off
 track, then they failed to notice they were off course as they
 descended.
     American claims the flight computer was defective and is suing
 the companies that made and programmed it, Honeywell Air Transport
 Systems of Phoenix and Jeppesen Sanderson Inc. of Englewood, Colo.
     Relatives of six flight attendants killed in the crash won a
 similar decision last month. Marcus ruled there was enough proof
 of negligence on the part of the airline to avoid taking the
 question to a jury.
     Still left to decide is how much in damages American might have
 to pay.  That could take months because each case will have to go
 before individual juries unless settlements are made.
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      Five senators call on Clinton to veto B-2 bomber funding
     WASHINGTON (September 12, 1997 00:09 a.m. EDT) - Five U.S. sena-
 tors urged President Clinton on Thursday to use his new line-item
 veto powers to eliminate $331 million in the 1998 Pentagon budget
 for additional B-2 bombers.
     Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, Sen. Rick Santorum,
 a Pennsylvania Republican, and three other Democrats said they were
 working to scrap the funding during negotiations to reconcile the
 House and Senate defense spending bills.
     "If this provision is not dropped during the House-Senate con-
 ference, we urge you to eliminate it by using the line-item veto,"
 the five senators wrote in a letter dated Thursday.
     The federal government has already spent $44 billion to buy 21
 B-2 aircraft, and the $331 million is intended as a downpayment on
 nine additional bombers, at a total estimated cost of $27 billion,
 the senators wrote.
     "Additional expenditures for this unnecessary and exorbitantly
 expensive weapon system constitute a perfect example of wasteful
 government spending," they said in the letter.
     "It is precisely this type of expenditure Congress had in mind
 when it provided you with the line-item veto authority."
     The congresssional General Accounting Office recently leveled a
 critique at the bombers, concluding that they had great trouble
 maintaining their stealthiness under normal operating conditions,
 including adverse weather.
 -------------------------
      Former informant confesses to lying in Pan Am 103 case
     NEW YORK (September 11, 1997 7:45 p.m. EDT) - A former govern-
 ment informant pleaded guilty Thursday to perjury, admitting he con-
 cocted a story that a government drug agent allowed a bomb on board
 Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Scotland in 1988.
     Lester Coleman, 54, of Pensacola, Fla., pleaded guilty to five
 counts of perjury and faces up to five years in prison and a $1.25
 million fine.
     Reading from a prepared statement, Coleman admitted he had no
 basis for his account, which attracted considerable media attention
 in the wake of the tragedy.
     Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21,
 1988, killing 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground. Two
 Libyans have been indicted for the bombing, but Libya has refused
 to surrender them for trial.
     Passing himself off as an international security expert, Coleman
 had claimed a Drug Enforcement Administration agent was on board the
 flight. He said drug dealers in Lebanon and Cyprus took advantage of
 the DEA agent's access to the plane and put a bomb in the courier's
 luggage.
     "My motive for swearing to these false statements was to obtain
 money, to enhance my status and visibility as a consultant on inter-
 national security and terrorism and to get back at the DEA for fir-
 ing me," Coleman told U.S. District Judge Thomas Platt in federal
 court in Uniondale, New York.
     Coleman had identified a passenger, Khaled Nazir Jaafar, of
 Lebanon, as the courier. He said he recognized Jaafar from photo-
 graphs of victims as someone he had seen in DEA offices.
     "I had and have no basis, however, for stating that Khaled Nazir
 Jaafar was ever involved in drug smuggling, had anything to do with
 terrorists, or played any role, witting or unwitting, in getting a
 bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103," Coleman said in court.
     According to court papers, Coleman was an informant for the DEA
 in Cyprus until 1988 and for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency
 in Lebanon until 1986.
     Eventually both agencies terminated his service.
     Coleman had approached Pan Am lawyers with his story and it was
 through the Pan Am litigation that his version of the bombing came
 to light.
     Coleman was indicted in federal court in Brooklyn in 1993 but
 was living as a fugitive in Belgium and then Sweden.
     Swedish officials denied his application for asylum, and he
 eventually surrendered to U.S. authorities in Atlanta.
     He is due to be sentenced in November.
     Last year, he lost a libel case in London over a book he co-
 wrote, "Trail of the Octopus," which alleged a retired DEA agent
 was reponsible for security breaches that led to the bombing.
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