Brown and White Vol. 105 no. 36

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded m 1894 vol 105 no 36 friday march 13 1998 all the lehigh news first lecture examines role of precedence in law by alison reemer news writer the tresolini lecture series continued monday m sinclair auditorium with a speech given by howard whitcomb professor of political science entitled the role of precedent diver gent views whitcomb discussed land mark supreme court cases that had great significance m dealing with the idea and concept of precedence m the law he referred to such historically important cases as roe v wade booth v maryland and the watergate scandal he emphasized the importance of keeping abreast of the law the supreme court is a fasci nating institution whitcomb said one should be well advised to its decisions that affect our everyday lives jack lule chairperson of the department of journalism and communication enjoyed whit comb's interpretations a good point is that the supreme court is increasingly becoming politicized lule said professor whitcomb brought up many current supreme court cases and it shows that he really is an astute observer of the court he took over 100 years of history and brought it up to present time through examples and discussion the tresolini lecture series m law is held m honor of the late rocco j tresolini former chair person of lehigh's government department it was founded m 1978 and made possible by gifts from the class of 61 as well as other alumni and friends donald barry professor of political science introduced whitcomb at the lecture barry is a co-author with whitcomb of a book entitled the legal foundations of public b&w photo by vicky steel political science professor howard whitcomb speaks about landmark supreme court cases as part of the tresoolini lecture series which began m 1978 expert addresses iraqi conflict by chris litman news writer iraq is not america's problem said phyllis bennis a middle east expert who spoke about the current united states-iraq conflict at a lecture tuesday evening m sinclair auditorium the speech was sponsored by the visiting lecturers committee and the progressive student alliance bennis a fellow from the institute for policy studies m washington d.c is a renowned writer lecturer and consultant she has published several books the most recent entitled calling the shots how washington dominates today's u.n she has appeared on television networks such as cnn cnbc and abc the book states that the united states should not impose its own agenda upon the united nations m dealing with iraq we have accepted the idea that the u.s as the sole super power has the right to decide what crisis zones around the world it is going to respond to take advantage of deal with and which ones it will refuse bennis said sanctions are still strangling the iraqi economy bennis said the sanctions have quite clearly not done very much to stymie this regime this tyrannical dictatorial horrifying regime m baghdad she said but they have done a great deal to devastate the population bennis said there is a confusion on the history between the united states and iraq her opinion is that while american policy makers are correct m saying that saddam hussein is a dictator and has led a regime which has been a terrible government for the population of iraq and for neighboring countries m the middle east they are wrong m thinking that hussein only became a problem when iraq invaded kuwait m 1990 instead bennis pointed out the united states backed iraq during the late 1970s and 1980s supplying intelligence and weapons m the war against iran the u.s effort was to keep both sides tied up m the war fighting each other bennis said iran had moved ahead and appeared to be winning and it was m response to that the u.s moved quite aggressively to begin providing additional military assistance she also discussed a series of congres sional hearings m 1994 that revealed the role of american companies m providing the basic materials for creating biological and chemical weapons during the 1980s these are not rogue companies smug gling stuff out of the united states secret ly she said these were companies that were within the letter and spirit of the law that were licensed by the commerce department she referred to one company m particu lar m linking u.s corporations and licens ing by the government to supporting the iraqi military the american type culture collection m rockville maryland was one of the main suppliers to the military forces of the regime of saddam hussein throughout the 1980s including after the iraqi military use of chemical weapons against its enemies m 1988 bennis said she emphasized how the commerce department officially licensed and autho rized the transactions buddhist artifacts unveiled by christine hartmann news writer monks from atlanta chanted at the opening ceremony of the mystical arts of tibetan buddhism display at the bayer galleria of rare books m linderman library monday the monks accompany the display which comes from their monastery m atlanta on its tour of the country all of the pieces which compose the exhibit were part of the original collection of the dalai lama a sacred figure m the tibetan buddhist reli gion who is considered to be the divine ruler the artwork will be on display march 9 to march 16 after which time it will contin ue its tour around the country see whitcomb page 6 see bennis page 6 see mystical page 6 hhhhkmahhhhii humbi nwfiwl quick 7 the wrestling team life path assists is there equality j^v m §\\* i hrn prepares for the mentally retarded between the sexes at \ ncaa championships individuals lehigh one-quarter of all see page 20 see page 3 see page 7 h^matbod i^jhej sports 18-20 news 1-6 lifestyle 7-14 located m the feet 19 police reports 4 culture corner 8 4m j ifc 4 matter of opinion 13 *™ nmi r v i c r j source strange but true web page i ii t^m^imina-^i^-j manhel 5 bvents guide 14 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