Click on the link here for Audio Player – CBS World News Roundup – October 15, 1994 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection
After some 1100 days in exile, deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was heading back to Port-au Prince to resume his presidency after being overthrown by a military coup led by Raoul Cedras.
On this October 15th in 1994, he was readying for his arrival in the Haitian capital, and the crowds were readying for him too.
They were celebrating in the streets. Just how long it was going to last this time was anybody’s guess.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world was quietly spinning. A threatened pall over Middle-East peace efforts was brewing since word of the death of an Israeli soldier at the hands of radical Islamist kidnappers during an abortive rescue mission surfaced. However, Israeli officials vowed to continue the process. Hamas, on the other hand threatened to kidnap more Israelis.
Further to the East, Secretary of Defense William Perry, addressing a group of Marines on an Amphibious Assault ship USS Tripoli, said the rapid response to an Iraqi troop buildup on the Kuwaiti border saved the world from a second Persian Gulf War. And because of that, it was looking like the Marines would be back home for Christmas. That was with the proviso Saddam Hussein didn’t do anything else in the coming weeks. The Kuwaitis were still angling for a more sweeping solution, and were pressing for a military plan to force Iraqi troops out of Southern Iraq. They rejected a Soviet peace plan and had budgeted $10 billion for American troops to stick around. They must’ve thought we were in the mercenary business.
The Soviet Peace plan for Iraq caused irritation at The White House, with President Clinton telling the Washington Post he was ready to do whatever it took to remove the Iraqi threat, but hadn’t decided on military action, and the Russians weren’t helping matters. Moscow denied they were trying to remove sanctions against Iraq. The whole thing was slated to go before the UN Security Council for a vote.
The matter of Henry Cisneros was the object of a preliminary hearing at the Justice Department. The investigation involved payments to a former mistress and whether Cisneros mislead Federal agents who asked about the payments when he was being interviewed for an appointment to the Clinton cabinet.
Speaking of the Justice Department – 65 more Federal Prosecutors were being sent to California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico in an effort to crack down on illegal aliens. The move came in the midst of criticism and lawsuits from states that said their taxpayers had been unfairly forced to pay the cost of illegal migration.
And despite the previous week’s recall of suspected cases of Salmonella poisoning in three dozen states, Schwan’s Ice Cream was linked to 400 confirmed cases of the disease.
Just another day on Planet Earth with that, and so much more going on, this October 15th in 1994 as presented by The CBS World News Roundup.
