a. Castlégar News July 10, 1988 DIGGING STARTS . . . There is a new tenant at the Castlegar Industrial Park and work has begun on a warehouse. Purnel Distributors Ltd. of Castlegar is currently expanding and will move onto the industrial park site when work on the warehouse is completed. CostiewsPhoto by Bonne Morgan Business building in par By CasNews Staff A local business has begun excavating on a recently pur- chased lot in the Castlegar In- dustrial Park. Purnel Distributors Ltd. plans to build a warehouse and office ‘on the site located in the middle of the eity-owned-park. The Purnel Distributors is an expanding company which has been in the community for about 10 years. The latest sale makes for a total of four lots sold so far in the near-empty park. The subdivi- sion comprises 37 lots on some 21 hectares (51 acres) of land, lo- cated 10 minutes south of the city centre on the route to Trail. John Kazakoff of Purnel Dis- tributors told the Castlegar News he will spend approximat- ely $150,000 to make the site suitable for his projected needs and hopes to be able to move in by early fall of this year. The company is currently located on Columbia Avenue at the south end of Castlegar. Survivor search continues Hundreds of workers led by a special mine rescue team struggled through the night, hoping to detect more sur- vivors in a massive pile of rubble nearly two days after a crowded department store collapsed. Authorities said at least 16 people were killed and 47 injured in the dis- aster,. But six survivors, four of them children, were pulled from the debris of the Amigo Store on Friday as rescuers endured heat and de- hydration. Meanwhile, an official told the Dallas News that clogged drainage holes allowed rain to collect on the store's flat roof, possibly overloading it. The roof collapsed during a tor rential rain storm Thursday after noon. “The roof is not designed to carry all that weight,” said Bronnsville “It's a caredy and one that may happen again at any time.” Police Sgt. Dean Poos said work ers using sensitive television camera equipment Friday thought they heard noises, including tapping sounds from within the rubble, and were encouraged they would find more survivors: “Last night (Thursday) we didn’t think there were any more people alive down there, and we pulled out six today,” Poos said Friday. “So there still is hope that we will be able to find others trapped in air pockets.” A seven-member unit of the Pitts burgh based Special Medical Response Team, which assists in mine disasters, arrived late Friday and began burrowing through tun nels dug in the pile of concrete, broken cinderblocks, shattered glass Neo-Nazis in MOSCOW (REUTER) — A blond man in his early 20s — wearing a swastika armband — directed his blue eyes at the TV camera and said: “Only the strong and mentally nor. mal should have the right to bear chidren.” He was one of three members of a Soviet neo-Nazi group shown on tel evision in the early hours of Saturday morning on the late night show Vzg: lyad (Look). “This country is threatened — as in the world — by over-population,” the group spokesman said “Women who are not strong or pure enough are giving birth to children with defects and the nation is becoming weaker.” Neo-Nazi groups are generally dis missed in Western Europe as a lunatic fringe. They are regarded as anathema in the Soviet Union, where memories of the Second World War and Soviet casualties estimated at more than 20 million are held as sacred. The weekly Vzglyad program en joys a huge following. It is an emblem of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost (openness), cov ering issues long regarded in the Soviet Union as taboo. These have included programs on homelessness, drug addicts and prostitution. It was not clear where the five- minute Vzglyad interview was held, although the program said similar groups had formed in Leningrad and the Siberian city of Irkutsk. SPEAKS OUT The program gave no names, but the group scorned offers to be shown in silhouette. “We have nothing to hide,” the spokesman said. Under Soviet law, members of such groups would be liable to pros ecution under an article that safe. guards equality of rights of nat- ionalities and races. The emergence of neo-Nazis was highlighted last month in an article in the satirical weekly Krokodil, en. titled Fuehrers of the Fontanka — an area of Leningrad The article said there has been growing evidence of activities by such groups in recent years, includ. ing attacks on Communist Youth League activists, desecration of his torical monuments and flaunting of Nazi insignia and uniforms. It said that on April 29 last year, Look for animals while on road It’s early summer in the Koot enays. Wild animals are emerging from the forests and can be seen in abundance along the roadsides. Un fortanately, they don't always stay there. Animals on the highways are a common road hazard this time of year. Although there are warning devices, such as deer whistles that scare the animals away, the best prevention is safe-driving behavior. “Many wildlife-vehicle accidents can be prevented,” reports Mavis Roskell, Community Programs Man. ager for the Insurance Corporation of B.C.'s Traffic Safety Education de- partment. “I've seen the statistics that show human factors are the major contributor in 26 per cent of animal road-deaths.” There are three basic preventive measures motorists can take: watch out for animals on the roadway, especially in the evening and early morning; slow down. Unsafe speed is a common ingredient to these ac cidents; and if necessary, stop your vehicle. They will soon be out of your way, Ministry of Transportation and Highways statistics show that animal road-deaths are particularly preva lent in the Kootenays. For deer, the number of accidents peak now, during the early summer months, when their young are born and are using the valley bottom lands as a “nursery.” Accidents will happen. Motorists and twisted steel. The collapse of the three-storey store trapped an undetermined num ber of people, many of whom were seeking shelter from the rain. The cause of the collapse remained unknown. Bronswville Mayor Ygn- acio Garza said investigations were being launched by the city, the build ing’s insurance companyjand the fed- eral Occupation Safety ‘and Health Administration. Garza said the rainstorm may have been a factor, but other factors may also have played a role. “We have a report from witnesses that a bolt of lightning struck behind the building and hit some transformers and per- haps knocked them down,” Garza said. Minimal constructiva standards and inconsistent inspections also contributed to the tragedy, other of- USSR the birthday of Adolf Hitler, eight youths descended on Kronstadt, a naval base near Leningrad closely linked with the 1917 Bolshevik Rev olution, “daubed houses on Com- munist Street with swastikas, and painted Heil Hitler slogans.” In a separate incident, students raised a Nazi banner on a pole used for the Soviet flag on state oc casions, Krokodil reported. The article blamed the “era of stagnation,” the period under the late Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, for allowing Nazi ideals to be fos. tered in the minds of today's young people. Makayev passes away Mike H. Makayev of Brilliant passed away at the age of 81 Wed nesday, July 6, 1988. Mr. Makayev was born Oct. 6, 1906 at Kamsack, Sask. At the age of four he moved with his parents to Ootis. chenia where he lived until 1930. On March 29, 1929, he married Annie Cheveldave at Ootischenia and one year later they moved to Brilliant where they have lived since. Mr. Makayev worked in sawmills and just after World War II he began working for Comincayas a carpenter retiring in 1970. He was a lifetime member of the Union of Spiritual Communities and a very active member of the Brilliant community. He enjoyed gardening, carpentry and looking after his very large orchard. He is survived by his wife Annie; son, Mike of Kamloops; three daugh ters, Marie Koftinoff of Prince George, Anne Chursinoff and Doris Aussant, both of Castlegar; 12 grandchildren; eight great-grandchil dren; one brother, Peter Makeiff of Ootischenia; three sisters, Annie Jensen and Molly Kinakin of Castle- gar and Lucy Novak of Shoreacres. Funeral services were held Friday and Saturday at the Bi tural Centre with burial Brilliant Cemetery who are involved in wildlife are urged to file a report with police as soon as it is possible. Funeral arr were under the direction of the Castlegar Fu- neral Chapel ficials said. “That old store was nothing more than a stack of blocks,” said Kermit Cromack, Cameron County's tax as- sessor-collector, “This was bound to happen sooner or later.” LeROY GRADS ALAN LeROY . Science degree Alan LeRoy, son of Dr. Marvin and Caron LeRoy has received his Bat- chelor of Science degree from the University of Waterloo in Ontario. He was a 1984 graduate of Stanley Humphries secondary school and also attended Selkirk’ College. He will continue his education towards a Doctor of Optometry at Pacific Uni- versity in Forest Grove, Oregon this* fall Train safety investigated VANCOUVER (CP) — The B.C. coroner's service will investigate SkyTrain safety procedures after a Burnaby women fell between two train cars Thursday and died of mas- sive head injuries as the train began moving. Coroner Mary Lou Merner said Friday the investigation — re viewing safety inside and outside the automated driverless trains — will } take four to six weeks. Lori Ann Gabourie, 27, stepped off a train at the B.C. Place Stadium station and apparently lost her bal- ance, falling into a metre-wide open- ing between the cars before being dragged by the train, Merner said. “Her death was caused when the train moved,” she said. Merner said the women was on medication for a neurological dis- order. She was prone to seizures and loss of balance. “She was a creative, kind, beau- tiful girl,” Gabourie’s mother, Evelyn said of her daughter who moved to the Vancouver area from Kelowna, about seven years ago. “She was unable to work because of her seizures, but she wanted to be independent and she did really well.” Witness Philip Beck said he tried to find an emergency stop button after he heard a cry for help. PUSHED STRIP He pushed the yellow emergency strip inside a train car, thinking it would stop the train from leaving the station, but he learned after talking with SkyTrain officials that the emergency strip only alerts Sky Train staff there is a problem aboard a train. “There are certain things you just can't prevent,” said B.C. Transit spokesman George Stroppa who noted there are two emergency stop buttons at every station platform in clearly-marked cabinets. The stop buttons trigger the emergency braking system of trains entering and leaving stations but the 600-volt power rail remains acti vated. The emergency cabinets also con- tain telephones for calling the Sky- Train control centre which randomly monitors all stations with 212 closed circuit TV cameras. Trains are also equipped with yellow “emergency alarm strips” above windows and an emergency intercom inside cars. Gabourie was the fourth person to die on the transit system in three years. In August 1985, six months before SkyTrain began révenue service, a 15-year-old boy was struck and killed by a test train while walking along the tracks. Last September, a 56-year-old woman committed suicide by leaping in front of a train and a 23-year-old man died last Christmas Day when he was hit by a train while trying to elude SkyTrain security. Environmental effort no good OSLO (REUTER) — Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brund- tland, hosting a United Nations meeting on the environment, said today the UN was not doing enough to combat the threats to the world’s environment. “Many of the organizations rep- resented here have been active in the field of environment and develop- ment for a long time,” she said at the start of a two-day conference at- tended by UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar and the heads of nearly all the UN agencies. “It is clear, however that the combined present efforts are not sufficient.” Brundtland called for closer co- ordination among UN organizations in order to streamline their acti- vities. The Norwegian prime minister is the author of a year-old UN repert, entitled Our Common Future, which is being used as a basis for this weekend's conference, the first time the UN leadership has met outisde New York. The central theme of the report is the concept of so-called sustainable development, an economic system which increases the world's re- sources rather than depleting them. SETS TONE Perez de Cuellar set the tone for the conference on Friday, calling for a new chapter in the world bodys approach to environmental _pro- grams. “We need the human touch, not just the theoretical touch,” he told a news conference. Perez de Cuellar made veiled erit- icism of his colleagues at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, describing their approach to Third World problems as too theor-. etical. r “They are like doctors who have the-Same prescription for all ills. (But) each country is different, so their problems must be treated dif- ferently,” he said. July 10, 1968 _ Castlégar News a3 Disaster shows changes needed in oil rig design ABERDEEN, Scotland (CP) — The world’s worst oil rig disaster shows major design changes are needed on offshore oil platforms, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Occidental Petroleum chairman Armand Hammer agreed. y Seventeen bodies were recovered after Occiden- tal’s Piper Alpha rig blew up and burned in the North Sea Wednesday night. Another 149 workers, including two Canadians, were missing and presumed dead. An Aberdeen police spokesman confirmed today the Canadians listed as “dead or missing” were Michael Serink and Les Morris. Rescuers said they had abandoned hope for the missing, and a coast guard spokesman said the search for survivors ended Friday. “Only vessels passing the platform are carrying out a cursory search,” the police spokesman said today. Serink, 26, of Calgary, a geologist specializing in computers, would have been on the night shift at the time of the explosion, his father Andy Serink said earlier. Morris, 38, was. born in Calgary and had been working in the North Sea for approximately 12 years, his father George Morris said in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press from his son's home in Aberdeen. He had worked for Bawden International Ltd., a said Oceii ing the equivalent of $2.05 million Cdn mm a en fund for the injured and the bereaved. The British government matched the figure and the European Community added $1.1 million. Hammer, 90, told a news conference after meeting with Thatcher in this east Scottish port city Friday night: “Mrs. Thatcher thinks, and we think, that when we complete our inquiry and the government completes theirs, it may very well be that the living quarters for the men may have to be removed from the precarious position they are in.” Hammer said living quarters and production facilities probably would remain on the same platform, but would be separated instead of adjacent as at present. DIED SCREAMING Survivor Harry Calder, 35, said 100 men died screaming for help, trapped in the living quarters after they survived the initial explosion. The quarters were directly above the rig’s gas compression chamber, where Occidental officials say they think a gas leak caused the blast on the 34,000-tonne rig about 200 kilometres off the Scottish coast. In a statement released in London, Occidental confirmed British news reports that the rig’s gas Calgary-based oil for app’ the past five years, his father added. His father stressed the family did not wish to reveal any further details. “We don't have anything to say,” his father said. Oil troubleshooter Paul (Red) Adair flew by helicopter over the still-burning rig Friday and may try to board it today, an Occidental spokesman said. Occidental called in Adair, 73, to help stop the chamber had previous problems, but it said the prdblems were minor, were corrected and had no bearing on Wednesday's disaster. Hammer said the six Occidental employees who survived and the families of 31 who died would receive compensation worth about $204,000 each, plus lifetime i and O. will fix later for the employees of 25 contractors, including the two Canadians who worked for different Calgary-based continuing gas leaks, end sporadic losi: and put out the fire that persisted in the burned-out skeleton of the Piper Alpha. Adair, who is based in Houston, gained fame by capping oil wells burning out of control. “What happened here, God only knows,” he told reporters. “But it’s the worst thing I've ever seen.” Hammer, Thatcher, Prince Charles and his wife Diana met some of the 64 survivors and families of the dead on Friday. About 120 workers or British Petroleum's West Sole gas platform in the North Sea resigned Friday, saying they were concerned about safety. They said access from the living quarters to evacuation positions on one platform was difficult. British Petroleum said in a statement: “We are regularly inspected and have to meet the regulations. If we did not come up to standard we would not be able to , continue producing.” Mulroney case dropped MONCTON, N.B. (CP) — No charges will be laid because of a May 7 incident in which Mila Mulroney was injured during a labor demonstration, Moncton police said in closing their investigation of the matter. A police news release said 200 people were interviewed in the investigation which verified that Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's wife was struck during the incident, but Crown prosecutors recommended against charges. No witnesses could identify who struck Mrs. Mulroney with a blunt object and “it cannot be established conclusively that the blow was intentionally inflicted,” said the release. Fort gets funds CRANBROOK (CP) — The British Columbia government has come up with $242,000 for improvements at Fort Steele Heritage Park near this southeastern B.C. city. Municipal Affairs Minister Rita Johnston said in a speech at the : park that the money will be used to re-create turn-of-the-century _ bakery and move a pub. Drought dries donations WINNIPEG (CP) — The effects of the drought that has gripped the Prairies this spring could be felt in Ethiopia and other famine-stricken African countries, an official with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank says. Last year, Western Canadian farmers donated 11,000 tonnes of wheat to the Winnipeg-based organization, but executive director Bert Loewen is worried the unusually low harvest predicted for 1988 will cut into the amount of available for donations this year. Policeman fired MONTREAL (CP) — Allan Gosset, the Montreal police constable who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager last fall, was fired from the police force by chief Oland Bourget. Bourget said he accepted the recommendations of a police dis-- ciplinary committee in dismissing the 16-year police veteran, Gosset, 38, shot Anthony Griffin, 19, in the forehead outside a, west-end police station last Nov. 11 after the youth had obeyed an order to stop fleeing custody. Deaths increase ATHENS (AP) — The death toll from a Greek heat wave which began six days ago rose to 31 Friday and officials said 40-degree- plus temperatures sent more than 3,000 people to hospitals. The National Centre for Emergency Help said 3,143 people went to hospital outpatient clinics with heat related problems and 558 were admitted, most-of them with heart and breathing problems. A centre spokesman said Friday six people died of heat stroke during the night. Coroner Nikos Benardis reported another 10 heat-related deaths, bringing the total to 31. Poison victims wait NEW DELHI (REUTER) — The Indian government asked the Supreme Court on Friday to overturn a ruling reducing compensation to victims of the world’s worst industrial accident, government sources said. U.S.-based Union Carbide, whose pesticide factory at Bhopal leaked poison gas in December 1984 killing 2,500 people and injuring some 200,000, was ordered to pay interim compensation of $270 million US last December. In April the state high court cut this to $192 million. The Indian ~ government, acting on behalf of the victims, petitioned the Supreme Court to order payment in full. No relief has yet been paid to the victims, and no date been set for a Supreme Court hearing. North on Trial WASHINGTON (AP) — The judge in the Iran-Contra case has ordered fired White House aide Oliver North to stand trial Sept. 20 and ordered prosecutors to give the defence any secret d S.S. Moyie gets $175,000 grant The federal government has re- |. cently contributed $175,000 alee further di the sternwheeler 8.8. Moyie. Kootenay West-Revelstoke MP Bob Brisco announced recently that the Canadian Parks Service will contribute the funds over a two-year period provided the Village of Kalso and the Kootenay Lake Historical Society can match that sum. “Tt is through the extraordinary efforts of the people of Kaslo, a community of only 800 people who have already managed to raise close to their required share of $175,000, ~ that this vessle will be saved and with it an important part of our history,” Brisco said. “The S.S. Moyie project is an excellent exam- ple of the Canadian Parks Service working in cooperation with other heritage conservation groups in Canada.” The 90-year-old sternwheeler is currently dry-docked on Kootenay Lake at Kaslo and both the village and the society have been working hard to raise the funds necessary to restore the vessel, The 8.8. Moyie is the oldest of five such vessels left in Canada and plied B.C. rivers and lakes from 1898 to 1957 before being taken out of service. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada has identified the Moyie to be of national historic sig- nificance. Under the Canadian Parks Service's national cost-sharing pro- gram, funds are made available for the preservation and restoration of sites of outstanding historical sig- nificance as judged by the national board. Saved from the wreckers by the Kaslo Board of Trade, the Moyie has been maintained for the past quarter century by the Kootenay Lake His- torical Society. The society will ad- minister and manage the implemen- tation of the interim stabilization work. Beer prices expected to rise “HALIFAX (CP) — If brewers weren't forced to buy their barley from the Canadian Wheat Board, they'd be in better shape to avoid steep price increases brought on by drought and other circumstances, says the chairman of the Brewers Association of Canada. “What we'd like to do is get away from the wheat board which is not it’s not benefitting the brewing in. dustry,” Derek Oland said. “All Canadian brewers have to buy from the wheat board and it’s prices seem to be always above the world price.” Oland, president of Moosehead Breweries, Canada's fourth largest brewer, said consumers can expect an increase of $1 per case of 12 beer within months because of the drought in Western Canada. The raw material of beer is malting barley, and tight supplies of it have pushed the Canadian Wheat Board price up to $315 per tonne from $207 in May. If brewers could buy barley from other countries at the world price, such increases would be less, Oland said. “Everybody uses a portion of barley and corn, so it's the whole brewing market.” Oland said the effect of the rising barley price is cushioned by the fact that brewers have existing barley contracts that extend into the future from three to 12 months. “The wheat board is honoring those contracts so the impact won't hit us until the fall or maybe early January,” he said. “But with $300-a-tonne prices we'll have to raise prices.” Oland said he doesn’t expect the free-trade deal to change the situ- ation,-at least_in the long run. “There is a complex formula in the deal that may level the price out in the long-term but I don't think it’s going to help much.” Vancouver whale fails rabbit test VANCOUVER (CP) — Her hor- mones say she's pregnant, but no- body is sure whether Bjossa-will be the first killer whale in Canada to have a baby in captivity this fall. “There have been false alarms in other (killer whales),” said spokes- man Stefani Hewlett, of the Van- couver Public Aquarium. “(But}she’s got mates and she's the right age so some of us are hopeful.” Hewlett said blood samples taken from Bjossa have revealed her prog- showing North acted with higher authority. U.S. district Judge Gerhard Gesell ruled that during a closed hearing earlier this week North d that highly iti documents are relevant to defend charges that he conspired to illegally divert U.S.-Iran arms-sale profits to the Nicaraguan rebels. Landslide hits China PEKING (REUTER) — At least 41 people were killed when a torrent of mud and rocks hit a town in a Tibetan area of northwest China, China’s official news agency said. The Wednesday landslide, caused by heavy rains, demolished houses and destroyed power supply installations in the town of Jone, an area populated by many Tibetans in Gansu province. Police and medical teams were carrying out rescue work, the agency said. A local official was quoted as saying 10,000 people were affected by the disaster. Flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains have killed at least 76 people in the neighboring province of Sichuan. Divers continue search NEW DELHI (AP) — Divers retrieved seven more bodies today from a train that derailed on a bridge and tumbled into a lake. Officials said 97 people were dead and 50 still missing. Rescue officials said the missing passengers are believed to be inside a submerged railway car that landed on its roof when it plunged into the lake. Divers were trying to cut the structure open yesterday. Tiger mauls woman BOTHELL, WASH. (AP) — A woman was critically injured when a tiger attacked and bit her and carried her three metres in its mouth at a wild game farm near this Seattle suburb, authorities said. Clara Frobig, 40, was listed in critical condition today following surgery for severe wounds to the head, neck and shoulder. Cats getting AIDS COLOGNE (REUTER) — West German animal doctors have. discovered a virus resembling AIDS in cats but their owners are in no danger of infection, a Cologne newspaper said Friday. The Stadt-Anzeiger quoted several veterinarians as saying increassing numbers of cats were suffering from a virus resembling AIDS and medication had no effect. “ eal Fanny Adams Police file The driver of a motor home fell asleep at the wheel and drove off the Alberta vehicle which was travelling east on highway 3 approximately 18 kilometres west of Castlegar sus- tained $18,000 damages. There was a total of four injuries caused by the accident. The most serious was a broken leg. John Field is charged with failing to keep to the right-hand side of the road. Court news In Castlegar provincial court this week, Dianna Kootnikoff was fined $400 for driving without due care and attention. * 6 -« Sammy Lattanzio was also fined $100 for driving without due care and attention. ° Tourist alert ee rn VANCOUVER (CP) — Tourist Alert issued Saturday by the RCMP. The following persons, believed travelling in British Columbia, are asked to call the person named for an urgent personal message: Phillip Innes Fraser of Prince George, call home (collect) Mrs. Helmut Karpf of Germany, Charlie Clayes of Slave Lake, Alta., call home Dan Schmode of Slave Lake, call Gail or Desi. esterone level is higher than normal. But she added while high proges- terone may be the result of preg- nancy, there are other possible causes. “When I see her start to bulge in the right places I'll be prepared to say the progesterone level is a good indication she's pregnant,” said Hew- Tett. MILL STARTS UP . . . The ional Develop- Reg ment Association and ied Federal Business De clegrtont Bank assist The di in funding a Slocan mi d Con- centrator ore processing mill in Slocan has started up. (from left) Wayne Schweitzer, KREDA, Bob Brisco, MP for Kootenay West- Revelstoke and Jon Perrett, president of Silver Ridge Resources Inc. Slocan mill back in operation The Standard Concentrator ore processing mill in Slocan started up officially June 29. The mill—formerly known as the Ottawa Mill — has been extensively refurbished and of the total expend- itures made to complete the facility, bank debts of $230,000 in govern- ment-guaranteed loans were incur- red by Silver Ridge Resources which is running the mill, said the com- pany’s news release. Both the Kootenay Regional Em- D and the Federal Business Develop- ment Bank assisted in funding the mill improvements. The mill directly employs 14 people with a further eight jobs being created at the Standard Mine in Silverton. Although the mill's primary function is to process silver, lead and zinc ore from the Standard Mine, it will also start processing copper-gold concentrate from North- air’s Willa Project near Slocan. Forty-seven people attended the ploy opening at the mill site. Defence system tests questioned WASHINGTON (AP) — The Aegis air defence system, used by the cruiser Vincennes last week to shoot down an Iranian passenger jet was never thoroughly tested before the U.S. navy began deploying it ays a classified report by the General Ac- counting Office. The report, as described by con- gressional sources, found the ability of the Aegis to discriminate among various targets was never ade- quately proven. The report was begyn long before last Sunday's incident, in which the Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655, thinking it was an Iranian F-14 fighter jet. All 290 people aboard the commercial plane were lost. Pentagon officials are reviewing information that led the Vincennes's skipper, Capt. Will Rogers, to have his ship fire missiles at the plane in the Strait of Hormuz. They have said the Aegis system aboard the Vin- cennes was not malfunctioning. In an interview with the Portland Oregonian, Representative Denny Smith (R-Ore.), an outspoken critic of the Aegis system when it was. being debated in Congress in 1983, criti- cized former Navy Secretary John Lehman for moving too quickly on the Aegis. ‘OVERSELL PROGRAM’ Smith said Lehman and Admiral James Watkins, former chief of naval operations, “oversold this program to themselves, to the navy and to the public. This is a public-relations coup, not a technological coup.” Smith disputed the navy's claim that the $500-million Aegis system was built to detect and follow 200 or more targets at a time. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze said today the U.S. downing of an Iranian airliner in the Persian Gulf was dramatic proof of what Washington's policy of building up tensions can lead to. It was the highest-level official Soviet comment to date on last Sunday's disaster, in which the cruiser USS Vincennes shot down an Iran Air Airbus. Shevardnadze met in Moscow with U.S. Ambassador Jack Matlock at Matlock's request to discuss various regional issues, the official Tass news agency said. Commenting on the airliner’s destruction, Shevardnadze said, “This was not an accident, but dramatic evidence showing what a policy from positions of strength and of building up tensions can lead to.” Shevaradnadze also repeated the Kremlin's demand that all foreign warships withdraw from the Persian Gulf. The Soviets contend such a concen- tration of military might increase the danger of conflict. Earlier in Washington, Pentagon officials reacted with caution to a statement by Iran's military chief that Tehran will not retaliate violently against the United States. “I hope he speaks for everybody in Iran, but who knows?” one Pentagon official said after Friday's statement by Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in Tehran. ‘It seems to be a shift away from threats that we U.S. policy criticized Meanwhile, the United States sent condolences on Friday to the six countries other than Iran whose nationals were among the 290 victims. SENT MESSAGES White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said messages of sympathy were dispatched to Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, India, Yugoslavia and Italy. The Reagan administration sent a similar message to Iran on Sunday expressing “deep regret” over the incident. But the State Department said Friday there had been no reply. A U.S. naval investigation into the disaster continued, both in the gulf and at naval facilities in Washington where experts were analysing electron ic tapes from the Vincennes, but no definite answers toa host of unanswered questions were expected for at least two weeks. President Ronald Reagan, meanwhile, said he had not yet reached a decision on possible compensation for the victims families. “All of that’s under consideration,” Reagan told reporters when asked about the compensation issue at a brief appearance in the White House press room to comment on Friday's drop in the U.S. unem ployment rate. Tehran's decision not to retaliate against Washington for shooting down the Airbus is aimed at gaining international support in its war against Iraq, said diplomats in the Iranian capital. have been hearing all week. If it is true, we wel: it,” said another of the officials, who asked not to be identified. But Reagan administration officals have said that U.S. military forces in the gulf remain on a high state of alert. Rafsanjani said any action by Iran could turn world opinion against his country, but he expressed horror at a U.S. poll which said most Americans believed the captain of the cruiser Vincennes acted properly on Sunday when he blasted the A300 Airbus from the sky, killing 290 people aboard the plane. The Pentagon said the airliner was sending a signal indicating it was an Iranian F-14 fighter jet, but Rafsanjani said if Americans “approve of this crime, they are no longer human.” the pari y speaker and acting commander-in-chief of Iran's armed forces, said at Friday prayers at Tehran University that Iran would not risk alieniating world opinion. Instead he ordered all able-bodied men to report to the war front as a way to revenge the victims of the downing of the plane as it flew across the southern Persian Gulf from Bandar Abbas toward Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Diplomats said ghat by refusing to retaliate, Iran hoped to be seen acting responsibly and so gain diplomatic momentum in its eight-year war with Traq. It hoped to persuade the United Nations to grant its minimum condition for ending the war with Iraq — a UN condemnation of Iraq as the aggressor in the gulf war.