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duilytrojan.com
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Vol. CXL1V, No. 34
CIA members analyze some of the key issues causing insurgency abroad
Los Angeles buses and trains may not run if contract negotiations between mechanics and MTA are not settled
By SUSHMA SUMMMANIAN
Staff Writer
Improving the worldwide econo my will reduce discontent among insurgent*, but cultural differences and historical power struggles between countries keep them from cooperating, said members of the CIA Monday afternoon.
The four GA agents discussed their world views on terrorism, for eign affairs, drug trade and econom icsi
It was interesting, they all were experts on different aspects in the world, and their ideas all converged on one thing,” said-Robert Kashfian, a senior majoring in international relations.
For privacy purposes, GA mem bers went by pseudonyms.
"Market forces are so great you'd think poor countries would eventually leam to adapt to an international market," said Evan H., a senior economist “But even with the United States’ deficit people don’t want to invest in other countries."
He said the rest of the worid does not have the policies in place to attract capital
John S., a South Asian affairs analyst discussed what he said was an imminent revolution in Iran because it has been unable to pull the majori ty of its population out of poverty.
Insurgence in Iran’s government I see CIA, page U i
Mechanics union members who work at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority threatened tostrikeat 12:01 a.m. Tuesday ifnego tiations for their new contract were not settled.
If transit mechanics do strike,
MTA train and bus operations will cease, and riders will need to find other transportation options,
The Amalgamated Transit Union and the MTA have disagreed for months on the union workers’ health care trust fund.
Most transit workers buy health insurance from MTA. In the case of mechanics and maintenance workers,
MTA gives money to their union, and the union buys the insurance for members, said Ed Scannell, spokesman for the MTA.
ATU is not satisfied with MTA's offers, Neil Silver, the leader of th?
MTA’s mechanics union, told the Los Angeles Times.
The union has been misspending what the MTA contributed for the workers’ health insurance, Scannell said. It has used the money to buy extra life insurance for their employees and for administrative reasons.
“That money is provided by MTA expressively for health insurance,” he added.
MTA has offered to take temporary control of the health care trust fund and return it to “financial health," he said.
“There is no way they are going to get (control of) the fund,” Silver told the Times.
In the most recent contract offer since negotiations began 11 months ago, MTA offered workers a 19 percent increase per employee in contributions in the first year
I	see MTA, page 13 I
Katherine Bach I Daily Tnjan
Riding. Vrunda Ratho, a senior majoring in biomedical engineering, and Noushi Salehi, a senior majoring in biology, ride the tram. Trams are now running late Thursday and Friday.
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The Amalgamated Transit Union has threatened the strike after months of contract negotiations.
If strike takes place, local traffic may worsen, according to * USC Transportation Services.
The tram runs from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. every Thursday and Friday.
It travels every 15 minutes from campus to 28th Street.
Congress halts funding for a defense technology information project for which USC was a contractor.
could conceivably mean a change, in ualsin order for it to be more easily the nature of the program.*	analyzed by the intelligence commu-
According to Defense Department	nity, Walker said,
documents, the USC Office of It would utilize technology called Total Information Awareness project	Contracts and Grants had been corre-	TRELLIS, an interactive tool that
would seriously threaten personal	sponding with DARPA about funding	would help defense intelligence
freedoms. The program was part of	for the project and signed the con-	agents record information and would
the Defense Advanced Research	tract last December, which detailed	help to organise information from
Projiects Agency.	the transfer of the federal grant	different sources, Walker said.
Since Congress has eliminated The USC office refused to com- “The system will exploit this funds for the program, the future of ment	*	-	emerging	organization	to	support
the USC project is uncertain.	Titled “JIST: Just-In-caSe just-in-	users to Work in newtopics, to debate
“Some of the funding (for proj-	Time Intelligence Analysis,” USCs	alternative hypotheses, and to locate
ects) will continue and some may	program was designated to “develop a	trustworthy open sources,” she said,
not* said Yigal Arens, a division	Web-based environment for inteili-	USC was notified that the prodirector research profess hr at the	gence analysis,* said Jan Walker1, a	gram was approved for DARPAfund-
Information Sciences	Institute, spokeswoman at DARPA.	ing in a letter sent by DARPA to Ma
“Some (programs) maybe transferred	The technology would seek to	Lourdes Creus, contracts fnd grants
to other agencies to handle, which self-organize information on individ-	i	see	BMW, page IS I
By WILL BIGHAM
Staff Writer
USC had been scheduled to receive $1.7 million in federal funding to develop technology for a controversial project that would have compiled information on Americans and made it easily available to defense intelligence agents.
Congress voted to end the Terrorism Information Awareness project funding starting this month after Democrats, and Republicans said the TIA project, formerly the
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