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- <text id=92TT1928>
- <title>
- Aug. 31, 1992: Grapevine
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Aug. 31, 1992 Woody Allen: Cries and Whispers
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- GRAPEVINE, Page 13
- </hdr><body>
- <p>By Janice Castro
- </p>
- <p>JUST MAKING A FEW REPAIRS
- </p>
- <p> Jim Baker's return to the president's side has been
- described to key Republicans as the "cold war pivot." Having
- teamed up with Bush to kiss the communist threat goodbye, the
- honchos were told, Baker will now act as a sort of deputy
- President, managing the campaign, then leading a sweeping
- domestic agenda during a second Bush term. But the truth is that
- Baker is only making an emergency house call as Mr. Fix-It. If
- Bush wins re-election, Baker has told friends that he will help
- tool up a domestic strategy and hire the right folks to run it.
- then he'll scoot right back to State. Says an aide: "A big part
- of it is putting the right crew in place, which we definitely
- don't have right now."
- </p>
- <p>WAS THIS STUFF ON CNN?
- </p>
- <p> If U.S. forces attack the Serbs, the Americans will try to
- minimize casualties by using top-secret electronic and chemical
- weapons tested during the Gulf War. Cruise missiles generating
- devastating electromagnetic fields will knock out power plants
- and transmission towers as they fly over them, while destroying
- all data stored in tapes and disks at the targets. Other
- missiles will release showers of carbon-fiber dust to short out
- electrical installations. A CIA chemical, sprayed on roads or
- airfields, will rot tires. And if operatives can get close
- enough, a new microbe, dropped into fuel tanks of jets, tanks
- and trucks, will be brought into play to turn the fuel into
- useless jelly.
- </p>
- <p>THE ESPIONAGE GOES ON
- </p>
- <p> Viktor Oshchenko, a diplomat in the Russian Embassy in
- Paris, was a British double agent for years. Last month Moscow
- asked him to come home. Fearing the worst, he defected to
- London. MI-6 is now debriefing him at a safe house. He must know
- plenty: Moscow has since recalled at least a dozen of his fellow
- spies from Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and the
- Netherlands. Oshchenko specialized in stealing science and
- technology secrets. Says a senior British diplomat: "The
- Russians' need for everything is more desperate than ever
- because of the country's abysmal shape."
- </p>
- <p>FOX IN THE PEACOCK COOP
- </p>
- <p> When Barry Diller quit last fall as chairman of Fox, where
- he ran the film studio as well as the television network, he
- said he wanted to own something. Something sizable. Apparently
- he has been trying to buy the NBC television network from GE.
- The deal fizzled this summer, but Diller has told friends that
- "a window of opportunity" remains for the revised proposal he
- is preparing.
- </p>
- <p>SAME TO YOU
- </p>
- <p> President Bush was unfazed last week when a gay activist
- who had sneaked into the press section confronted him during a
- rally in the Astrodome. As the demonstrator shouted, "What about
- AIDS?" and waved an unrolled condom at the Commander in Chief,
- Bush muttered, "Oh, look! New press credentials!"
- </p>
- <p>SCORECARD
- </p>
- <p> Every party has its moments. Here are the high points of
- the Democratic and Republican conventions:
- </p>
- <p>-- BEST SPEECHES
- </p>
- <p> D Barbara Jordan topped Kennedy and Cuomo.
- </p>
- <p> R Barbara Bush's family reunion and "Gampy's" casual
- arrival at the end of it.
- </p>
- <p>-- SPECIAL EFFECTS
- </p>
- <p> D Clinton's "spontaneous" entrance into the darkened hall,
- anointed by a beam of light straight out of Close Encounters.
- </p>
- <p> R The balloon blizzard at the finale and Bush's batting
- them around like a schoolboy.
- </p>
- <p>-- FEATURED GUESTS
- </p>
- <p> D Among the women on the podium at Madison Square Garden
- were several Republicans.
- </p>
- <p> R The G.O.P. sported two beloved former Presidents and a
- gaggle of Olympic heroes.
- </p>
- <p>-- SCENE STEALER
- </p>
- <p> D Perot suddenly announced that he was dropping out.
- </p>
- <p> R Perot suddenly announced that he might run after all.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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