Word: strike
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Many students have given an obligatory glance in the direction of the trademark carrots and proceeded to pile their plates high with breads, brownies, and whatever food happens to strike the individual fancy...
Some in Washington say Clinton should just order out the B-52s to bomb the North's plutonium reprocessing plant and two reactors, neatly destroying the danger. But that is unrealistic: a strike could spread a big radioactive cloud over the peninsula, miss hidden weapons or start a devastating war between North and South Korea. A more practical tactic would be the imposition of economic sanctions by the United Nations -- but even if China, long friendly to the North, did not veto an embargo, Pyongyang might feel cornered and lash...
...last thing the beleaguered agency needs: a fresh scandal. Last Wednesday, while Endeavour was fueling up for its Thursday morning blast-off, two Houston TV stations and nbc Nightly News with Tom Brokaw reported that NASA had been targeted by an FBI sting operation -- code-named Lightning Strike -- that had snared agency employees and contractors...
While Lightning Strike is not expected to uncover dishonesty that widespread, it is another sign that NASA has become infected with the same corrupting virus that struck the Pentagon. Two months ago, the space agency's inspector general told a congressional subcommittee that he had launched more than 400 investigations into waste, fraud and abuse. NASA's books were in such disarray, he said, that it could not account for assets worth roughly $12 billion...
...observers familiar with the agency, its contractors and the air of impunity with which they operate. Says one space engineer: "These guys have been insulated from the consequences of their actions for so long that they think they're above the physical laws of the land." Operation Lightning Strike is likely to bring a few of them back down to earth. If it gets out of hand, it could bring the space agency down as well...