June 30, 1995|BETTINA BOXALL and RICH CONNELL and DAVID FERRELL |
TIMES STAFF WRITERS Under tight security and a pervasive clamp of fear, Los Angeles International Airport continued to handle the early waves of the brisk summer travel season Thursday, even as a series of letters sent by the Unabomber raised a new specter of terrorism if the bomber is unable to gain a mass media forum for his anarchist views.
In separate letters whose contents began to emerge late Thursday, the Unabomber has suggested that he may build "one more bomb" unless either the New York Times or Washington Post agrees to publish a 50-plus page manifesto outlining his anti-technology viewpoints. He said he will only agree to stop the killing if one of the papers publishes the tract within three months and agrees to print annual follow-ups for three years.
The bomber's treatise, "Industrial Society and Its Future," was sent to the Post and the New York Times on Wednesday. In today's editions, the Post said it received copies of letters sent to the Times and to Penthouse magazine, in which the Unabomber claimed to "reserve the right" to make one more attack if only Penthouse published the manifesto. The letter writer said he preferred to be published in one of the "respectable" newspapers.
Earlier this year, Penthouse offered to give a voice to the elusive serial bomber, whose attacks have killed three people and injured 23 others in 16 attacks since 1978.
Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the New York Times, said in a statement that the newspaper was considering whether to publish the manuscript. "We will act responsibly and not rashly, knowing that lives could be at stake. It seems we've been given three months to think the issues through. One issue that we find especially troubling is the demand that we not only publish the initial document, but then open our pages for annual follow-ups over the next three years."
Donald E. Graham, publisher of the Post, said his newspaper was "considering how to respond."
In other developments Thursday:
* The U.S. Postal Service instituted new restrictions--the tightest since the Gulf War--to prevent the Unabomber from changing tack and carrying out his threat of violence with another random strike through the mail. In Los Angeles County, mail delays caused Wednesday by the threat were expected to prevent more than 300,000 recipients of federal Supplemental Security Income from receiving their checks on time.
