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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 1973)
CADET SLOUCH by Jim Earle Viewpoint 1 What’re Grand Juries For? THE BATTALION Page 2 College Station, Texas Wednesday, January ... ROBERT HALSEU A “Do you think there might have been a mistake in room assignments?” News Summary By ASSOCIATED PRESS AUSTIN, Tex.—Men could mar ry at age 18 without parental consent under a bill submitted by Rep. Lynn Nabers of Brown- wood. Nabers’ bill would lower the age from the present 19. The Texas Family Code already al lows young women to marry at 18 without their parents’ approv al. The measure also would allow boys of 16 and girls of 14 to peti tion a court in their own names for permission to marry if their parents refused to consent. A judge could give this permission if he found marriage would be in the couple’s best interests. NEW YORK—A public outcry, some politics and a little arm- twisting by Madison Square Gar den officials assured “The Star Spangled Banner” of a place on the Olympic Invitational track program Feb. 16. Meet director Jesse Abramson was quoted Monday as saying his committee had decided to drop the national anthem because some athletes show disrespect for it. Later, he said the committee had agreed only to consider it. NEW HAVEN, Conn. — An agreement has. been reached in U.S. District Court that will allow limited competition between girl and boy athletes in non-contact high school sports events in Con necticut. The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference agreed Mon day to amend its regulations ef fective in March so that girls can compete with boys in a variety of non-contact sports where no team program exists for young women. Existing CIAC rules, which govern competition in high school sports, prohibit schools that allow girls to compete from taking part in conference-sanc tioned events. MANAGUA, Nicaragua—Hous ton Baptist College and the Bay lor College of Medicine have of fered 100 scholarships for Nica raguans to study medicine, Nica ragua’s strongman Gen. Avnasta- sio Somoza announced Tuesday. The scholarships represent a cost of $600,000. By BILL SONN The Nixon Administration is using the judicial system to gather political intelligence about left- wing groups and individuals, ac cording to the National Lawyers Guild. Members of the Guild’s Grand Jury Committee are cur rently touring the country alerting people to and preparing them for the Administration’s latest tech nique for political surveilance— the federal grand jury. Grand juries were originally conceived as protective devices. They were to serve as screening mechanisms which surveyed the evidence against an individual and then determined whether the individual should go to trial. Since 1970, though, the Justice Dept, has reversed the original purpose of the grand jury. The grand juries involved in the Ells- berg, Berrigans, and Bacon cases, as well as 12 other cases, have instead been data-gathering for ays into the radical world. This is the way it works: grand jury testimony is secret and wit nesses are not allowed to have their attorneys present. Recently, government lawyers have taken advantage of these factors to ask witnesses many personal ques tions which have nothing to do with the case at hand. The object of personal questioning, such as who do you live with, who have you gone to demonstrations with, where and by what means of transportation have you traveled in the last six months, is not to prepare a case for eventual pros ecution but to simply gather data for government files on radicals. INVOLUNTARY IMMUNITY The recent series of federal grand juries has been run by the Internal Securities Division (ISD) of the Justice Dept., which has worked closely with the FBI in preparing questions and sharing data. FBI investigations into rad ical activities have often been foiled by an individual’s refusal to talk, but grand juries can take over the investigation and legally force him to tell all he knows. Information gathered in grand jury testimony is then fed back into Justice Dept, computer files. Grand juries, of course, have the power to subpoena witnesses. Witnesses theoretically can plead the 5th Amendment and refuse to talk. However, Guild representa tives say that the ISD often forces witnesses to talk by “granting” them immunity from prosecution. In other words, the witness cannot be prosecuted for anything he or she says. Quite often, though, wit nesses are given immunity invol untarily. And if you are “grant ed” immunity and you still refuse to talk, you can be cited for con tempt and jailed. Since 1968, al most 200 witnesses have been given immunity in this way. From 1950 to 1968, only 20 witnesses had been given immunity. In one federal grand jury held in Tucson during the fall of 1971, five “immune” witnesses refused to testify and were jailed for contempt. The sentence, as is €bt Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the student writers only. The Battalion is a non-tax- supported, non-profit, self-supporting educational enter prise edited and operated by students as a university and community newspaper. LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor must be typed, double-spaced, and no more than 300 words in length. They must be signed, although the writer’s name will be withheld by arrangement with the editor. Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77813. Members of the Student Publications Board are: Jim Lindsey, chairman ; Dr. Tom Adair, Dr. R. A. Albanese, Dr. H. E. Hierth, W. C. Harrison, J. W. Griffith, L. E. Kruse and B. B. Sears The Battalion, a student newspaper at Texas A&M, is published in College Station, Texas, daily except Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and holiday periods, September through May, and once a week during summer school. Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising Services, Inc, New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. MEMBER The Associated Press, Texas Press Association The Associated Collegiate Press Mail subscriptions are $3.50 per semester; $6 per school year; $6.50 per full year. All subscriptions subject to 6% sales tax. Advertising rate furnished on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news dispatchs credited to it or not otherwise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous origin published herein. Rights of republication of all other matter herein are also reserved. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, Texas. EDITOR : MIKE RICE Managing Editor Larry Marshall News Editor Rod Speer Women’s Editor Janet Landers Sports Editor Bill Henry Assistant Sports Editor Kevin Coffey Juniors & Sophomores Pictures For 1973 Aggieland Will Be Taken From 8 a. m. to 5 p. m. January 15 - 19 A-G 22 - 26 H-L 29 - Feb. 2 M-N-O February 5 - 9 P-Q-R 12 - 16 S-T-U-V 19 - 23 W-X-Y-Z UNIVERSITY STUDIO 846-8019 North Gate 115 N. Main typical, was to last either until they decided to talk or until the grand jury was dismissed, which, by law, had to be within 18 months. Four months later, when the grand jury dissolved, the five wit nesses left jail only to find an ISD lawyer with new subpoenas for a new grand jury. Thus these people were faced with the choice of either telling the government about their personal lives and the anti-war movement, or perpetual 18-month jail sentences. WEAPON AGAINST DISSENT Subpoenas for grand juries in clude no clue as to what the grand jury is investigating. By law, wit nesses do not have to be told the reasons why they are being sub poenaed. Moreover, subpoenas can be given with little or no advance warning. For example, Daniel Ellsberg’s 15-year-old son was subpoenaed at 7:30 one morning and told to appear in court early that same afternoon. Also, the grand jury can sub poena anyone, and quite often witnesses are only peripherally in volved in the investigation. But the government is more interested in filling its data banks than in prosecuting witnesses. The Lawyers’ Guild, in its trav els around the country, is hoping to create a climate of opinion which would force the govern ment to “re-establish grand juries as protection for people instead of engines for harrassment.” Mat Zwerling, one of the Guild lawyers on the Grand Jury De fense Committee, calls the fight against the Administration's new tactic uphill, for the government has slowly been “winning the right to use grand juries this way to beat down political dissent.” But Zwerling feels that if the public can be made aware of the prob lem that the resulting climate of opinion will help restore grand juries to their original functions much the same way that public opinion ended the McCarthy era. Reprinted by permission from the Straight Creek Journal. TRAVEL SERVICE AIRLINE SCHEDULE INFORMATION FARES AND TICKETS ■ DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL .H CALL 822-37311 1016 Texas Avenue — Bryan Getting Back Party <3 <% w 1 The BSU Presents "THE FRIENDS" at 7:30 p. m. 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