Vol. 70 No. 90
6 Pages
Battalion
Friday, March 11, 1977 News Dept. 845-2611
College Station, Texas Business Dept. 845-2611
Young and old
This photo is one of the winners in this month’s
“Trees” contest sponsored by the Camera Com
mittee. The picture is entitled “Freedom” and was
taken by Glenn Sackett of Bryan. It contrasts the
solidarity of an aged live oak and the mobility of a
child running through a field.
Gunmen surrender;
two-day siege ends
By MIKE FEINSILBER
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Persuaded by three
Moslem ambassadors “to come out with a
happy ending,” Hanafi Muslim gunmen
surrendered early today, freed about 130
hostages and ended peacefully a 39-hour
ordeal that began violently.
Ringleader Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, who
had threatened to behead his captives dur
ing the siege, was charged with armed
kidnaping. As part of the bargain which
won the hostages’ freedom, Khaalis was
arraigned — then ordered released with
out bond, his release until his formal in
dictment by a grand jury was agreed to in
advance by Superior Court Chief Judge
Harold Greene.
Eleven other gunmen still were being
held pending arraignment later today.
As hostages streamed from city hall, the
Islam mosque and B’nai B’rith building,
the bells of the Foundry Methodist
Church — largest Swiss bells in America
— rang out joyfully. Waiting relatives em
braced one another, wept and offered
prayers of thanksgiving.
Doctors said most of the hostages were
in good shape but a few might be ill or
seriously hurt.
“We didn’t make a deal — exactly,’
Mayor Walter Washington told reporters
— not elaborating on what “exactly”
meant.
“We said everybody would be arrested
and let the courts take over from there.
The hostages had been seized Wednes
day by Khaalis’ band of Hanafi Muslims,
who threatened that he would behead his
prisoners and throw their heads from the
windows unless his demands were met. A
black reporter was killed and eight per
sons wounded in the seizure of three
buildings.
Khaalis demanded that authorities bring
before him five religious enemies who had
been sentenced to life terms for executing
two Hanafi women and five children in a
religious dispute in 1973.
The end was negotiated in a three-hour
meeting between Khaalis and the ambas
sadors of Egypt, Pakistan and Iran, acting
at the behest of President Carter.
Iran’s Ardeshir Zahedi said the chief
reason the raiders gave up “was that, as
human beings, all of us had feelings which
convinced both sides that we should agree
and it would be better to come out with a
happy ending.”
Mimi Feldman, held captive at the
B’nai B’rith building where she was a sec
retary in the fund raising department, said
the terrorists singled out Jews. She said
she was afraid to let them know she was
Jewish.
“Their anit-Semitism didn’t make any
sense,” she said. She said the raiders
made a number of statements about Arabs
and Palestine and “little bits of discon
nected thought.”
Before the arraignment. Mayor Wash
ington was asked if the gunmen had been
promised anything to surrender.
“Jail!” he replied.
As Carter’s personal envoy, Pittsburgh
Mayor Peter Flaherty was a member of
the team that negotiated the end of the
ordeal.
Last night, ambassadors Zahedi, Ashraf
Ghorbal of Egypt and Sahabzada Yaqub-
Kahn of Pakistan, accompanied by two
police officers and Flaherty, entered the
terrorists’ B’nai B’rith stronghold.
They sat down with Khaalis, a one-time
social worker, for three hours of negotia
tions which ended the siege.
Passing motorists tooted horns to wel
come the freed prisoners.
“We all untied each other,” said Sidney
Colster, a hostage at B’nai B’rith. “We
congratulated each other. As Jews we said
a prayer. We said the traditional prayer —
“Thank God, you have kept us and pre
served us to this day.”
The leader of the band of terrorists had
seized the three buildings Wednesday.
Khaalis, named Ernest Timothy
McGhee when he was born 55 years ago,
is a former social worker who was once a
follower of the late Elijah Muhammad,
founder movement, but became his se
vere critic.
Khaalis had vowed to lead a “jihad” -— a
holy war against evil — after rival Black
Muslims executed two women and five
children, including Khaalis’ wife and four
of his children, in 1973.
At George Washington University Med
ical Center, where many of the hostages
were taken. Dr. Leonard Wisnesky, chief
resident, said, “We have a few serious
cases.”
City offers ambulance service
Fire Department to help
By DARRELL LANFORD
Emergency ambulance service will be
provided by the College Station Fire De
partment until at least June 30, the Col
lege Station City Council resolved last
night.
City Manager North Bardell said the
projected cost of running the operation
until June 30, the end of the fiscal year, is
$18,000 to $22,000. City officials will then
decide if it is financially feasible to retain
the ambulance service as part of the fire
department.
The council also discussed ways of
spending $78,000 in revenue sharing
funds.
Bardell said it would cost $65,000 to in
stall steel streetlights from College Av
enue to Wellborn Road. He said it would
cost $25,000 to install lights with creosol
poles, explaining that it is more costly to
use steel streetlights because of the neces
sity of having to tear up concrete to install
underground wiring.
Other actions included:
Passing a resolution extending the ex
traterritorial jurisdiction of College Sta
tion to two miles.
Approving a final plat subdividing
again Lots 1 and 2, Block 1 of the Breezy
Heights Addition.
Passing a final plat vacating and sub
dividing again Lot 15, Block 2 of Wolfpen
Village development.
Tabling consideration of a prelimi
nary plat of the Sandstone Addition, lo
cated in the extraterritorial jurisdictioh ad
jacent to the Foxfire Addition.
bortion is easy way out. Life Advocate speaker says
Crowe
Abortion
vs.
Right-of-Life
Early
By CATHY BREWER
lortion is just a cop-out. You haven’t solved any problem,
'ejust temporarily swept it under the rug, said Ira Early,
dent of Life Advocates during his anti-abortion speech last
[in Rudder tower.
arcy Crowe, who has worked for the Cullen Women’s
er in Houston (an abortion clinic) for three years, is op-
1 to Early’s view. Crowe shared her ideas during the de
saying she thought each individual has the right to make a
:e about abortion.
Whether abortion is right or wrong, that’s a decision you
to make for yourself,” she said. “Hopefully you won’t be
Iwith the decision of an unwanted pregnancy.”
a order to know what were dealing with, we have to know
:thing about child development,” Early said as he showed
s of fetus development.
le slide showed a premature baby girl, born at 21 weeks of
nancy. Another slide showed the same baby four weeks
with a nurse’s wedding ring around her forearm.
ou can see from this picture just how small this baby really
paid Early. “Think about it...clinics like the one Marcy is
do abortions up to 20 weeks. This baby was born at 21
(sand is still with us today.”
le Cullen Center uses a procedure called vacuum aspira-
for pregnancies to be terminated through 12 weeks.
“In this method the physician anesthetizes the cervix and
then gradually dilates it,” Crowe said. “The dilation is enough to
accomodate a small plastic tube which is inserted into the uterus
and the contents are removed by means of a gentle suction.”
Early said he considers this procedure nothing more than
very early child abuse and the most violent form of birth con
trol.
“It’s interesting that since abortion has been legalized,
women no longer carry babies, but fetuses or embryos,” Early
said. “Why don’t we call them babies anymore? Fetus is a much
less human term for it.”
Early was not so quick to condone abortions if rape or incest
is involved. “But you find very few cases this extreme,” he
said.
Crowe described two incest cases dealt with at the Cullen
Center. Both girls involved were 11. One was impregnated by
her father and the other by her brother.
“The one who was pregnant by her father was a retarded
girl,” Crowe said. “It was a very' sad situation. Everyone at the
clinic was completely torn up over it. The girl walked into the
clinic, stuffed animals and all.”
Early said even in a case that traumatic he would favor the
woman’s having the child over an abortion.
“Abortion is not a question we can leave up to the morality of
the doctors or the women who are pregnant,” he said. “Of
course the women who are pregnant have a very prejudiced,
unobjective view because they are looking for an easy out.”
Early says he does not consider the question of when life
begins to be controversial. “Life begins at the moment of con
ception. I don’t see how people can claim it begins after birth.
The fetus at 12 weeks can breathe, cry, suck its thumb. . . .
its whole organ system is functioning!”
Neither does he believe that women who have children from
unwanted pregnancies are the most likely to resort to child
abuse. “Wanted pregnancies show higher rates of child beat
ing,” he said.
“With all the medical technology we now possess, you’d
think we would put it to use to solve our problems, not destroy
them,” Early said.
lill defends Water Board suit
United Press International
LN ANTONIO, Tex. — Atty. Gen.
Hill says he’s merely looking out for
Jest interests of the people in his suit
pt the Texas Water Quality Board,
chairman of the board says Hill is
ing for votes.
ill filed a lawsuit in state District
ft at Austin charging that the board
[asonably broke up pollution control
the Edwards Aquifer, the under
ground water supply for San Antonio and
other cities.
The board issued seven separate orders
which Hill said “threatened San Antonio’s
water supply.” Hill said he would ask the
Bexar County Commissioner’s Court to
join in his suit.
Hill, who plans to run for governor next
year, said Gov. Dolph Briscoes home
county was given special treatment by the
board’s order.
Hill said he particularly was disturbed
about, “singling out of Uvalde County for
lenient treatment” and said generally the
rural counties were not restricted as se
verely as were the urban counties.
Hugh Yantis, executive director of the
Texas Water Quality Control Board, said
in Austin that Hill filed the suit to get
votes for the governor’s office.
“It is such a ridiculous thing for him to
do,” Yantis said. “I thought his legal
judgment was better than that.”
But Hill said his action was not politi
cally motivated.
“It has nothing to do with politics,” said
Hill. “This order is so flagrant that I just
can’t stand by and do nothing.
“There have only been two occasions in
four years, including this one, that I have
filed suit against a state agency. There are
times when my obligation to the public
overrides my responsibility to serve as at
torney for state agencies.”
Hill said he had been interested for
more than two years in keeping the board
from weakening pollution standards.
“This isn’t something John Hill has been
interested in just recently,” he said. “It
has nothing to do with politics. It is my job
to represent the people of Texas.”
heater arts degree approved
ixas A&M University may have its
graduate with a theater arts degree by
Kt, say University officials.
•e prediction followed Tuesday’s ap-
al of a bachelor of arts degree in th ca
rts by the Coordinating Board, Texas
e and University System,
r. David H. Stewart, head of the
ish department, said that the new de
program will continue at present to
oused in the English department and
ted by Dr. Robert W. Wenck, assis-
professor of English,
the future, the degree program will
students general theater training that
ides acting, design, costume, lighting,
:ting and playwriting.
Nineteen three-hour courses are cur
rently offered by the theater arts section of
the English department. Thirty-three
credit hours are required for the B.A. in
theater arts.
Wenck said the theater arts program
currently enrolls nearly 24 A&M students
who are receiving teacher certification in
theater arts, and he expects another 20
students to sign up as theater arts majors
seeking the new B.A.
A&M’s bachelor’s program also will be
compatible with those students who trans
fer from a two-year institution offering an
associate arts degree in theater, said
W enck.
"\
Walking in rain
If you are outside today, you will
most probably get wet unless
you have your umbrella in hand.
Showers and thundershowers
are forecast for today with de
creasing cloudiness in the late
afternoon. The wind will be
NW 15-25 mph and gusting.
Wind warnings are in effect for
area lakes. Today’s high will be
in the upper 70’s with tonight’s
low in the lower 40’s. The
weather will be clearing tonight
and will remain fair through
Saturday and Sunday.
Battalion photo by Anne Paslay