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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1979)
nti- Khomeini protestors ant, rave, react to takeover By MERIL EDWARDS Battalion Staff “Beat the hell outta Iran. "Beat the hell outta Khomeini. “Beat the hell outta Arkansas.” So went Texas A&M Unversity’s first de- [ pnstration on the Iranian hostage crisis. About 200 people gathered at Rudder ountain Wednesday afternoon to protest ie62 Americans being held hostage in the .S. embassy in Tehran. John Elorriaga, a junior civil engineering ajor, and his wife led the disorganized onstration. Elorriaga told the crowd it was time to openly express its feel- He said he was angry and disgusted Khomeini and that his fellow Amer- are in a country without morals. ; y’all ready for war?” he asked, does this make you feel? Stand be- your fellow Americans and show that care. The United States must stand firm and put an end to this government terrorism. “It s time for us to conserve energy and to support our president and our country. I don’t have any answers. Maybe y’all do. Let’s hear some different views here. It’s time to unite.” Elorriaga said the United States should not send the deposed shah back to Iran. “It’s a matter of principle and we just can’t do it,’ he said. “So, come on, let’s waste some time out here. We need to make this campus more liberal, have more demonstrations. Voice your opinions. Some Texas A&M students responded to Elorriaga. Some of the most common yells during the hour-long demonstration were “Iranians go home, “Iran Sucks,’ “Down with Khomeini,” and “Nuke Iran. One student stood on the fountain ledge and said his father told him that Americans need to elect a president with guts, like Teddy Roosevelt, because if he was in office, Americans would own Iran by now. Several people expressed the same opin ion — Americans are not angry enough. One student said that this isn’t the first time that a U.S. embassy has been taken over. He said the country must get the Americans out of there or other countries will do it again. “The Marines weren’t allowed to resist. We re allowing this to happen because we re not pissed off enough,” he said. The crowd began chanting, “We re pis sed off, we re pissed off. Two men emerged from the crowd car rying an American flag. Someone started singing the national anthem and the crowd joined in. Bob Bower, an officer’s candidate in the National Guard, grabbed the flag and lit a lighter under it. He yelled, “Does this piss you oft?” Bower said he had no intention of burn ing the flag. “I was trying the get the crowd fired up and emotional over this issue,” he said. Prompted by Bower’s action, some stu dents burned a recent issue of a Houston newspaper with a front page hostage story. The paper was burned in lieu of an Iranian flag, which could not be located. One woman said the United States should forget American industries in Iran. She said to let the Iranians live like roaches. Later, she was carrying a sign that said, Khomeini is a roach. Let’s put him out of his misery. Another women said, “Do you think the Iranians can fix broken computers? Hell no, they can’t. Let them starve. We can send them lettuce and they can put oil and vinegar on their salad. Elorriaga continued to try and stir up the crowd. “You have your chance to be non- apathetic,” he said. “Now’s the time to talk. This will pave the way for more demonstra tions. ’ Bryce Simmang, a sophomore econo mics major, challenged Elorriaga and the students to say something constructive in stead of singing the national anthem and leading yells. “I think we also need to look at the short sightedness of the U.S. government in the way they handled allowing the shah to come here,” Simmang said. Battalion photo by Clay Cockrill Dawn Ferguson, a sophomore journalism major, speaks out at Wednes day’s campus protest against the hostage situation in Iran. “The government should have been aware of the problem it would cause. No thing happened when the shah was in Mex ico because they don t have much leverage. He should have been sent to a neutral country.” None of Texas A&M’s 75 Iranian stu dents spoke at the demonstration. Elor riaga said it probably would have been dan gerous for them to talk. “I have nothing against the Iranians here,” Elorriaga said. “We can’t get down on them.” Elorriaga said he will try to have another, more organized protest on Monday. Battalion Fountain and led the crowd of about 200 in chants against the Ayatollah Khomeini and the hostage situation. Battalion photo by Clay Cockrill Vol. 73 No. 54 24 Pages in 2 Sections Thursday, November 15, 1979 College Station, Texas USPS 045 360 Phone 845-2611 arter orders freeze of Iranian funds in U.S. banks ..Pkgd 125 0.; ,.. Roll o United Press International 1400. r( WASHINGTON — President Carter Wednesday froze $5 billion deposited by .... Pkg.)« [the Iranian government in U.S. banks and declared the hostile relations between the two countries “a national emergency. ” The move followed by hours an announcement by the government in Tehran that itplanned to withdraw “$12 billion” from American banks. But the Federal Reserve Board said such deposits total only $5 billion. The decision was the latest of a series of Iranian attempts to force the United States to surrender the deposed shah in exchange for the hostages, held for 12 days at the embassy. The order to U. S. banks and their foreign branches was the third major step taken I in recent days during a delicate and embarrassing international crisis in I /Miwhich Iranian students have held 62 Americans hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for 11 days. T, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States, find that the situation in Iran constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States and hereby declare ^ national emergency to deal with that threat,” Carter said in an executive order. Having declared such an emergency, Carter used his powers under a 1977 law to freeze the funds and protect U.S. interests in Iran from nationalization by the Iranian government. “The purpose of this order is to ensure that claims on Iran by the United States and its citizens are provided for in an orderly manner, said the White House in a brief statement on the freeze. The Treasury Department said it was flooded with calls from irate Americans demanding that the freeze be ordered. The White House said plans for the freeze had been in the works, contingent on any attempt to withdraw the funds. Carter earlier ordered a cutoff of Iranian oil shipments into the United States and deportation of Iranian students in the United States who have violated their visa S. status. The Iranian government’s claim that it has $12 billion in official assets in the United States is “grossly exaggerated,” administration sources told UPI. “They have no more than $5 or $6 billion.” The sources also said Carter was forced to block the assets before Iranian officials sent official word to U.S. banks to close out their accounts and transfer the money abroad. “It would have been too late if the Iranians has asked for their money. The banks would have had to give it to them,” one source said. While Carter said the order does not affect funds held by private Iranians in American banks and their overseas branches, the move is obviously aimed at the possibility that Iran might nationalize all U.S. assets in that troubled country. “The order does not affect accounts of persons other than the government oflran, the Central Bank oflran and other controlled entities,” the White House said in the statement, issued only hours after Iran said it intended to deposit the money elsewhere. Among Iranian funds frozen were $775 million Iran has advanced the United States for purchase of military equipment. Iran has also deposited $470 million for termination costs for canceling $3 billion in arms sales agreements still in effect. Termination costs will provide refunds to American contractors. And Iran has also deposited some $300 million in U.S. accounts to pay for spare military parts it contracted to buy. Shortly after the embassy takeover began last week, the Pentagon froze all shipment of those parts to Iran. Relations between Iran and the United States have deteriorated sharply since the shah was deposed earlier this year. Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Abol Hassan Bani-Sadr accused David Rockefel ler, president of the Chase Manhattan Bank, and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger of having engineered the shah’s arrival in New York for cancer treatment. Repeating his charge that the United States is responsible for the present crisis, he said, “When the United States acts in this manner, she must be prepared to accept the consequences.” Bani-Sadr said Iran would transfer its funds to banks in those European countries that do not join the U.S. boycott and do “not try and blackmail us.” The Islamic regime also pressed for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the crisis at the U.S. Embassy. The diplomatic approach by Bani-Sadr came Tuesday in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim in which he accused the United States of “pushing the world to the brink of war. ” The copy of the letter received at the world body made no mention of the demand for the shah’s extradition, although the version published in Iran called for sending the shah back to Iran and for the return of all his property, valued as high as $8 billion in some published reports. The minister, a key member of the Revolutionary Council, said, “Iran owes America nothing. But we have paid a lot of money for which we have got little from the United States.” He said Iranian interests in the United States were valued at about $50 billion. Bani-Sadr said American investments in Iran had already been “nationalized” and were negligible compared to Iranian funds in U.S. banks. He said the United States was using international law to meet its own ends, noting that “until its interests warranted it the United States maintained oil could not be used as a political weapon. “Again as its interests required, oil became a political issue,” Bani-Sadr said. Referring to President Carter’s boycott of oil imports from Iran, Bani-Sadr said with a sacastic smile, “We are happy that the United States has accepted that oil is not an economic issue alone.” J Cans I i lOLbtfll . Bag ' 7 \esidents seek lower taxes 9 way Stores Park, 1805 Bri«' i, 2025 Ben Houston ot ie, Louetti 9510 N. er County wants to secede United Press International CASSOPOLIS, Mich. — A group of /ass County residents who wanted to ecede from Michigan to become part of ndiana because of its lower taxes now say hey’re considering forming their own state. Following a 4 1 /2-hour debate Tuesday, the Cass County Board of Commissioners 'oted to require petitions bearing 1,200 ignatures be collected before the commis- ioners decide if the secession question will go before the voters. A group of citizens in the county just north of the Indiana border had formed a group. Citizens for Secession, and cam paigned for Cass County to leave Michigan and join Indiana. The secessionists claimed if they joined Indiana their taxes would be lower and their unemployment and workers com pensation higher. Cass County Board Chairman Kenneth Myers, a proponent of secession, said two alternatives were discussed by the group, including “the formation of our own state or our own part of a state. ” And in the proposal presented at the board meeting, the Cass County residents asked only that the county secede from Michigan. No mention was made of joining with Indiana. Should the petitions be collected, the commission said it would not guarantee the proposal would go before the voters in the county. However, the board did say if an insuffi cient number of signatures was submitted, no further action would be taken on the proposal to leave Michigan. Texas Instruments satellite plant to affect area job market in 1980 Education center’s program helps prepare students for tests By JETTIE STEEN Battalion Reporter Stanley H. Kaplan’s 41-year-old prospering business began in the basement of his home while he was college student. Kaplan, founder-director of the Stanley H. Kaplan Education Cen ters, began the exam preparatory school idea as a private tutor in col lege. There are seven Kaplan education centers in Texas, one in College Sta tion. “When I finished college, instead of going into public school education I decided to continue my private tutor ing,” Kaplan said. Many students were coming to him for college and professional exam preparatory tutor ing. It was then that the idea of the education centers began to grow, Ka plan said. Three are 85 centers in the United States and three abroad which sponsor intensive education programs prepar ing students for such tests as the Scho lastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). “We use a three-prong approach to coaching students into these exams,” said Nancy Zettelmeyer, director of the College Station center. The first part to Kaplan’s education al program is eight lectures, lasting four to five hours, hitting the higb points of required coursework. The second part involves an exten sive home-study program. Tests made by his own researchers are administered for the third part. The tests are similar to the “real thing” but Kaplan said none of his employees have ever seen copies of the actual exams. Once the preparatory testing is over, students analyze the tests and discuss the concepts behind each question with the course teachers. By NANCY ANDERSEN Battalion Staff The new Texas Instruments plant in Col- ege Station, near Highway 6 and Highway 10, will be manufacturing various compo- lents by the end of 198()’s first quarter, a TI spokesman said Tuesday. Richard Perdue, TI public relations manager, said the College Station plant 11 serve as a satellite for the plant in Austin, supplying it with components for business and industrial computer systems. TI bought 250 acres of land. Perdue said, "'hich is average for a satellite plant. The company plans to employ several hundred local residents for the plant. Only a few top management personnel will be transferred to College Station from other locations, he said. The company also wants to hire college graduates with degrees in electronic disci plines, Perdue said. The company will also hire unskilled people and train them to do assembly-line work. Perdue said he did not know when hiring for the plant would start. The Texas Em ployment Commission in Bryan would handle employment, he added. TI chose to build a plant here because it is centrally located, Perdue said — conve nient to the Austin plant and to Texas A&M University. It is a company policy to locate near insti tutions of higher learning. Perdue said, be cause it is easier to attract well-educated people. In addition. Perdue said, there are 120 other factors TI takes into consideration when deciding where to locate a plant. Good schools, local government and re creational facilities all are taken into con sideration. TI executives were impressed with College Station, he said. Thanks, but University turns down offer to sell Aggie Band Texas A&M University has said thanks but no thanks to a Kuwaiti oil millionairess who was so impressed by the 300-member Aggie marching band that she wanted to buy it. Texas A&M spokesman Jeff Alford said the woman was part of a group from Kuwait that Gulf Oil Corp. hosted at the Rice- Texas A&M football game in Houston three weeks ago. Gulf executive Leroy Johnston, an A&M graduate, told school officials the woman was so impressed with the band’s halftime performance she “offered to buy the band and take it home with her.” “She was joking, of course — I think,” Johnston said. “We certainly appreciate the flattering offer,” band director Joe Haney re sponded. “We ll just have to convince her we’re not for sale.” Instead, Texas A&M gave the visitor a long-playing recording of the band playing “The Spirit of Aggieland,” “Noble Men of Kyle” and other numbers. The woman was not identified. Kuwait is a small oil-rich kingdom at the northwest end of the Persian Gulf. Statistics indicate every 200th Kuwaiti is a millionaire.