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.”
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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.