ush blasts regulations in talk at A&M
Battalion Staff
(increasing government regulations,
ending and taxes are three major prob
in the country today, George Bush
id Thursday in a program presented by
SC Political Forum.
Bush spoke to a 2,500-person audience
i atfdled Rudder Auditorium, including
- e aisles, and which gave him 17 ovations
iring a 37-minute speech. He said he
try to correct those problems if
ected president.
“We’ve got dam too much regulation in
lis country,” Bush said, receiving cheers
agreement from the audience. “We need
iget people who understand that the part
the government should be to assist, not
jntrol.”
Bush also said he would cut down on
deral spending if elected.
“We have tried to spend our way into
rosperity, and the very people we try to
elpare the ones we hurt the most — those
(the lower end of the income spectrum,
nd those that have saved all their lives for
tirement,” he said.
Bush also said that taxes should be cut,
ut not drastically, as he believes Ronald
leagan favors. A huge cut in taxes would
icrease the deficit and inflation. Bush
lid.
But a smaller cut in taxes, $20 billion,
juld definitely help people to save and
nvest, he said. This would especially help
mung people who were trying to save in
to buy a home, he said, a statement
hat also received applause from the audi-
ice.
Bush hammered away at his criticism of
'resident Carter s handling of foreign
)tock
(uced
11
I
r
affairs and Reagan’s lack of experience in
international matters or the business
world.
“Jimmy Carter’s only experience in fore
ign affairs was eating at the International
House of Pancakes,” he added, smiling, as
the audience rocked with laughter.
“My opponent is a lot better out there on
the lecture circuit,” Bush said concerning
Reagan. “But he has not had that experi
ence of rolling up his sleeves and doing
something and I think that’s important for a
president of the United States.”
Bush is a former CIA director, Republi
can Party national chairman and congress
man from Houston. He also served as
ambassador to the United Nations.
Although Bush said he supported Car
ter’s recent attempt to rescue the hostages
in Iran, he said the move should have been
made sooner.
Bush also said that he supported the
volunteer Army, but said the draft should
be used if necessary.
“If we need a draft, it will be fair,” Bush
said. “Some rich kid isn’t going to get his
Ph.D. while a ghetto kid gets the rap.”
Bush said his major reason for wanting to
be president is that he has lived in a com
munist country, Red China, which he said
is devoid of freedoms, and he wants Amer
ica to continue being a free country.
Bush, a Texan, is not predicted to do well
in Saturday’s primary. He faces an uphill
battle against GOP frontrunner Ronald
Reagan.
Regarding his losses in the primaries,
Bush said the race is not over yet.
“The opera is not over until the fat lady
sings, and believe me, she hasn’t even be
gun to clear her throat yet,” Bush said.
George Bush, Ronald Reagan’s lone remaining rival for the Republican Thursday that the government s aim should be to assist, not control, the
presidential nomination, told an audience of 2,500 in Rudder Auditorium American people. Std p otos >’ LeL Ro > Lesc pcr h-
The
Battalion
Vol. 73 No. 152
HPages
Friday, May 2, 1980
College Station, Texas
USPS 045 360
Phone 845-2611
Arabs release hostage
from Iranian embassy
Spray inhibits berry picking
by MICHELLE MORREY
Battalion StafT
This is a berry good time of year to bake
»es, cobblers, and cakes with fresh-baked
lerries.
It is also the time of year when railroad
egetation control companies spray weeds
iround the tracks where dewberries are a
Mpular harvesting spot for pickers.
The dewberry peak season is in the early
ipring, said Norman Winter, extension
issistant at Texas A&M.
People ask why dewberries are sprayed
when the dewberries are ripened,” Walter
Nittshe, local agent for Missouri Pacific
said. “That’s the best time of year to control
the weeds.”
The railroad vegetation control com
panies that are contracted by local railroad
companies spray twice a year in this area,
once in the spring and once in August,
because of the long growing season, said
Gene Bagerhuff, president of SSI indus
tries Inc., a railroad vegetation control
company.
SSI will be spraying around the Missouri
Pacific tracks within the next weeks in the
Bryan-College Station area. Three men
will spray the weeds from a modified boxcar
as it travels through town en route to Waco,
said Edward Evans, manager of the
spraying service for SSI.
Bargerhuff said the chemical sprayed,
Bromacil, is a herbicide; it is toxic only to
weeds. It has been approved and reg
istered by the Environmental Protection
Agency. He said it is less dangerous than
aspirin in its concentrated form and will not
harm animals, humans or insects.
United Press International
LONDON — An Iranian Arab suicide
squad holding the Iranian Embassy re
leased one hostage for medical treatment
Thursday, then relented on back-to-back
death threat deadlines against 19 others.
Three armed members of “The Group of
the Martyr” decided twice within two
hours to extend deadlines set for bombing
the embassy, which they stormed and
occupied Wednesday. Both deadlines pas
sed without incident.
The gunmen, who stressed they were
Iranians of Arab descent, originally
threatened to blow up themselves and their
hostages at noon (6 a.m. CDT) Thursday
unless their demands for the release of 91
comrades imprisoned in Iran were met.
But members of the “Blue Berets,” Scot
land Yard’s crack anti-terrorist team, kept
up constant negotiations by telephone with
the gunmen and convinced them to extend
their deadline for two hours.
“This is not a sign of weakness, but our
humanitarian duty,” the gunmen said in a
statement to police. “We are giving the
Iranian government until 2 p.m. (8 a.m.
CDT) today. After 2 p.m. today, all respon
sibility falls on the Iranian government.”
But the gunmen left themselves an out,
saying they would extend the deadline
again “if the Iranian government will ack
nowledge they are negotiating with the
British government.”
The second deadline passed quietly. The
only noise outside the embassy came from a
group of nearly 100 demonstrators
gathered outside police barricades shout
ing support for Iranian leader Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini.
Police negotiators said they had no iden
tities of the gunmen other than their claim
to be Iranians of Arab descent from the
province of Khuzestan.
The gunmen demanded the release of 91
prisoners held in Khuzestan by Khomeini’s
government. They said they also wanted
autonomy for the region and an airplane to
fly themselves and their hostages out of
Britain.
Just 30 minutes before the first deadline,
the gunmen opened one of the two massive
black wooden front doors of the embassy
and released one of their hostages.
Plan to dump peels
foiled by UT police
Saudi Arabia to raise price of oil exported to U. S.
United Press International
America’s largest foreign oil supplier,
Saudi Arabia, soon will announce a price
se — possibly later this month, a
Saudi newspaper says.
The Qatari news agency quoted the
Saudi newspaper Al Madina as saying
there is a strong trend” among OPEC
members to hold a ministerial conference
in May and “devote it to the question of
prices.”
Kuwait, another OPEC member, plans
to impose an $8-a-barrel premium on top of
its official price of $27.50 a barrel, a Kuwaiti
newspaper said.
Venezuela, a major exporter of heavy oil
to the United States, has announced it is
lifting some residual fuel prices by between
32 cents and $1.10 a barrel, effective
Saturday.
Al Madina said Saudi Arabia wants other
members of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries to lower their prices.
The Saudis, whose crude had been the
OPEC benchmark before the 13-nation
cartel failed to agree on a single price for its
oil in Caracas last December, are charging
Minority votes to benefit
(ennedy in state primary
United Press International
Heavy absentee voting in predominantly
Mexican-American areas may propel Sen.
Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., into a
stronger-than-anticipated showing against
President Carter in Saturday’s presidential
preference vote in Texas.
Carter remains the favorite statewide,
hut absentee voting in areas where Carter
has been strong in the past was light for this
election, while voting in the pro-Kennedy
areas was heavy.
I Kennedy ought to do real well here,”
said Santos Saldana, county clerk in Hidal-
goCounty in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
'Tiis place is pro-Kennedy; always has
been.
“He’ll do well, especially in the predomi-
aantly Latin American precincts. His
nephew has been down here getting things
stirred up.
Democratic absentee voting was heavy
in the Valley, in Corpus Christi and in San
Antonio, all areas where Kennedy has
courted the Mexican-American vote.
Absentee voting in the Republican prim
ary has been proportionately heavier in
most areas than the Democratic voting,
although it still lags behind the 1976 levels
in many cities.
Secretary of State George Strake is pre
dicting a record 680,000 voters for the Re
publican primary and about 1.5 million for
the Democratic primary, although Carter’s
campaign leaders indicate they think
Strake is overestimating the interest in the
Democratic primary.
Saldana said 1,804 absentee votes were
cast in the Democratic primary in Hidalgo
County this year, compared to 1,249 in
1976.
In Corpus Christi, where a lively state
senate campaign and a sheriff’s race have
increased voter interest, absentee balloting
is up from 1976 for both parties.
Nueces County Clerk Marian Uehlinger
said 2,579 Democrats voted absentee this
year compared to 1,873 in 1976, but she
declined to say what impact that would
have on the Kennedy-Carter race.
“You meet one for Carter. You meet one
for Kennedy. I wouldn’t even venture a
guess,” she said.
In Bexar County, where Kennedy cam
paigned this week, 4,665 Democrats had
voted absentee compared to 3,530 four
years ago. Republican absentee voting also
was slightly ahead of the 1976 level.
Bexar County Democratic chairman
Joyce Peters predicted a “knock down,
drag out” battle in Democratic precinct
caucuses, which are the first step in alloca
tion of delegates.
“That’s the sleeper,” she said. “The pre
cinct conventions are what’s going to sur
prise some people.”
In Lubbock, absentee voting was only
about one-fourth that of 1976, and the 524
votes cast by the time personal voting
closed Tuesday made this year one of the
lowest in a decade for absentee balloting.
In Dallas County, only 631 Democrats
voted absentee this year, compared to
1,722 four years ago. But 1,383 Republi
cans voted absentee in Dallas, almost the
same as the 1,886 total for 1976. The turn
out was down for both parties in Travis
County.
Carter campaign manager Bob Beckel
said a low turnout Saturday will tend to
favor Kennedy and hurt Carter.
Asked to estimate the Democratic turn
out, Beckel said: “I think somewhere in the
1 million range is my guess. The higher the
turnout the better for us.”
only $26 a barrel. The average OPEC price
is $30 a barrel.
Al Madina said the Saudis are expected
to announce at the ministerial conference
they are raising oil prices and urging others
to lower their crude prices to “realize a
price balance” within OPEC.
The Saudi newspaper said the extraor
dinary session of OPEC that opens Sunday
in Al Taef will not involve pricing. The Taef
meeting will “focus on OPEC’s future
strategy” and set a time and a place for the
minsterial conference, it said.
U. S. analysts have speculated for months
Saudi Arabia would lift its crude prices to
between $28 and $30 a barrel, forcing the
cartel’s hawks to roll back prices from the
$35-a-barrel range.
“The Saudis already are producing 9.5
million barrels of oil a day and are not likely
to cut back on production because it
appears the Saudi royal family is anxious to
generate more foreign assets,” said Joseph
Tovey, a New York energy specialist.
“Saudi Arabia also is under a certain
amount of pressure from OPEC to raise its
prices.”
by SHERRY WOODARD
What does a group of Aggies do with
22,000 banana peels left over from a mile-
long banana split built on Kyle Field to aid
charity?
They take them to the University of
Texas, of course.
Six Texas A&M students loaded the
peels into a pick-up truck a little after mid
night Sunday morning and headed for Au
stin.
The plan — originated by Ken Lewis,
president of Alpha Phi Omega service
fraternity, sponsor of the banana split event
— was to arrange the peels in the shape of
the ATM logo (just as the banana split was
arranged) on the turf at Memorial Stadium.
But shortly after the group arrived at the
stadium, University of Texas campus police
arrived to stop them from executing the
plan.
Lewis said they told the police they had
planned only to arrange some of the seats in
Memorial Stadium in the ATM logo.
“They (police) probably knew we were
going to put the peels on the field, but they
went easy on us,” Lewis said.
Lewis said the campus police took their
names and told them to leave the stadium.
He said because the university policemen
had their names, they decided not to leave
the peels anywhere on campus, but take
them to one of the fraternity houses three
or four blocks from the campus.
“We didn’t arrange the peels in the ATM
logo at the fraternity house,” Lewis said.
“We just dumped them all over the
porch and in front of the door so that if
someone wanted to run out after us they
couldn’t get very far,” he said with a
chuckle.
Colonel favored
ending mission
Batt to be
printed next
Wednesday
There will be only one issue of The
Battalion printed next week; that will
be Wednesday.
The Battalion also will publish one
issue each Wednesday during the
break between the spring and sum
mer sessions. The summer produc
tion schedule, which includes papers
on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thurs
day each week, begins June 3.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Combat-tough Col.
Charles Beckwith has forthrightly ended
speculation he recommended going ahead
with the Iran rescue operation, maintain
ing to do so would have risked “murdering
a bunch of the finest soldiers in the world. ”
Beckwith, 51, an Army legend for his
toughness in Vietnam and ground com
mander of the Iran rescue forces, admitted
he was shaken at the fiery death of eight
American comrades during the withdrawal
April 24 from the “Desert 1” staging area
200 miles east of Tehran.
“I sat down and cried,” Beckwith said.
In his first public appearance since the
ill-fated mission, the blunt-spoken veteran,
called “Chargin’ Charlie” by his men, de
nied he was angry the operation was scrub
bed and that he was considering leaving the
service.
“That’s pure bullshit, sir,” said Beck
with.
The powerfully built colonel told Penta
gon reporters Thursday there was “no way”
the mission could have continued with only
five helicopters serviceable for the rescue
of the 53 hostages in Tehran.
Beckwith, in charge of the assault troops,
said when he learned of the chopper shor
tage, he thought, “My God, I’m going to
fail” and went to the deputy task force com
mander, a colonel who had charge of the
“Desert 1” site.
“I said, ‘My recommendation is that we
abort.’”
The colonel told Beckwith, “Would you
consider taking five (helicopters) and going
ahead? And think about it before you
answer me really you’re the guy who’s got
to shoulder this, Charlie.”
“I said I know that,” Beckwith said.
“Give me a couple of seconds to think it
over. And I said to him, by his first name,
there’s just no way. ”
He was asked if there was any second
guessing?
“I didn’t hear any,” Beckwith said.
In answer to questions, Beckwith ex
panded:
“I have been there before and I am not
about to be a party to half-assed loading of a
bunch of aircraft and going up and murder
ing a bunch of the finest soldiers in the
world. I am not that kind of man. ”
In the planning stages for the operation,
Beckwith said, “We felt very, very strong
and everybody did, including myself, that
without the necessary wherewithal to con
tinue to move forward, it would be an im
portant place to abort. So this was
planned.”
Beckwith said the eight bodies had to be
left after the collision of the helicopter and
the C-130 transport — “a huge, monster
fireball ammunition cooking off” — be
cause exploding ammunition and fire
threatened the departure aircraft and a
speedy takeoff was essential.
“I had three years in Vietnam and I don’t
like to leave a body, ” he said, but it would
not have been prudent to risk further lives.
Beckwith said the heat from the fire was
so intense the pilots had to abandon the five
working helicopters sitting nearby.