Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 1980)
0 0 The Battalion Vol. 74 No. 55 10 Pages Serving the Texas A&M University community Friday, November 14, 1980 « College Station, Texas USPS 045 360 Phone 845-2611 The Weather Yesterday Today High 82 High 78 Low 44 Low Rain . 0.00 inches Chance of rain . . . . . . 20% e e Sg s @ Controversy delays hostage release United Press International ALGIERS, Algeria — Iran’s Islamic regime formed a special committee to look at the U. S. reply to conditions for the release of the 52 American hostages, but hopes the captives would be re leased before the end of the year began to fade. Reliable sources in Algeria, whose diplomats are serving as go-betweens in the Washington-Tehran dialogue, said Thursday they believe the American response would only worsen the con flict between the militant fundamentalists and more pragmatic members of Iran’s parliament. Many officials in Tehran believe Washington’s long, legalistic reply to their demands was only a delaying tactic, an Iranian diplomat in Algiers said. The contents of the reply have not been divulged, but the United States has indicated it finds no complications in meeting an Iranian demand for a pledge of non-interference in Iran. But Washington has indicated the other three conditions — a move to return the wealth of the late shah, dropping financial claims against Iran and freeing Iranian assets frozen in the United States — entail time-consuming financial and legal questions. In Tehran, a committee was formed by the Iranian government to study the American response to its conditions for liberty for the hostages, the Algerian radio reported. The committee met all day Thursday, but came to no decision. Iran suffers at homefront Hopes that the 52 Americans might be released before the end of the year were battered by several developments. A report published in an Arizona newspaper quoted “unim peachable” Carter administration sources as saying they did not believe the hostage negotiations would make substantial progress at all this year. “Our people do not consider it at all likely that there will be an affirmative response (from Iran) for the remainder of this year, ” the Arizona Republic quoted Treasury Department sources as saying. The Iranian parliament closes Saturday for a week to observe Moharam, a Moslem holy period of mourning, making it unlikely any decision on the hostages would even be considered until late in the month. The United States also has indicated legal complications stand in the way of meeting Iran’s demands on the hostages. The biggest problem from the American legal standpoint was Tehran’s insistence that all claims against Iran pending in U.S. courts be dropped. Sources in Algiers, in close touch with Iran, also said another unfavorable sign for the hostages was the fact they were still being held captive by the militants who stormed the U.S. Embassy Nov. 4, 1979. Down with the o Staff photo by Gree Gammon s @ Kenneth W. Melson, maintenance foreman for Married Student Housing bulldozes the last remains of one of the old barrack style apartments for married students. The Apartments are located north of campus off University Drive. Many of the old apartments are still used, but will all eventually be leveled to make room for newer housing. Food rationing possible eagan advisers to meet Saturday s f <" o ^ § aw G-O-n m ™ O T3 r « 9> ® ~1 Z = s£=S 3lj‘S United Press International SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Ronald Reagan has promised nswers to America’s economic ills, and this weekend a group of his top economic advisers will see if they can make good on the pledge. KSome 15 top economists — all of them conservatives — will [gather in Los Angeles Saturday and Sunday to map strategy for Kagan. ■Chaired by former Treasury Secretary George Shultz, the (group will include some of the most prominent Republican eco- homists in the country. J|They include Alan Greenspan, the former head of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Gerald Ford; Arthur Bums, former chairman of the Federal Reserve; Rep. Jack Kemp R-N.Y., co-author of the Kemp-Roth 30 percent, three-year, tax-cut proposal; former Treasury Secretary William Simon; eco- Ifiomist Milton Friedman; former Ford Budget Director James ; Lynn; former Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Caspar Weinberger and others. The economic task force has, according to transition chief Edwin Meese, already spotted about 6 percent of the 1981 budget that can be trimmed. Reagan has promised to cut the 1981 budget by 2 percent. The 1981 fiscal year began Oct. 1. The economists also are expected to discuss future spending cuts and tax breaks during the weekend conference. The country’s high interest rates may also be addressed by fellow conferee Walter Wriston, a New York banker. Reagan, who today ends the week-long stay at his 688-acre Rancho del Cielo, may drop in on the meeting, but for the most part the men are expected to come up with a number of options for Reagan’s future review. Reagan will spend Saturday and Sunday at his Pacific Palisades home and leave for Washington Monday. If reporters are to believe his spokesman, the former California governor has done virtually nothing this week at his ranch in the Santa Ynez mountains except ride horses, clear trails and chop wood. United Press International BAGHDAD, Iraq — Arab ranks were further splintered today over the Iran-Iraq war, and there were indications that Iran may be forced to introduce food rationing. But Iran claimed its warplanes destroyed the Iraqi port of Fao, knocking out all of the port’s installations, then began bombing the southern city’s oil targets. Iran also charged Egyptian soldiers were fighting with the Iraqis and Iranian fighters were beginning to harry Iraqis within their own borders. Neither claim could be veri fied. In a sign the 54-day war was beginning to hurt Iran on the domestic front, Tehran Radio reported Prime Minister Moham mad Ali Rajai met with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to discuss the need for food ra tioning and measures against black mar- keteering. Pars, Iran’s official news agency, said Ra jai and Khomeini also discussed matters under consideration by the Supreme De fense Council, but gave no details. Earlier this week Pars said the council was seeking clarification of Iraqi peace proposals. Immediately after the meeting, Rajai left for a western battlefield tour “to study the situation of the war-stricken people, ” said a spokesman in Rajai’s office. Iraq also had its problems — mainly with Syria, rejecting Syria’s call for a postpone ment of the Nov. 25 Arab summit confer ence because of the Persian Gulf war, but radical South Yemen backed the proposal, signaling a further split in Arab ranks. Iraq, apparently seeking a show of Arab support in its war with Iran, urged the Tunis-based Arab League not to postpone the summit meeting, scheduled to open Nov. 25 in Amman, Jordan, at “this delicate moment,” the official Iraqi news agency said. Syria, which backs Iran in the war, re quested the summit be put off because of the fighting. South Yemen, one of four radical Arab states who form the “front of confrontation and steadfastness,” notified the league Thursday it supported Syria’s request for a postponement of the conference, the Qatari news agency said in a dispatch from Tunis. In Damascus, a Syrian inspired anti- Iraqi movment, the “National democratic and pan-Arab front in Iraq,” pledged to overthrow the Bagdhad regime of Sadaam Hussein and replace it with a wide-based “democratic” movement. The movement announced its objectives at news confer ence attended by several top Syrian offi cials. Neighboring Persian Gulf oil states, alarmed by a wayward rocket attack which shook a remote Kuwait frontier post, closed ranks Thursday because of concern the struggle could spill over into their nations. Kuwait blamed Iran and its denunciation was quickly supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emi rates. g) Q. c f-o S' 0) £ w exasA&M campus the fts highest in Texas for 79 By JENNIFER AFFLERBACH Battalion Stall Last year Texas A&M University reported more thefts to the b> o ^ FBI than any other college in the state, according to the FBI’s -3 3 5' eg 5 » Texas Crime Report. ® =*. jS.'O //it The 1979 report stated that Texas A&M reported 867 thefts, §;§ 2 S o \Ji I followed by the University of Texas at Austin with 809 reported ra 2.5 thefts, Texas Tech with 595, and the University of Houston with |®- n® fp6. ® ® jg ® W n]| Carelessness by students and faculty causes the campus thefts, a ^ (t and more experience among police officers and more efficient use of their patrol time could deter it, says University Police Chief Russ McDonald. McDonald said he has been accused of blaming the victim * instead of the criminal by saying carelessness leads to theft. 0 1' “I agree, a person should have the right to lay something down outside the bookstore, but they can’t, ” he said, without a chance of 3 g 6 3 : O O' QJ 0 ® S 2 w ®. 3 < a o S) » '** m (D 2.3 < it being stolen. Books and calculators should not be left un attended in buildings, he said, and secretaries should lock their purses in file cabinets. A summary police report for one day last week showed the following thefts: — a wallet missing from a purse that was put on the floor under a desk in the Biological Sciences Building; — a wallet taken from a purse left unattended in a restroom; — the disappearance of a purse and a backpack left outside the racketball courts in DeWare Fieldhouse; — the loss of a backpack left unattended in the hallway of the Small Animal Clinic. “If (officers were) released from other chores, and if we could retain officers long enough to make them effective, we could reduce the crime rate,” McDonald said. It takes about one year for an officer to know the campus well and be “effective,” he said. The starting salary for a Texas A&M patrolman is $4.82 an hour, with an increase to $5.33 an hour after three months on the job and completion of a 320-hour basic training course. The average monthly salary for a University patrolman is $100 to $200 below the beginning salary at the Bryan and College Station police departments, McDonald said. “As soon as an officer is trained, he goes somewhere where he can make more money,” he said. There are 44 officers on the force, which has a capacity of 46. Thirty of those actually patrol the campus. Writing tickets takes up much of an officer’s time during the day, McDonald said. Last year, University Police issued 118,000 tickets. The University of Texas and the University of Houston hire people to write tickets so their officers’ time is not tied up, McDonald said. “If we could patrol buildings in the daytime, it would cut down on theft,” he said. “I don’t know if going into the buildings would prevent that much, but it wouldn’t hurt at all. It’s hard to say how many crimes you’ve prevented (by patrolling an area).” McDonald said he thinks that has been the case in the parking lots, which are frequently patrolled. The number of reported vehicle burglaries on campus has decreased 20 percent, from 100 during the 1978-79 school year to 80 last year, according to a University Police report. In comparison, reported burglaries of buildings increased 43 percent, from 99 instances two years ago, to 142 last year, accord ing to the report. Another “chore” which takes up officers’ time is false alarms. Of 409 fire alarms reported on campus last school year, six were actual alarms, according to police reports. None of the 125 hold up or intrusion alarms last year were actual alarms. Equipment malfunction, user errors and “people pulling them” account for the majority of the false alarms, McDonald said. 6 iS 9 '? ipito Abscam jurors view }j ij 3 more videotapes 0i United Press International NEW YORK — Jurors in the lastest Abscam trial saw a videotape showing Rep. ^ John Murphy, D-N. Y., deny to FBI under- ai f cover agents that he had accepted $50,000. p A second videotape showed a stunned bag- ^ man being told he was dealing with federal ■gents. “You didn’t, you didn’t give me any j|money,” Murphy said on the videotape as jurors in a packed, hushed courtroom ^ I watched on 10 television monitors in U.S. /1J | District Court in Brooklyn. 0 ” | “I never received any money from any- I one, and would not accept anything,” Mur- phy said on the tape. C f The prosecution contends Murphy made the statements because he became suspi- ^ pious he was being set up by the agents, - posing as representatives of a phony Arab vjs sheik with immigration problems. ( In an earlier videotaped meeting with Murphy, undercover agent Anthony 1 Amoroso, and Howard Criden, a Philadel phia lawyer, Amoroso picked up a briefcase |-containing $50,000 and tried to hand it to hy. But the congressman said, “Ho ward, why don’t you take care of that.” Criden took the briefcase. Criden, convicted of bribery and con- piracy in an earlier Abscam trial, allegedly cted as middleman between the congress- and the undercover agents. He has |)een severed from the current trial. Jurors Thursday saw a second videotape (in which Crider, at a meeting in the Hilton Inn in New York on Feb. 2, was told by an undercover agent that he was an FBI man. Crider sat stunned in his chair while two other FBI agents walked into the room and identified themselves. He mumbled only, “yes sir, yes sir,” before being led away for questioning. The videotape of Murphy’s denial fol lowed one in which Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, an unidicted co-conspirator in the case, said Murphy and his co defendant, Rep. Frank Thompson, D-N.J., “expect to be taken care of. ” Murtha, who is scheduled to testify for the prosecution in the trial, himself refiised the money, telling Ameroso that he was on the House Ethics Committee and said that, “If you get into heat with a politician, there’s no amount of money that can help. ” Murphy and Thompson are accused of sharing in separate $50,000 bribes to take the necessary steps in helping the sheik to immigrate. Thompson was videotaped at a separate meeting picking up a briefcase with $50,000 and handing it to Criden. Murphy, 54, chairman of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Commit tee, and Thompson, 62, chairman of the House Administration Committee, were the first congressmen to be tried together in an Abscam case. Both were defeated last week in their bids for re-election — Thompson after 26 years in the House and Murphy after 18 years. Coastal residen ts ready for Jeanne Congress productive in lame duck session United Press International NEW ORLEANS — Tropical Storm Jeanne, which shocked forecasters by form ing so late in the hurricane season, chased thousands of Louisiana coastal residents in land today in advance of its 70 mph winds and heavy squalls. Schools closed, homes were boarded up, Civil Defense officials went on alert and Jeanne became the No. 1 topic of conversa tion. Stocking the larder and filling the tank At 5 a.m. Hurricane Jeanne was located at 25.6 degrees north, 94.4 degrees west and was moving slow ly westward. She was 125 miles east of Brownsville. with gasoline — typical hurricane precau tions -r- were common. “We re all fueled up, eroceried up and we’re ready to weather it out,” said Chief warrant officer Robert Gatlin, Coast Guard group commander at Grand Isle on the Louisiana Gulf Coast. “We re buying dry ice to put in our fami ly quarters,” he said. “We have completed the boarding of windows. We went out and picked up all the hazards and got all the buildings as closed up as we can.” Although strong winds continued and boats were urged to remain in port, gale, warnings were discontinued today from Port Arthur, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Warnings continued in effect from Port Arthur south to Port O’Connor, Texas. Oil company crewboats and helicopters evacuated thousands of workers from offshore rigs and platforms in the Gulf, halt ing production at a cost of millions of dol lars. “They’ve got reports of 70 mph winds and 17-to 20-foot seas” offshore, said Ocean Drilling and Exploration Co. spokesman Al Spmdler. “They’re securing everything.” David Barnes of the National Weather Service said the storm could cause some heavy rains, although probably fewer than 8 inches, and “may still pack enough punch” to disrupt utilities and flood some United Press International WASHINGTON —The lame duck ses sion of Congress is off to a flying start. In two days of post-election lawmaking, the House passed two major bills, a deci sion was made not to seek an immediate tax cut, the federal budget was scheduled for floor action in both houses early next week, and the Senate approved an anti-busing amendment. That sort of pace was almost unheard of during the year before the election, and it may come to a halt next week when the fiscal 1981 budget hits the House and Sen ate floors. House Speaker Thomas O’Neill said Democrats had agreed to pass a budget, as many appropriation bills as possible and a handful of other bills, and let the remainder go until the next Congress after Ronald Reagan is president. Thursday, the House passed, 345-23, and sent to the Senate a $6.9 billion re- venue-sharing bill, and the Senate voted, 42-38, to go along with a House-passed amendment banning the Justice Depart ment from seeking court orders to end ra cial discrimination through school busing. Editor position open If you aren’t happy with your student newspaper or if you think you can do it better, this is your chance to try to get in a position to do something about it. The Student Publications Board at Texas A&M University is accepting applications for The Battalion for the spring semester. The editor will serve from Jan. 1 through May 2, 1981. Applications must be submitted to Bob G. Rogers, chairman of the Student Publi cations Board, by 5 p.m. on Dec. 2. They may be obtained at the Department of Communications office in 301 Reed McDo nald, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. To be considered for the editor position. a student must have at least a 2.0 cumula tive overall and major grade point ratio at the time of taking office and during the term of office. Experience is also a requirement. A potential editor must have at least one year of experience in a responsible editorial position on The Battalion, a comparable student newspaper or a commercial paper. This requirement may also be met by com pletion of at least 12 hours of journalism, including Journalism 203, 204 and 403. The Student Publications Board will in terview candidates and nominate an editor at 7p.m. on Dec. 9in Reed McDonald 301. The nomination must then be confirmed by the Vice President for Academic Affairs.