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The Battalion
Vol. 74 No. 55
10 Pages
Serving the Texas A&M University community
Friday, November 14, 1980
« College Station, Texas
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Phone 845-2611
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.