The Battalion
ugusU,!
Serving the University community
ol. 75 No. 183 USPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, August 5, 1982
UN censures
Israel; PLO
offers deal
photo by Debbie Schard
Looks fishy to me
Aaron Gary, front, explains the fine art of fishbowl boys are a few of the many children in the area who
supervision and maintenance to Evans Tucker. The two attend French’s Schools, Inc.
teagan calls for meeting
United Press International
^ASHINGTON — President
|gan, expressing “profound con-
to the Israeli government,
inesday ordered an emergency
fctingof the special situation group
assess the new Israeli attacks on
:st Beirut.
j Deputy press secretary Larry
lakes told reporters Reagan was
jfedon the heavy fighting “late last
Jhtand again at 6:15 a.m.” EDT by
jational security affairs adviser Wil-
am Clark.
■Speakes said the meeting of the
tisis group, chaired by Vice Presi
dent George Bush was called “to re
view, assess and make recommenda
tions to the president.”
“Our position is that the most re
cent action cannot be helpful to the
peace process,” Speakes said. “It
makes it virtually impossible to con
duct diplomatic efforts.
“We have expressed our profound
concern to the government of Israel
and expect further communications
with the government of Israel.”
Israeli tanks today rolled into west
Beiruit for the first time. The assault
further tightened the noose around
some 6,000 trapped Palestine Libera
tion Organization forces and shat
tered the war’s ninth cease-fire,
arranged earlier this week by pres
idential envoy Philip Habib. The
Israeli move came just two days after
Reagan told Israeli Foreign Minister
Yitzhak Shamir it was “absolutely im
perative” that the bloodshed in Beirut
be halted.
Among those attending the
emergency session on the Lebanon
crisis were Secretary of State George
Shultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar
Weinberger, the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff John Vessey,
CIA director William Casey and U.N.
Ambassdor Jeane Kirkpatrick.
The new assault came a day after
the United Nations ordered U.N.
observers to take up positions in parts
of Beirut controlled by Lebanon’s
government. Secretary-General
Perez de Cuellar made the decisions
without waiting to hear whether
Israel would accept the observers.
Speakes said there have been mes
sages back and forth with Israel. He
said there was an escalation of the
fighting during the night with “Israeli
troop movements beyond the air
port.”
United Press International
Israeli and Palestinian gunners
traded sporadic artillery and rocket
fire at daybreak today, shaking Pales
tinian-controlled west Beirut before it
could recover from an avalanche of
air raids, artillery and gunboat fire.
The U.N. Security Council, with
the United States casting a surprise
abstention, censured Israel for attack
ing west Beirut, where no section
escaped shellfire Wednesday in the
fiercest combat in two months of war.
The Palestinian Liberation Orga
nization, apparently humbled by the
Israelis’ awesome military onslaught,
submitted a new compromise propos
al for evacuating its guerrillas from
Lebanon, a PLO source said.
President Reagan sent a personal
letter to Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin threatening a possi
ble cut-off of military aid if the
assaults continued, ABC News said
Wednesday.
The report said the president
warned, if Israel attempts a full-scale
invasion of west Beirut it will raise
“profound questions for the future
bilateral relationship.”
But the Israeli government showed
no signs of bowing to U.S. or interna
tional anger. Begin vowed in a speech
to visiting U.S. Jewish fundraisers,
“nobody, nobody is going to bring
Israel to its knees.”
After a night of relative calm,
Israeli gunboats blasted west Beirut
with booming charges today that
shook windows in the Commodore
Hotel, home of some 200 foreign re
porters.
The Israeli army said several
Soviet-made Katyusha were fired at
its forces in the area of Beirut Inter
national airport.
The Christian Phalangist Radio
said Lebanese officials, the PLO, and
U.S. envoy Philip Habib were trying
to arrange another cease-fire, the
tenth of the war.
State-run Beirut Radio said at least
nine hospitals were hit during
Wednesday’s savage shelling attack
that is believed to have killed or
wounded some 300 people.
The military command said 18 sol
diers died in Wednesday’s fighting in
Beirut and another was killed in an
ambush of a truck east of Beirut.
The command announced earlier
64 Israelis were wounded in the com
bined armor and infantry thrusts,
backed by artillery and aerial bom
bardments.
The Israeli attack, which shattered
the ninth cease-fire of the Lebanon
invasion, began shortly after mid
night Wednesday and continued
without letup through the day.
As tanks rolled across the so-called
green-line separating west Beirut
from the Israeli-controlled eastern
sector, shellfire rained down on the
city, where 500,000 civilians still live.
Begin said Wednesday it was “out
of the question” for any PLO guerrilla
to remain in Lebanon.
Well-informed sources within the
PLO said Chairman Yasser Arafat
had agreed to modify his conditions
for evacuation of the 6,000 PLO guer
rillas in Beirut.
Dropping his demand that a multi
national peace-keeping force be in
place before a PLO pullout, Arafat
said the guerrillas were prepared to
leave during a simultaneous deploy
ment of the force.
It was not clear if that proposal,
relayed to U.S. mediator Philip
Habib, would be acceptable to Israel,
which had demanded the PLO get out
of Beirut before any third-party
forces are admitted.
The outgunned guerrillas, sciss-
sored between twin flanks of the
Israeli assault force, also dropped
another key demand — that the guer
rillas be allowed to stop for an indefi
nite period in eastern Lebanon en
route to Syria.
Senate approves
budget amendment
strawberry
lesearch firm warns danger
Anti-satellite weapons tested
United Press International
1VASHINGTON — An indepen-
em research organization warns
Sting of an American satellite killer
ow under development would step
P the arms race and increase the risk
’ fp war in space.
[7M The American anti-satellite
feapon has not yet been tested but
ptagon officials have said tests are
prpected to begin soon.
JflX Rkesearcher Daniel Deudney said
Ja report published Wednesday by
be Worldwatch Institute, a non-
irofit group which receives money
1m private foundations and United
Nations’ organizations, that the Soviet
Union already has tested extensively a
satellite killer.
He said the Soviet system uses a
satellite that is maneuvered close to a
target and then is detonated. The
American anti-satellite system uses
small two-stage missiles launched
from a high-flying jet fighter.
From the standpoint of arms con
trol and crisis management, Deudney
said the American system will be far
more destabilizing because it could
strike anywhere with little warning,
while the Soviet killer satellites can be
tracked as they are launched and
maneuvered in orbit.
Deudney said the current Soviet
anti-satellite weapon is of minimum
threat to the United States because
most of America’s satellites are higher
than the Soviet satellite killer can
reach. But he said the American sys
tem could reach a high percentage of
Soviet satellites.
“More than just a catch-up effort,
the U.S. system is a technological adv
ance into a whole new plateau of dan
ger,” the Worldwatch paper said.
It said time is running out to con
trol these new space weapons.
Deudney said the testing of the
American system is “the realistic point
of no return” because once tested, the
anti-satellite weapons could deployed
anywhere and would present an
“arms control verification night-
“If unchecked by appropriate arms
control measures, this technology
could largely cancel out the peaceful
benefits of space while opening up an
expensive and volatile new dimension
to the arms race,” he said in the re
port.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Senate,
which less than two months ago pas
sed a budget with a record amount of
red ink, Wednesday approved a
proposed constitutional amendment
requiring a balanced federal budget.
The vote was 69-31, two more than
the two-thirds vote necessary to
approve a constitutional amendment.
To become part of the Constitution,
two-thirds of the House, 290 mem
bers, must approve it and it must be
ratified by at least 38 states.
The Flouse has not acted on the
amendment yet, because opponents
have kept it bottled up in committee.
Without House action by mid-
October, when the 97th Congress
plans to adjourn, the amendment will
die and the Senate passage will have
been for naught.
A discharge petition seeking to
send the amendment immediately to
the House floor for a vote Tuesday
had only 184 of the 218 signatures
necessary to become effective.
The constitutional amendment is
strongly supported by President
Reagan, who also endorsed the 1983
budget resolution with its estimated
deficit of at least $115 billion. That
resolution was approved by Congress
less than two months ago.
Even if approved by Congress this
year, supporters do not expect the
amendment to become effective until
at least 1987.
The amendment passed after the
Senate, on a 73-27 vote, rejected a
move by assistant Democratic leader
Alan Cranston of California to re
place it with one allowing deficit
spending for Social Security and
veterans benefits.
The amendment carries with it a
rider which would require a three-
fifths vote by Congress to raise the
national debt ceiling — an addition
some believe further jeopardizes its
chances in the House.
New insurance rates to be explained
by Rebeca Zimmermann
Battalion Staff
Texas A&M University faculty
[and staff members will have a
pance to learn about the increase in
oup insurance rates Tuesday at
0:30 a.m. and Aug. 18 at 8 p.m. in
oom 701 Rudder.
Increases in Texas A&M Univer-
wv System group insurance rates
| rill take effect Sept. 1. H. Ray
I bith, director of personnel at
: fexas A&M, told Academic Council
I jiembers Tuesday the rate increases
I pe necessary because of large in-
| teases in the number of insurance
laims made.
Smith said the amount of money
laid out in insurance claims in the
st two years has surpassed the
Honey amount taken in from pre-
n j um payments:
In 1980-81, $6,884,523 in pre
miums were received by the insur-
nce plan; $8,136,754 were paid in
Bairns. Based on projections from
ept. 1,1981 through June 30, pre-
iiiums paid will be $ 10,871,369 and
claims paid to beneficiaries will be
$13,445,039.
The new insurance plan will in
clude three different coverage
plans: deluxe, basic and economy
coverage. The current insurance
plan has a standard and an economy
rate.
Monthly rates are based on the
number of dependents an employee
of the Texas A&M System claims on
the insurance policy. Under both
current plans, the state contributes
$48 toward each employee’s insur
ance plan regardless of how many
dependents are claimed by the em
ployee.
The current standard plan for an
employee, which includes a $ 100 de
ductible and the Prescription Card
Service (PCS), costs $48 per month.
PCS allows an employee to get pre
scription drugs for $1; insurance
pays the rest of the drug’s cost.
The cost for an employee with
one dependent is $86.79, and
$110.81 per month for an employee
with two or more dependents.
A retiree of the System now pays
$48 per month on the standard
plan. A retiree with one dependent
pays $83.50 per month, and a re
tiree with two or more dependents
pays $103.54 per month.
An employee on the present eco
nomy plan, which includes a $300
deductible and PCS, pays $39.48.
An employee with one dependent
pays $66.07 per month, and an em
ployee with two or more dependents
pays $83.55 per month. This plan is
not'available to retirees.
Under the new insurance plans,
the state will pay $58 of the total
cost.
The new deluxe medical insur
ance plan will feature a $ 100 deduc
tible and includes PCS.
For an employee, monthly pay
ments on the deluxe plan will be
$88.94. An employee with one de
pendent will pay $185.71 per
month, and an employee with two or
more dependents will pay $242.26.
A retiree of the System on the
deluxe plan will pay $83.03 per
month. A retiree with one depen
dent will pay $174.97, and a retiree
with two or more dependents will
pay $228.69.
The basic plan to take effect Sept.
1 has a $200 deductible and includes
PCS. An employee on the basic plan
will pay $58 per month. The plan
costs $159.81 per month for an em
ployee with one dependent, and an
employee with two or more depen
dents will pay $198.44 per month.
Cost for a System retiree on the
new basic plan will be $58 per
month. The plan costs $ 150.35 for a
retiree with one dependent and
$187.05 for a retiree with two or
more dependents.
“We realize lower paid people
won’t be able to afford these plans,”
Smith said, “so we offer the eco
nomy plan.”
He said the economy plan is in
surance for a serious illness or in
jury, not for ordinary medical ex
penses.
The economy plan has a $500 de
ductible; it doesn’t include PCS.
The economy plan will cost an
employee $44.25 per month. An
employee with one dependent will
pay $120.61 per month, and an em
ployee with two or more dependents
will pay $149.58 per month.
The economy plan costs a retiree
of the System $43.85 per month. A
retiree with one dependent will pay
$113.11, and a retiree with two or
more dependents will pay $140.63
per month.
Smith said many people in the
state want the legislature to increase
the amount it pays on state em
ployees’ insurance benefits to $78
one year and $94 the next.
“We are trying to get the state
contribution up,” Smith said.
The System received bids for
group insurance plans from six
companies; the contract was
awarded to Southwestern Life In
surance Co.
If employees are now on the stan
dard insurance plan, they will auto
matically be enrolled in the new de
luxe plan unless the personnel de
partment is notified, Smith said.
inside
Classified 6
National 10
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State 3
Whatsup 10
forecast
Partly cloudy with highs near 100;
low in the upper-70s.