Texas A&M
Battalion
Serving the University community
College Station, Texas.
Tuesday, October 5, 1982
Israel strikes again
United Press International
Israeli jets, in swift reprisal for the
slaying of six soldiers, pounded Sy
rian positions in eastern Lebanon, but
Israel indicated the new Fighting
should not stop talks on a pullout of
all foreign forces from the country.
Israeli demands that all Palestinian
guerrillas leave Lebanon before an
Israeli and Syrian withdrawal were
high on the agenda of a meeting to
day in Jerusalem between U.S. envoy
Morris Draper and Prime Minister
Menachem Begin.
Israel Television quoted govern
ment sources as saying the recent
fighting should not impair efforts to
achieve a withdrawal agreement,
based on an early Palestinian pullout.
“The (ambush), though painful,
should not divert from the final aim
— the removal of all terrorists (guer
rillas) from Lebanon,” the television
report quoted the sources as saying.
In the port of Tripoli, 50 miles
north of Beirut, 20 people were killed
and 45 others wounded in two days of
fighting between leftist militias and
Syrian troops before a ceasefire en
ded hostilities, witnesses said
Monday.
Syrians, aided by Lebanese pro-
Syrian Aloeite factions, and Sunni
Moslems fought with machine guns,
artillery and rocket-propelled gre
nades. The groups have been feuding
since the Syrians entered Lebanon in
1976 as peace-keepers.
In Beirut, Chefik Wazzan,
appointed to a new term as prime
minister by President Amin Gemayel,
today was meeting with parliament
leaders to form a new Cabinet to lead
“a government of national salvation.”
Israeli jet fighters, in two waves,
destroyed a Syrian SAM-9 emplace
ment in the mountains east of Beirut
Monday and pounded troop posi
tions on the strategic Beirut-
Damascus highway.
Lebanese officials said the initial
attack, 23 hours after an eastern
Lebanon ambush on a bus carrying
Israeli troops that killed six and
wounded 22, hit Syrian positions at
Ain Dara and a missile site at Dahr al
Baidar, both around 20 miles east of
the capital.
The second wave, described by
officials as “more intense,” struck
positions on the Beirut-Damascus
highway at Mdeirej, just east of Ain
Dara. But a Syrian spokesman said its
air defense prevented Israel from
“carrying out its goals.”
Israeli officials said after a two-
hour special Cabinet meeting Mon
day the ambush had hardened
Israel’s resolve to insist all PLO guer
rillas leave Lebanon before the with
drawal of Syrian and Israeli troops.
Military sources said between 4,000
and 5,000 PLO guerrillas were de
ployed behind 25,000 Syrian troops
in the Bekaa Valley. Another 3,000
Palestinians were said to be in Tripoli.
Israel reportedly has 70,000 troops in
Lebanon.
Cemayel has said he wants all fore
ign troops out of Lebanon.
Habib briefed Italian officials in
Rome Monday on his Middle East
shuttle mission aimed at getting fore
ign forces out of Lebanon. Before
heading back to Washington, he said
he would stop briefly in Paris to meet
French officials.
College Station citizens
protest proposed increase
James Walter Lee, a graduate poultry science major from
Houston, will be honored tonight at 10:30 during Silver Taps.
Lee was killed in an automobile accident Sept. 11.
il worker shot;
nowledge sought
by Jennifer Carr
Battalion Staff
Complaints about budget formula
tion and excessive programs were
heard at the College Station School
Board’s public hearing Monday,
which concerned a proposed 19.48
percent increase in total tax revenues
from properties on the roll in 1981.
About 25 people gathered in the
Oakwood Middle School library to
discuss and question the proposal,
which could increase some homeow
ners’ taxes almost 100 percent.
The board will vote on the propos
al at 7 p.m. Monday at Oakwood Mid
dle School, 106 Holik.
The tax rate dropped from $1.18
per $ 100 value in 1981 to 92 cents per
$100 this year because of a larger tax
base created by a personal property
reappraisal. The last property
appraisal was made in 1977.
Since the 19.48 percent increase is
calculated on 1981 property evalua
tions, however, the increase could be
substantially more for some homeow
ners when it is applied to the 1982
appraisal values.
Several College Station homeow
ners were concerned with what they
felt was an excessive increase in the
tax rate and questioned the need for
such an increase.
Jerry Cooper, of 602 Bell, editor of
the Texas Aggie, said everyone must
tighten his belt sometime. He said he
doesn’t argue about the worth of the
programs the board administers, but
wanted to know if everything in the
budget is necessary and important to
children’s education.
Dr. Bruce W. Robeck, board presi
dent, said 60 percent of the increase
was caused by a $15.5 million school
district bond issue approved during
the 1981-82 school year. Of the re
maining 40 percent, he said, two-
thirds are increases mandated by the
state.
Board Vice President Stan Sul-
temeier said the problem involves de
termining excessive programs.
Teachers in the College Station Inde
pendent School District received a 19
percent salary increase and the board
added life insurance at $50 an em
ployee, a program Sultemeier said he
considers important. Both of these
programs are affecting the budget
this year, he said.
The board agreed that the most
effective way to cut the budget would
be to increase class size. The ratio cur
rently is one teacher for every 23 to 25
students in elementary schools. The
board said they believed the com
munity was not in favor of increasing
that ratio, however.
Cooper and Page Higgins, 314 Lee
Avenue, a former school teacher,
agreed that one problem with the
school board budget is that it is not
based on available funds.
Trustee John C. Reagor said the
budget is set and the state-
appropriated money is subtracted
from the total amount. The remain
der is the amount that must be raised
locally, he said. By making an arith
metic calculation, he said, the board
can see how much the tax rate must be
increased.
Cooper and Higgins said they
think the school board should take a
look at the money it has and spend it
in the most effective manner possible.
Allen M. Linton, 134 Luther, who
has lived in the area since 1953 and
has sent five boys through school, also
objected to overspending the budget.
Both Cooper and Higgins said a
return to the basics of reading, writ
ing and arithmetic might not be a bad
idea. Cooper said schools are teaching
too many programs that should be
optional.
Sultemeier disagreed, citing the
Legislature’s mandate to teach free
enterprise. He said schools must
teach more than the three Rs.
“It’s not what you can pay for, it’s
what you want to pay for,” Sultemeier
said.
Machine gun ambush kills 6
Israeli soldiers, wounds 22
United Press International
PORT ARTHUR — American Pet-
Co. is offering a $50,000 re
gard for information leading to an
arrest in the shooting of an employee
[who crossed an
workers
inday in
; Drive
of the
rline, a spokesman said Monday,
the® The company offered the reward
an( | in the Saturday shooting of William
f Hinote, 51, of Port Neches. Hinote
as hit with four .22-caliber bullets
bout 5:30 a.m. Saturday in front of
his home as he was leaving for work,
police said.
f He was listed in stable condition at
Mid-Jefferson County Hospital.
Port Neches police, still investigat
ing, said they had turned up no link
tetween the shooting and the strike of
the American Petrofina plant, under
way since Jan. 8.
Spokesman Gary Bruner said the
company suspected the shooting was
related to Hinote’s crossing of the
picket lines set up by 400 members of
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers
Local 4-23.
Union officials were angry anyone
would hint the shooting was tied to
the strike.
Doug Dubose, chairman of the
OCAW Petrofina workmen’s commit
tee, said members of OCAW are “not
a bunch of terrorists. We’re just a
bunch of working people trying to
negotiate a contract with the com
pany.”
United Press International
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem
Begin called his Cabinet into special
session today to weigh Israel’s re
sponse to a machine gun and bazooka
ambush in eastern Lebanon that kil
led six Israeli soldiers and wounded
22 others.
Israeli troops, lighting the night
sky with flares, searched Monday
near Syrian lines in mountainous east
Lebanon for gunmen who ambushed
an Israeli troop bus Sunday 4 miles
from Syrian lines.
Israel Radio blamed Palestine
Liberation Organization guerrillas
operating from behind Syrian lines,
but the government has held the Sy
rian goverrlment responsible for such
attacks in the past.
“This is serious and necessitates
deliberations,” one government offi-
Class pictures
scheduled
for Aggieland
Pictures for the Aggieland are
being taken for freshmen and Soph
omores this week through Oct. 15 in
the Memorial Student Center in
Room 350 and at Yearbook Associ
ates studio at 9700 Puryear Dr.
Picture taking for juniors and
seniors will start Oct. 22 at the
studio.
inside
Classified 6
National 7
Opinions 2
Sports 9
State 5
Whatsup 8
forecast
High in the mid- to upper-80s, low
in the lower 60s tonight. Clear
skies.
cial told Israel’s Armed Forces Radio.
U.S. envoy Philip Habib Sunday
ended two days of talks with Syrian
leaders in Damascus on the withdraw
al of 25,000 Syrian and 70,000 Israeli
troops from central and southern
Lebanon.
Syrian officials said Habib was told
Syria was ready to withdraw from
Lebanon simultaneously with Israeli
forces, but said the 10,000 PLO guer
rillas there “is an issue that concerns
only the Palestine Liberation Organi
zation.”
Habib, following talks with Syrian
President Hafez Assad and foreign
ministry officials, boarded a jet Sun
day and headed for Washington. He
was making a brief stopover in Rome.
In Tel Aviv, Israeli officials scoffed
at suggestions Syria might not be able
to force the PLO fighters to leave.
Israel Radio said Sunday’s attack
makes the withdrawal of PLO forces
from the area more crucial.
An Israeli army spokesman said a
band of men with light weapons and a
bazooka Sunday ambushed the troop
bus from behind a stone wall 4 miles
from Syrian lines, shattering all the
windows and destroying the tires of
the bus.
The army said six men were killed
and 22 were wounded in the attack,
400 yards east of the small town of
Aley, situated 10 miles east of Beirut.
The Israelis immediately shut the
Damascus-Beirut highway and began
a search of the area. Flares used to aid
night search parties were seen in
Beirut, where U.S., Italian and
French peace-keeping forces guard
the streets.
In Tel Aviv, reports said senior
army officers gave Israeli Defense
Minister Ariel Sharon a tongue-
lashing over the Sept. 16-18 massacre
of Palestinian refugees in Beirut but
their criticism stopped short of de
manding he resign.
An army spokesman denied a Lon
don Sunday Times report that the en
tire Israeli general staff, led by Chief
of Staff Lt. Gen. Rafael Eitan, deman
ded Sharon step down last week.
Search officials in Beirut said the
number of bodies found at the re
fugee camps remained at 337, with
hundreds more missing and pre
sumed dead.
Though it is not likely the bodies of
many of the victims will ever be reco
vered, Lebanese officials have esti
mated the actual death toll at about
1,500 people.
New Soviet launch
marks anniversary
United Press International
MOSCOW — The Soviet Union,
celebrating the 25th anniversary of
the launch of Sputnik 1, boasted two
of its cosmonauts now in orbit may
stay “up there forever” and break the
current space endurance record.
The official Soviet news agency
Tass waited until Monday, the
anniversary of the Spunik 1 flight, to
report the launch Saturday of Cos
mos 1412.
The mission of the new satellite
was not revealed but it was unlikely
the launch involved a new section for
an expansion of the Salyut 7 space
station because of differences in
orbits.
At a news conference, space offi
cials hinted the two-man crew aboard
Salyut 7 might try to break the endur
ance record of 185 consecutive days
in space.
“If our people get all the necessary
supplies they can stay up there fore
ver,” said Nikolai Rukavishnikov, a
former cosmonaut who is now a
senior official in the Soviet space
program.
“This mission will last for some
time,” he said of the flight of Valentin
Lebedev and Anatoly Berezovoy.
The cosmonauts were launched
May 13 and will eclipse the endurance
record Nov. 14. Both men were
shown by Soviet television aboard the
space platform on Monday.
Lebedev and Berezovoy used 900
pounds of fuel last week in a maneuv
er that carried their capsule-space-
station-supply-ship complex into an
orbit 40 miles higher than had been
established.
The change increased speculation
the Soviets were planning an impor
tant mission to coincide with the Sput
nik anniversary. But Gen. Anatoly
Filippchenko declined to say at the
news conference why the change was
made.
The New System
staff photo by Octavio Garcia
The new system for book circulation in the
Evans Library was inaugurated Monday by
President Frank E. Vandiver who checked
out two books and received his library card
from Nancy Kent, the circulation supervisor.
The new system will be almost 100 percent
operative by next spring. The library staff
is working on labeling the remaining books
and materials that are not yet under the
new system. See related story on Page 4.