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Battalion
Serving the University communily
College Station, Texas Friday, October 15, 1982
• staff photo by Octavio Garcia
The best and the brightest
A number of Army cadets received awards Thursday
afternoon in ceremonies held on the main drill field.
The awards included Distinguished Military Student
medals and awards for outstanding performance in
summer training camps.
Polish police kill youth
United Press International
WARSAW, Poland — Polish riot
police fired tear gas and concussion
grenades for the second straight
night in the steel town of Nowa Huta
to crush an angry protest sparked by
the killing of a youth by a policeman.
The fourth day of fierce rioting —
that has spread from Gdansk to
southern Wroclaw to the Krakow sub
urb of Nowa Huta — erupted Thurs
day following a memorial service for
the dead man, Bogdan Wlosik, 20.
Other Polish cities were quiet
Thursday despite calls for strikes in
the Warsaw area and for sympathy
strikes in the Baltic seaport shipyards.
There were several unconfirmed re
ports of brief strikes in some factories.
Protesters demanded the revival of
Solidarity, which was banned last Fri
day by the Polish parliament and the
release of interned Solidarity leader
Lech Walesa as the country marked
the completion of 10 months under
martial law.
Shipyard workers struck the giant
Lenin shipyards Monday and Tues
day, and unconfirmed reports from
church sources Thursday said 500
workers were fired after the plant was
militarized by the government.
In Washington, a White House
statement said: “This action goes
further yet to confirm the authorities
will use whatever force is necessary to
suppress free trade union activities in
its continuing repression of the Polish
people.”
Wlosik’s killing was the first of its
kind since four people were shot dead
in demonstrations Aug. 31 on the
second anniversary of the formation
of Solidarity — once the Soviet bloc’s
only independent labor union.
The latest rioting erupted after a
memorial service for the dead man,
with a group of enraged mourners
marching on the Nowa Huta police
station.
“We will avenge you,” chanted the
youths, one witness said. But another
witness denied this, saying the youths
were yelling obscenities and curses.
Riot police attacked with tear gas,
deafening concussion grenades and
flares, one witness said.
Sporadic explosions could still be
heard well into the evening in what
one witness described as “hide and
seek” scuffles with riot police and
armored police vehicles chasing rio
ters through the streets.
Nowa Huta’s riot squads had
clashed with rock-throwing demon
strators, some hurling firebombs,
Wednesday until after midnight, and
the haze of tear gas hung in the air
until heavy morning rains washed it
away.
The official Polish news agency
PAP said 67 police and 27 civilians
were injured in clashes Wednesday
night, and 135 people detained for
questioning.
Staffer, scientist trade blame
Fuel’s coverage questioned
by Robert McGlohon
Battalion Staff
Dr. John Bockris’ announcement
of a breakthrough in the production
of hydrogen fuel has caused quite an
uproar — not only about the discov
ery itself, but also about the method in
which it was announced.
The usual procedure in announc
ing a scientific advance is to publish
an article in an academic journal be
fore talking to the press.
The hydrogen discovery was
announced Oct. 7 at a press confer
ence attended by journalists from
across the nation. No formal paper on
the discovery has been published.
In Tuesday’s Houston Chronicle,
Bockris said he “had no mind to giv
ing it (news of the discovery) to the
press” but that he was urged on by Ed
Walraven, who covers the science beat
for the Texas A&M Office of Public
Information.
Walraven said he did not urge
Bockris to bypass normal procedure,
however.
“We did not urge him to make a
public announcement,” Walraven
said. “We felt it probably would have
been regarded with more credibility if
we’d gone the traditional route.
“But we talked it over with Dr.
Bockris and he was very concerned
that the public be made aware of this
breakthrough. So we decided if that's
what you want to do, we’ll help you as
much as we can. We just wanted to
help him — once he made up his
mind to go this route — to get the
maximum exposure possible.”
Bockris is in Houston and unavail
able for comment.
Walraven said Bockris probably
called the press conference because
he was concerned about the length of
time involved in following the normal
procedure.
“I think one of Dr. Bockris’ con
cerns was that it might be more than a
year before they could make it pub
lic,” Walraven said. “And he was just
very concerned that this was an im
portant breakthrough and that the
public had a right to know before a
year or a year and a half passed.
“Once you go outside of (the nor
mal procedure), you sort of raise
eyebrows. Most people feel that if you
have really strong, accurate data, then
the way to do it is through the journal.
If you go public first then it sort of
makes everything suspect.”
Walraven said researchers aren’t
forbidden to talk to the press before a
scholarly article is published; the pro
cedure that usually is followed is only
a custom. Varying from this proce
dure can cause suspicion in the acade
mic community, however.
Dr. Adam Heller, an electrochem
ist with Bell Laboratories, said: “At
Bell Lab, the practice is to never pub
lish in the newspapers before writing
an academic article first.”
Bockris has credited Heller with
much of the preliminary work that
led to the recent discovery.
Jeffrey Alford, associate director
of the Office of Public Information,
said that while most researchers pub
lish articles in academic journals be
fore making their discoveries public,
it is just one of the many acceptable
ways to announce a discovery.
“What it really boils down to is a
Texas A&M University faculty mem
ber, just like any other private citizen,
has the right and the power and the
authority to speak in any way he
chooses,” Alford said. “It’s a matter of
freedom of speech. They can say
whatever they darn well please as an
individual and a citizen.”
Lebanon’s Christians,
Moslems clash again
United Press International
: New artillery’ battles between
Lebanese Christian militiamen and
Moslem Druze gunmen broke out in
the hills south of Beirut Thursday de
spite efforts by Israeli troops to sepa
rate the warring factions.
The boom ol artillery fire could be
neard in the capital as the fighters in
the Shouf hills just south of Beirut
international airport battled for the
third straight day.
On Wednesday night, Israeli
'troops moved into the Shouf villages
and fired their weapons into the air to
break up fierce artillery, mortar and
pocket duels.
State-run Beirut radio said two
people were killed and four others
wounded in the fighting before
Thursday’s fresh battles began.
The Druze, a secretive Moslem
sect, have a centuries-old rivalry with
the Christians. Their militia is allied
with the Palestine Liberation Organi
zation.
Israeli warplanes buzzed Beirut
and the eastern Bekaa Valiev, scene
of clashes between Israeli and Svrian
soldiers Tuesday and Wednesday.
In Washington, Israeli Foreign
Minister Yitzhak Shamir was to meet
with Secretary of State George Shultz
to discuss the withdrawal of all fore
ign troops from Lebanon.
As the Israeli government
approved a plan Wednesday to de
mand a buf fer zone in southern Leba
non before its forces leave, Israeli and
Syrian forces in the eastern Bekaa
Valley skirmished for the second
straight day.
In what appeared to be a serious
poliev split in the Palestine Liberation
Organization, Syrian Information
Minister Ahmed Iskander Ahmed
said five of the eight PLO umbrella
groups rejected Jordanian King Hus
sein’s proposal for a Palestinian-
Jordantan federation.
PLO chief Yasser Arafat, ending
four days of talks in Amman with
Hussein on the proposed federation,
arrived Wednesday in Tunis, where
he met with French Foreign Minister
Claude Cheysson, the state-run news
agency TAP reported.
The Israeli government Wednes
day approved a plan for pulling its
army out of Lebanon. The proposal,
as reported by Israel Television and
Radio, included the establishment of
a 25- to 33-mile security strip in south
ern Lebanon.
The plan centered on the with
drawal of some 70,000 Israeli, 25,000
Syrian and 10,000 PLO troops from
Lebanon.
Israel would welcome Washington
as a negotiating partner in talks with
the Beirut government on the estab
lishment of an artillery-free buffer
zone in southern Lebanon, Israeli
news media said.
Under the terms of the plan, Israel
would seek a guarantee from
Gemayel that Lebanon, once a laun
ching area for PLO artillery, rockets
and crossborder raids, would never
again serve as a base for attacks
against northern Israel.
Israel is not demanding Lebanon
sign a formal peace treaty but wants to
negotiate assurance the Lebanese
army will secure the zone in talks in
Jerusalem and Beirut, the reports
said.
Another false alarm
College Station firefighters Steve Lind,
left, and Leo Benford leave the O&M
Building on the back of a fire truck.
Two fire trucks and a rescue vehicle
responded to a false alarm in the building
late Thursday afternoon.
inside
4
10
11
17
4
forecast
Today s Forecast: High of about
82, low in the upper 50s. Con
tinuing cool and dry through the
weekend.
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Ex-captive in Mideast feels no bitterness
United Press International
HOUSTON — An American held captive for
nearly 72 days by Kurdish rebels in Iraq and
then 82 davs by Iranian officials said he bears
no animosity toward his captors and would re
turn to Iraq for business if necessary.
Renaldo Franceschi, 40, described his cap
ture and five-month ordeal for reporters
Thursday, one day after his reunion with his
wife. Millie, and two daughters.
The Houston businessman, who claimed he
feels no bitterness toward the Kurds and Ira
nians for his five-month ordeal, said the biggest
obstacle in obtaining his freedom was convinc
ing Iranian officials he was not a spy.
"I think they kind of assume a U.S. citizen in
their territory automatically may be a spy,”
Franceschi said.
“I believe they (the Iranians) were honest in
the sense it was never an intention of leaving me
in prison an extra day. It w as just a matter of
verifying my story, making sure I was not a
spy.” .
Franceschi, 40, a supervisor for Atco Inter
national, had gone to Iraq in late April to check
on the company’s participation of five hospitals
throughout Iraq. He had intended to stay only a
few days.
He blamed his capture May 2 on car trouble
and Kurdish desire to publicize their push for
independence from Turkey, Iraq and Iran.
Franceschi and another Atco employee, Guy
Boisvert, 23, of Montreal, were driving from
Irbil in northern Iraq to Baghdad when their
car stalled. He believes they were chosen at
random by a passing carload of three Kurds.
“I guess we just were an easy target. We were
foreigners. They only capture foreigners,”
Franceschi said. The captors first helped them
start their truck.
“When we got our vehicle started, one of the
men walked to the driver’s side, pulled a hand
gun to Guy’s head, cocked it and motioned him
to move over,” he said. “I was motioned to the
front seat beside him. We were handcuffed.”
They were driven to the end of drivable
roads, then marched 11 days on foot to a camp
in the Zagros Mountains.
The Kurds fed them, clothed them, became
friendly although there w'as a language barrier,
played gin rummy with.them and treated Bois
vert for a skin disease he developed after cap
ture.
“I do have to admit the first three weeks I was
very antagonistic with them (Kurdish rebels),”
Franceschi said. “All of a sudden, I just couldn’t
help changing my attitude (and) I figured I’d
make friends and maybe they would help me.”
Franceschi said he feared for his life on the
first day he w ; as captured, but then was con
vinced he would not be killed.
Seventy-two days after capture, the Kurds
“released” them to Iran. But the Iranian gov
ernment held them in four Tehran prisons for
the next two and a half months before freeing
them, Boisvert in late September and Frances
chi Oct. 3.