The Battalion
Serving the University community
->■ thesovielol, 76 No. 64 USPS 045360 16 Pages
>htain terrii*
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, December 1, 1982
<ii Finland,
srael
t3-mile-loJ
Gulf off
ai interim p®
i Egypt,
>i' theday:(]
ir: resolutiotl
ce. In via
In
peace: |
ritish spy trials
eveal more leaks
United Press International
LONDON — A Canadian college
tjfofessor who worked for NATO
id allegedly spied for the Soviet Un-
for 23 years turned over “highly
Bmaging material,” the prosecutor
at Britain’s latest spy trial said today.
I Attorney-General Sir Michael
Havers said Prof. Hugh Hambleton
|ssed over hundreds of documents
[“maybe 300” — that he took home
lernight and photographed from
his job with the North Atlantic Treaty
Jganization in Paris between 1956
|d 1961.
rlhere can be no doubt he passed
Voss a great deal of highly damag
ing material,” Havers said. “The films
Wire handed over to agents at brief
meetings in different parts of Paris.
Often on the Metro — usually in dark
streets.”
The trial of Hambleton, who has
dual Canadian and British citizen
ship, is the latest in a rash of spy cases
that has raised fresh doubts about
Britain’s intelligence network.
A former diplomat at the British
Embassy in Israel was convicted Mon
day of handing over confidential in
formation to her Egyptian lover.
Havers said that at first the Rus
sians sent Hambleton specific re
quests for documents or warned him
of danger on a medium-wave radio.
The communications system was
changed when Hambleton resigned
from NATO in 1961 “for reasons that
are not entirely clear” and went to
work in Canada, Havers said.
Hambleton allegedly received a de
coding machine, which was delivered
in a car battery left at an under
ground car park in Montreal.
Havers said Hambleton, an econo
mics professor at Laval University in
Quebec, traveled extensively between
1970 and 1975, making trips to Israel,
Peru and Haiti, to spy for the Rus
sians on those countries.
At the start of the trial Monday,
Havers also told how Hambleton vi
sited Moscow in 1975 and met Soviet
leader Yuri Andropov, then head of
the KGB spy service.
“Andropov suggested he become
involved in Canadian politics and
apply pressure in parliament on be
half of Moscow,” Havers said.
plixon intervened
1971 air-bag rule
United Press International
.DEARBORN. Mich. — Former
Iresident Richard Nixon ordered
[ohn Ehrlichman to intervene in the
[rafting of auto air-bag requirements
is a result of a 1971 meeting with
(ord Motor Co. executives, a White
use tape transcript shows.
spokesman for the company said
today, however, the executives —
jlenry Ford II and Lee lacocca —
[ere not trying to kill federal air-bag
Indards, but merely arguing their
Be when they met with Nixon April
7,1971.
■Nixon, Ehrlichman, Ford, then the
Tnpany’s chairman, and lacocca,
) was then Ford president,
nded the meeting, a transcript of
ixon tape in the National Archives
pws. lacocca has since become
lirman of Chrysler Corp. and Ford
has retired.
Six months later, a pending rule,
requiring air bags in every new car
starting in 1973 was rescinded by the
Department of Transportation. It
was never put into effect.
Auto safety experts have partially
blamed the meeting for the fact air
bags are not available on American
cars.
Ford spokesman Jerry Sloan said
the company was not seeking to quash
the air-bag requirements but only to
outline the firm’s position. The trans
cript shows even though he ordered
Ehrlichman to intervene, Nixon said
he would reserve judgment on the
issue until he heard other arguments.
“The conversation with the presi
dent 11 years ago was nothing more
than what we were saying publicly at
the time and have said ever since,”
said Sloan.
“To say this meeting was anything
more than to explain to the president
what we were already telling the pub
lic is 100 percent hogwash.”
In an interview with the Los
Angeles Times, Ben Kelley, senior
vice president of the Insurance Insti
tute for Highway Safety, said Ehrlich
man boasted to him years later he had
put a stop to the air-bag rule.
The meeting had been rumored
for years. Its existence was never cer
tain until the transcript was used as an
exhibit in a Pennsylvania suit filed
against Ford ■ by the parents of a
young girl killed in the crash of. a
Pinto
John Volpe, Nixon’s secretary of
transportation, told the Times he had
heard rumors about such a confer
ence but had never been able to con
firm it.
ramm will consider
switching, other options
;an
1 from staff and wire reports
| If Rep. Phil Gramm, D-College
Hation, is dropped from the House
Budget committee in January, he will
consider options other than switching
pities, Gramm’s press secretary said
iuesday.
I “Gramm is truly not interested in
[changing parties,” Larry Neal said,
‘it is just one of a number of options
that he has and he has not given any
sdious consideration to any of them.”
■ Gramm also could complete his
term and come back to College Sta
tion and Texas A&M, Neal said, or, as
gjiamm said, stay and “suffer in si
lence.”
A source on the House Budget
Committee said earlier in the week
at it is almost certain Gramm will be
dropped from the budget committee
in January when the 98th Congress
ftpnvenes and the Democratic major
ity makes committee assignments.
I Gramm was a leader of conserva
tive House Democrats who joined
with the Republican minority last year
to pass President Ronald Reagan’s tax
nd budget cuts. The group was given
the name “Boll Weevils” because
Phil Gramm
many came from the Texas and other
southern states, where the boll weevil
beetle plagues the cotton crop.
The committee source said that
Gramm is not being singled out for
his voting record, but rather because
he sat in on Democratic budget
strategy meetings in 1981 and then
gave meeting information to the
Reagan administration. Gramm de
nies the charge.
If there is a fight over the budget
committee seat in January, Gramm
will come back to the district and meet
with his constituency, Neal said. He
also said that there has not been mych
reaction from Gramm’s constituency
yet.
Speculation of a possible party
switch is based on Gramm’s hiring of
V. Lance Tarrance and Associates of
Houston to conduct polls in his dis
trict. Tarrance regularly conducts
polls for Republican politicians.
The poll is an election follow-up
and is not meant to gauge public opin
ion on a possible party switch, Neal
said.
“Because Congressman Gramm
ran unopposed in the election, there
is a question as to whether it was what
the people wanted,” Neal said. “It is
simply an after-election poll to see
what the people want — what they’re
thinking about.”
It may go plate-tinum
staff photo by Irene Mees
Jennifer Stone, left, of Houston, and
Russell Sanders, of Lake Jackson, put the
finishing touches on “Rhapsody in Blue,”
in front of the Academic Building. The
sculpture is the fourth in Sanders’
“Greatest Musical Hits: a five-part series.”
This is the first time anyone has helped
him and Stone paint the paper plate
art. Stone and Sanders are senior
environmental design majors.
Klan leader not going
to mostly Mexican jail
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — A Ku Klux
Klan leader who feared he would be
assigned to a Texas prison with an
inmate population that is 82 percent
Mexican apparently was the victim of
a government mistake.
Stephen Don Black said Monday
the government incorrectly had in
formed him he was assigned to the La
Tuna Federal Correctional Institu
tion near El Paso, a move he had said
would endanger his life.
But Black actually is scheduled to
serve his three-year sentence at a
facility in Tucson, Ariz., he said.
The Klan leader was convicted on a
charge of attempting to overthrow
the government of the Caribbean is
land of Dominica. Black and nine
other men were charged with violat
ing the Neutrality Act.
One of those other men, Joe Daniel
Hawkins, will be sent to La Tuna and
will face a hostile Mexican inmate
population, Black said during a
phone interview.
Black, Hawkins and other Klan
members have been outspoken in
their opposition to a congressional bill
that would grant amnesty to 12 mil
lion Mexicans who have entered the
U.S. illegally.
“We submitted a written appeal to
redesignate Danny’s place of confine
ment,” Black said. “We were ordered
to report Monday, December 6, so
they’ll have to do something very
quickly. If they do not, we’ll have to go
to court.”
Black said he would base the appeal
on a claim the law was unconstitution
ally vague and that he was the object
of selective prosecution.
“I feel the Neutrality Act is vague in
its definition of a nation at peace with
the U.S., since we haven’t been at war
with anyone since World War II,” he
said.
“The law is not specific about which
nations we are at peace with. If we
were guilty of violating the act, then
other people are too. Certainly every
body who participated in the Bay of
Pigs was guilty of violating the law
and, of course, the CIA for many
years has been participating in covert
acts.”
Bryan residents voice views
on proposed zoning of city
by David Marchand
Battalion Reporter
Ten Bryan residents voiced strong
opposition to proposed zoning for
that city at a public hearing Tuesday
night.
About 50 people met in the
Bonham Elementary School’s audi
torium, where Bryan Mayor Richard
Smith explained thataltfiough zoning
“has not had much support in past
years,” the city council was sponsor
ing the hearing “to get input from the
citizenry” on the issue.
“(The city council has) an open
mind on the subject,” he said.
Dr. Richard Ziprin of The Oaks
subdivision in Bryan was one of only
two zoning supporters. A petition
calling for a “straw vote” on the issue
was ignored by the city council, which
left him with the impression that the
council “doesn’t much care for the
democratic process,” he said.
August Fridel, who said he has
been in business in the area for more
than 50 years, said three proposals
previously considered by the council
would “violate (his) freedom of enter-.,
prise.” A zoning measure “is a das
tardly ordinance that degrades my
human rights as a citizen of this coun
try,” he said.
Hubert H. Graham, 2324 Oxford
in Bryan, said that “friction and argu
ments are going on all the time” about
zoning in College Station. He related
a story of a long-established chicken
farm on Elinger Drive that develop
ers gradually closed in on. After
smelling the chickens, the developers
wanted to run that farmer off,
“I don’t think that’s fair,” he said.
Al Bass, a Bryan resident since
1946, said: “I have nothing personal
against those who want zoning.
“I would fight and die for (a propo
nent’s) right if it became necessary. I
would also fight and die for my right
to be against (zoning).”
Jesse Henton of Tee Drive in
Bryan handed out a sketch represent
ing what he called “encroachment of
government into our private lives.”
He said: “We are a nation built on
the standards of free enterprise. I
don’t think a restricted and fettered
people will progress anything like
America can.”
inside
Classified
.: 4
’Local
3
National
10
Opinions
2
iports
13
State
6
Whafsup
10
forecast
Today’s Forecast: Cloudy skies
through Thursday. High of about
77, with tonight’s low about 65.
Variable winds about 10 mph.
‘Preppy’ author to include A&M in guide
By Jan Werner
Battalion Staff
If Lisa Birnbach’s new book is as
successful as her “Official Preppy
Handbook,” people all over the coun
try will know about Silver Taps,
Elephant Walk and other uniquely
Aggie activities.
Birnbach was on the Texas A&M
campus Tuesday conducting re
search for her new book, “Lisa Birn
bach’s College Book.” The book,
scheduled for publication in the
spring of 1984, will include informa
tion about 150 American colleges and
universities, including Texas A&M
University.
The book will concentrate on the
non-academic features of each school
— its social activities, political orienta
tion and sexual attitudes. But the
schools will not be compared or rank
ed, Birnbach said.
“I want to let people know about
each school’s climate, politically and
socially,” Birnbach said. “College —
and college students — have changed
a lot just since I was in school, and I’ll
be writing about what it’s like to be in
school now.”
After the success of “The Official
Preppy Handbook,” Birnbach began
lecturing at colleges and universities
across the country. Students every
where told her about the difficulties
of adjusting to college life, and she
said she began to see a need for a
guide to collegiate life.
Birnbach contracted with her new
publisher to write such a book, and
she is spending a year gathering in
formation at 150 college and universi
ty campuses.
“This definitely won’t be a satire in
the Preppy Handbook vein,” she said.
“Of course, I’m going to be as witty
and entertaining as possible, but it will
be a serious work, one I hope will be
useful.”
Birnbach said she is visiting only
those campuses in which she is in
terested.
Birnbach said she first heard of
Texas A&M about a year ago, while
lecturing at another Texas school.
“I think someone told me an Aggie
joke or something,” she said.
Since then, she said, she has be
come aware of Texas A&M’s great
wealth, its dedication to sports and its
efforts to upgrade the faculty.
After spending a day touring the
campus, Birnbach said she was struck
by a unique atmosphere here.
“I’ve never, ever seen such loyalty
or adherence to tradition,” she said.
“No one described the university
without using the word ‘tradition’ at
least once.
“Wherever we went, students kept
smiling and saying hello,” she said. “It
was truly unlike any other campus.
All this will probably get a chapter of
its own.”
Lisa Birnbach