The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 05, 1983, Image 16

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    Page 16/The Battalion/Wednesday, October 5, 1983
ACLU asked to join Klan battle
United Press International
NEW ORLEANS — A ku
Kkix Klan leader, jailed in the
bizarre “Bayou ol Rigs” plot
against a Caribbean nation in
1981, wants the American
Civil Liberties Union to help
bis constitutional attack on the
U.S. Neutrality Act.
Grand Wizard Don Black
ol Birmingham, Ala., Lues-
day said be bad written the
ACLU in New York from bis
federal prison cell in Big
Spring, Texas, but has not re
ceived a reply.
“1 think we were brought to
trial primarily because of our
KKK affiliation,” Black said in
a phone interview. “1 think
bad it not been for the politic
al beliefs of most of our
group, there would have been
no prosecution.”
Black filed papers in New
Orleans Monday asking a fed
eral court to overturn the
Neutrality Act, under which
he and Joe Danny Hawkins of
Jackson, Miss., were convicted
in 1981.
The men and eight other
soldiers of fortune were
ambushed by government
agents as they started on a
2,()()()-mile voyage to the is
land of Dominica. Seven ex
changed guilty pleas for re
duced sentences, and subse
quently have been released
f rom prison. The eighth man
was acquitted.
The Neutrality Act pro
hibits “preparing or provid
ing money for a military or
naval expedition or enterprise
against a nation with which
the United States is at peace.”
Black’s motion claimed the
words “peace” and “expedi
tion or enterprise” were un
constitutionally vague and
subject to selective prosecu
tion. He cited the purchase of
Israeli war bonds as acts simi
lar to his that regularly escape
prosecution.
In New York, ACLU associ
ate director Alan Reitman
said the group’s legal depart
ment will study the matter be
fore deciding whether to be
come involved.
“We get lots of letters with
requests and they are all
looked at,” Reitman said. “We
make a determination
whether there are civil liber
ties at issue.”
Black’s group, composed of
white supremacists and neo-
Nazis from the U.S. and Cana
da, planned to oust Domini
can prime minister Mary
Eugenia Charles and restore
jailed ex-leader Patrick John
to power.
The mercenaries took ex
plosives, automatic rifles and
ammunition. They carried
the Confederate and Nazi
flags, a bottle of whiskey and a
copy of Soldier of Fortune
magazine.
The men would have been
granted development rights
to the island’s economic re
sources, including establish
ment of a cocaine smuggling
operation and an anti
communist defense force.
“I don’t think we were a
threat to the United States by
any means,” Black said
Tuesday.
‘The government pulled
out the Nazi flag and display
ed it for most of the trial, as if
that were evidence of criminal
intent in itself. The govern
ment attempted to insinuate
that we in some way were
going to start the Fourth
Reich.”
Ashby
(continued from page I)
First, he said, Texans have a
love for the land that is not
found in places such as Califor
nia where much of the state was
settled by gold-seekers. Indeed,
he said, many of them who came
to Texas for that reason left
soon afterward.
The lure of land has always
been what has brought people to
Texas and this love for real
estate continues today. He said
that many rural Texans move to
Houston just to make enough
money to return to their small
towns and buy land.
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
DEA says monitoring
procedures adequate
To prove his point Ashby
noted that many Houston busi
nessmen and lawyers spend
their weekends building fences
and doing other “manual labor”
on land they own elsewhere.
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Religion also is more influen
tial here than anywhere else, he
said, making that a second fea
ture that sets Texans apart. No
politician, he said, stands a
chance of election without
endorsement of God.
He quickly pointed out ti
this “deep religious feelingdi
not mean we are good.”
Ashby said that this may
because early Texas settlers;
pended more on God to h(
them face the rugged front<
He said today’s phenomena
may be an outgrowth of this
Third, he said, Texans arte
tremely patriotic. One reasj
for this is that Texans lovei
fight and doing it for thefl
makes it all the better.
He quoted authorJohnSiej
beck as calling Texas a “militj
nation” and that “section
games have the glory and d
spair of war.”
Ashby said this is particulaj
true at Kyle Field and add
with a grin, “I just wish
could beat somebody,” drawii
laughter from the crowd.
About Texas and its peopl
Ashby finished by saying,
are the right place at the
time.
United Press International
SAN ANTONIO — A Drug
Enforcement Administration
official Tuesday refuted charges
that inadequate monitoring of
undercover agents led to the
drug smuggling activities of ex
agent William D. Coller.
“We feel very firmly that the
monitoring process is adequate.
Short of putting a monitor right
there on the plane, we feel it’s
very adequate,” Carter said.
The charges were made by
defense attorney Lionel Lofton,
who said Coller worked under
cover so much that he had trou
ble separating his personal and
professional life.
“You have to remember that
undercover agents have a cer
tain amount of freedom. They
can only be supervised to some
extent,” he said.
taught survival techniques to
other agents, Lofton said. When
he was transferred to Charles
ton last summer, he had ended
his illegal activities and was
aware officials probably would
discover them. Once confronted
with the charges, he resigned
from the DEA.
United
hood might cause was not consi
dered deliberate.
Lofton, who once prosecuted
drug smugglers as a former
assistant U.S. attorney, claimed
that poor monitoring of under
cover agents caused Coller to be
come a real criminal.
Coller, 42, was sentenced to
three years in prison and re
ceived a $15,000 fine and a two-
year special parole term last
week in a plea bargain agree
ment with f ederal prosecutors in
San Antonio.
However, San Antonio DEA
agent in charge Charles Carter
said Tuesday that agency moni
toring is adequate, even though
agents require freedom to op
erate.
He was working for the DEA
in Charleston, S.C., w'hen he w'as
indicted in July by a federal
grand jury. Coller pleaded guil
ty to smuggling 750 pounds of
marijuana into the United States
from Belize in 1982.
“He was in a high-stress situa
tion, like FAA flight controllers,
CIA agents and military com
manders,” said Lofton. “Some
body monitors those people to
make sure they don’t burn out
or go over the line. I’m not blam
ing DEA, but they didn’t have
anybody monitoring Bill’s
activity.
The second committee,
budget and admissions,
approved Planned Parenthood
on tf same criteria and sent its
decision to the United Way
board of directors, Fleisher said.
The board then appointed a
special committee to investigate
Planned Parenthood’s request
considering both its prograi
and the controversy fundi
Planned Parenthood
cause. That committee
approved Planned Parenthoo
request.
Against the advice of
three committees, the boi
voted Planned Parenthood’s
quest down.
The moral issues involved
worthy of debate, Fleisher
but United Way is notthefon
for that debate.
“He was living a life that w T as a
lie, but he had to be convincing
(to drug dealers) or he would
have gotten killed,” he said.
Attorneys seek
better prisons
MSC
AGGIE CINEMA
presents
THE 2nd Annual MovieArt
POSTER SALE
OCTOBER 3-7
Carter said the monitoring
process was not successful with
Coller because the ex-agent “did
a lot of this stuff wdiile on leave
or on weekends.”
Coller was a skilled pilot w'ho
wrote an agency manual on
flying in South America and
A murder contract w'as
placed on Coller once by an
organized crime figure, and he
w as warned on another occasion
that if he betrayed the organize
ers of a $100 million cocaine
deal they would “tie him to a tree
and disassemble him with a pair
of pliers,” Lofton said.
United Press International
HOUSTON — Attorneys for
inmates of the Texas Depart
ment of Corrections will ask a
federal judge to take more steps
to correct overcrow'ding and im
prove staffing and medical ser
vices in the prison system, offi
cials said Tuesday.
Conditions have “worsened”
since the judge ordered reforms
almost three years ago, said
attorneys William Bennett Tur
ner and Donna Brorbv.
The attorneys said they pis
ned to ask U.S. District Jud
William Wayne Justice to
hearing in December todecidi
TDC is complying with
orders of providing adeqit
housing, correctional officie
medical staff and other refon
he ordered in 1980.
Although TDC has added
new units, the lawyers saidki
not provided recreation roon
gyms, chapels, clinics, show
toilets and other services
At least 57 teams to compete
in ‘Anything Goes’ fund-raiser
the
iti
Vintage and current movie posters on sale in the MSC.
* VISA & Mastercard accepted.
by Wanda Winkler
Battalion Staff
At least 57 teams are expected
:o participate in The Residence
Hall Association’s annual
Almost Anything Goes sche
duled to start at 5 p.m.
Thursday.
The fund-raising event will
be held at the Main Drill Field,
between the Memorial Student
Center and Puryear and Law
halls. Proceeds of the event will
go to United Way. The event
was discussed Tuesday night at
the regular meeting of RHA.
The teams, each made up of
five men and five women, will
participate in the contest, which
is a take-off on the television
have participated in AAG since
April 1976.
DONT PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE
YOUR MOUTH IS ...
show r “Almost Anything Goes.”
The event will offer games such
as Skin-The-Snake, Squeeze
Box, Fried Flippers, Aggies
Over Easy and Water Volleyball.
Winners of each game w ill re
ceive t-shirts.
Karen Bloch, director of the
RHA programs committee, ex
plained game check-in proce
dures and encouraged RHA
members to get their hall resi
dences involved in the competi
tion. Bloch said members of her
committee will referee the
In other action, Jan Winni-
ford, assistant director of stu
dent affairs, encouraged council
presidents and RHA delegates
to get involved in her depart
ment’s program, Alcohol
Aw'areness Week. The program,
designed to promote responsi
ble drinking, will take place Oct.
10-14.
about alcohol, how to have as®
party and new driving while
toxicated laws in Texas
Alcohol presentations
scheduled for 7 p.m. Mondaj |
the A-l Lounge, 6:30 p
Tuesday at Corps area LoinK
B and 7 p.m. Oct. 12intheG) ||
mons.
Winniford showed the film,
“Alcohol, The Brain and Be
havior,” at the meeting. She said
RHA members should be aware
of how r alcohol affects the bodv.
games.
RHA has already raised $500
from entry fees — $ 15 per team.
The event will raise $750 to
$1,000 this year, Bloch said.
RHA raised $385 from the event
in 1982. On-campus students
RHA adviser Nyla Ptomey
said residence hall leaders at a
dorm mixer or party should dis
courage residents from drink
ing and driving.
“Our biggest concern is to see
that everyone gets home safe,"
she said.
Three RHA members,
v olunteered to drink before
meeting, demonstrated
alcohol slows driver-real
time. A machine, which f
a series of red and green
was used to demonstrate
effects of alcohol.
l
Alcohol Awareness Week will
feature presentations that focus
on responsible drinking, myths
Each volunteer had a ,0:
.07 alcohol content in thebto
the range that begins toaffefl
person’s reaction time,
person responded to the I
by pushing a hand-cond
sw itch or a brake, depe
the flashing light. The volij
teers, previously tested wh
her, had slower reactions;
drinking.
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