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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1983)
Texas A&M ion Serving the University community II Vol 78 No. 72 USPS 0453110 12 pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, December 13, 1983 Islamic truck bomb crashes into embassy ;o fefto»i unfollin ll try, M6. I United Press International whipped! KUWAIT — Islamic terrorists t niglu j!*la n ' 1Ti ed a truck loaded with explo- pgamni|ives into the U.S. Embassy Monday in aftemd a bombing blitz against seven Amer- Ti inAigSn, French and Kuwaiti targets that olificD)>|tille<l at least five people and wound- •redtokjM 77 others. lassifiniiB There were no serious American these bsualtres t n the embassy bombing, eld The same Islamic fundamentalist •nik S»kf )U P that claimed it killed 240 peo- , pleat the U.S. Marine headouarters n AnliiitP Beirut and 63 others at the U.S. Embassy in the Lebanese capital The staclaimed responsibility for the new ter- oyd uftWist onslaught in Kuwait, ylor Su« Kuwaiti authorities said seven in- °on-Xllations were struck by truck and e finals, car bombs in the 90-minute string of er Mu, Jttacks, including the French Embas- ichinz spnd the airp>ort of the Persian Gulf oil sheikhdom. »In Washington, State Department will Ik | spokesman Alan Romberg said the mond [.flown toll in the embassy bombing WeatlmBod at four dead, 37 wounded and mondu, two missing. He said some of the n of jy wounded were in serious condition. lrter MRomberg said that besides the 37 (y e |,.. wounded, some Americans were efeated! hurt in the attack but all 65 Americans assigned to the embassy and their 237 dependents were :ounted for. wo of the dead were foreign na si,/niii( itiona Is working in the embassy mamtenance section, Romberg said. |The identities of the other two were ii, Au.c not immediately known. ■Kuwait's official news agency said , -Hither person was killed in a car ' aiurd3 ' bombing at the airport 30 minutes af ter the embassy attack, bringing the lay 2pxi casualty toll in the seven bombings to five dead, two missing and 77 wounded. A group calling itself the Islamic Jihad, or Islamic Holy War, claimed responsibility for the seven bombings in a telephone call to a Beirut news agency. The same group claimed re sponsibility for the Oct. 23 suicide bombing at Marine headquarters in Beirut and the April 18 bombing at the U.S. Embassy in the Lebanese capital. The organization, with links with Iran, has been behind a string of suicide attacks that have killed 573 people, including 257 Americans, at U.S., French and Iraqi targets in the past two years. Monday’s attacks began at 9:40 a.m. when a Mercedes truck — the same type of vehicle used against the Marines — slammed through the gates of the seaside U.S. Embassy compound and headed for the main buildings. Asked if any defensive actions had been taken at the embassy gate, Rom berg said, “I don’t think there was any time. The truck came careening around the corner” and into the com pound. In the confusion following the blast, conflicting versions emerged on the fate of the driver of the suicide vehicle, with some witnesses telling the official Kuwait News Agency KUNA he dove from the truck before it hit the building. Cars were tossed through the air and the entire area was covered with smoke and flames. The embassy chancery escaped the worst of the blow, but hours after the explosion, part of the severely damaged three- story administration building col lapsed. Director general of KUNA, Daoud Suleiman, said some of the other blasts were caused by high explosives and others by small charges inside vehicles packed with butane gas cylin ders designed to incinerate their targets. Suleiman said an attempt to bomb a U.S. residential compound misfired when a small charge in one vehicle exploded but failed to ignite the truckload of 60 gas canisters. Some 3,000 Americans live in Kuwait. The attack on the U.S. Embassy appeared to be the only suicide mis sion of the 90-minute spree, with the remainder apparently car bombs of different types. The French Embassy, the third target of the morning, was hit by a car bomb parked in the street outside. French officials reported extensive damage to the building, but said only three people were cut by flying glass. A U.S. construction company was among those attacked by car bombs. The Kuwaiti targets included the airport, an oil complex, an industrial area and a control center for the Ministrv of Water and Electricity. An eighth bomb was dismantled. Kuwait’s government, alarmed by the violence in the normally quiet oil sheikhdom, vowed to take the “staun chest and harshest” measures against those responsible. The United States has blamed the Iranian regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for strikes by the Islamic Holy Jihad. unn refuses information Dean found in contempt ■ H United Press International 1 KAN ANTONIO — University of ■ Hxas medical school dean Marvin aid ■inn was found in contempt of a nd jury Monday for failing to turn r documents naming suspects in a ies of infant deaths at Medical Cen- tej- Hospital. I District Court Judge David Ber- cljelmann, saying Dunn’s actions pre- clided a Bexar County grand jury from completing its investigation, foiind Dunn in contempt and fined him $100. ■ Chief Deputy District Attorney Nkk Rothe argued that Dunn inten- fonally withheld hand-written notes and a preliminary report by Dr. A.W. Conn of Toronto from the grand ■y- ■ Conn conducted an in-house in vestigation of infant deaths in the hos- 6S CldSf I Pf al ' s pediatric intensive care unit that occurred between 1978 and 1982. The existance of the documents was not known until late October, when Dunn voluntarily turned them over during a grand jury appearance, Hothe said. WBut Rothe said the documents should have been released March 22, when the grand jury issued a blanket subpoena asking the hospital for all tes, memoranda and other infor- tion on the case. ON \LL Y i tops! Baste' jarylS 1 for i and! r ■ec, afi ry v a second Conn report in March, but prosecutors said Conn’s initial report and notes were more detailed and could have allowed the investigation to move faster. Rothe said Conn’s initial report and hand-written notes had one thing in common from other documents re leased by Dunn to the grand jury. “They named somebody and some facts about a particular individual,” Rothe said. “They named individuals suspected of misbehaving.” Rothe said UT officials were more concerned about the potential for lawsuits against the system than they were about cooperating with the grand jury. UT officials did not “play by the rules,” he said, because they never asked that the subpoena be quashed or sought a motion for protection be fore the subpoena was returned. Dunn’s attorney, Gerald Goldstein of San Antonio, argued that Dunn cooperated fully with the grand jury and correctly withheld the documents on the advise of UT attorneys. “It is not yet a crime in America to rely on your attorney’s advice,” Gold- stem said. Goldstein also argued that Dunn could not be held in contempt of a grand jury that is no longer in session; that Conn’s notes, which he described as personal writings, were exempt from compulsory production; and that releasing the information would have violated fifth amendment rights. “Dr. Dunn’s conduct was not con temptuous, your honor, it was com mendable,” Goldstein told Berchel- But Berchelmann, saying the with held information was “really impor tant,” found Dunn in contempt. Although Dunn could have been fined $500, Berchelmann called Dunn’s October release of the docu ments a mitigating factor and find him only $100. Goldstein said he would appeal the ruling. The grand jury last month indicted _ nurse Genene Jones for injury to a child in the alleged drug injection of 4-month-old patient. Jones, who worked in the hospital’s pediatric unit, also is scheduled to go on trial for murder Jan. 16 in George town for the death of a Kerrville in fant. Construction Dean Saito, Battalion photo This worker is silhouetted by the sun as he works Monday atop a bank in Bryan. Cigarette starts UT fire United Press International AUSTIN — A fraternity house fire that killed a University of Texas coed and injured six people was apparently sparked by a cigarette, investigators said Monday after interviewing one of the hospitalized victims. Fire investigator Lt. Jerry Wolf said he established the probable cause after talking with UT junior Freder ick Paul Pestorius, 20, of Barington, R.I., who was seriously burned in the fire. The fire began in Pestorious’ room. The fire killed Margo Helen McFee, 19, of San Antonio, who was visiting in Pestorious’ second-floor room at the Lambda Chi Alpha house early Sunday when the fire erupted. “It was accidental and it was smok ing related,” said fire department spokewoman Debbie Brown. “Appa rently one of them was smoking, but we don’t know which one.” Two other fraternity brothers, Dan Whitworth, a freshman from Brown sville, and Mike Ford, a sophomore from Kingwood, were treated at Brackenridge hospital for cuts. Two firefighters were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and a third was taken to the hospital with a sprained knee after a piece of build ing siding fell on him. A wall fell, apparently trapping McFee in a back hallway where she was overcome by smoke inhalation. The fire destroyed two-thirds of the wood frame building. It took two hours to find the body in the rubble. The fire was first re ported at 6:17 a.m. Pestorius tried to rescue McFee, a sophomore business major at UT, and former Texas Military Institute homecoming queen and cheerleader, but he was overcome by the heat and smoke. A Brackenridge Hospital spokes woman said Monday Pestorius was in serious but stable condition in an in tensive care ward, suffering from second and third-degree burns over 18 percent of his body. The four-alarm blaze destroyed 13 of the LT-shaped stucco building’s 22 living units west of the UT campus. Fire Capt. Danny Stamper said that strong winds quickly spread the blaze throughout the fraternity house, and 14 fire trucks were needed to control it. Several fraternity members said they dove out of second-floor win dows just ahead of the flames, losing everything but the clothes they wore. Only eight of the 40 fraternity mem bers were at the house at the time of the fire. “It’s a tragedy,” said fraternity president Scott McEuen. “Everyone is in shock.” The fire was the third to strike a UT fraternity this year. The vacant Tau Kappa Epsilon house was dam aged on Nov. 20, and a Feb. 11 fire destroyed the Zeta Psi fraternity. Aggie raccoon rehabilitated by Leslie Yoder Battalion Reporter Clarisse is a seven-month-old rac coon. And she’s been an orphan for most of her life. Clarisse’s misfor tune began when her mother aban doned her before bein;* weaned. Fortunately for Clarisse, she was rescued last May after being aban doned and taken to the Small Anim al Medicine and Surgery Depart ment where Dr. Dawn Merton, a veterinarian, has been taking care of her ever since. Merton said that a relative of an employee at the clinic was spraying insecticide on a plum tree when he discovered Clarisse and her mother up in the tree. Both raccoons be came frightened and fell to the ground. Then, the mother ran away. “Even though Clarisse was aban doned at such a young age,” Merton said, “she was in good health when we got her.” Raccoons are susceptible to feline and canine diseases such as distem per and parvo virus so Clarisse was given vaccinations as a preventative measure, she said. To provide a natural environ ment for Clarisse, Merton put sever al logs together within a large cage and covered the floor with hay. “Hanging from one of the logs is an empty bucket that Clarisse uses to burrow in,” Merton said. “We also have a couple of buckets filled with water in the cage because she loves to play in them.” Clarisse’s diet includes high- quality cat food, although wild rac coons will eat anything from fruits and cheeses to small animals, she said. Raccoons are active during the night and sleep during the day, but Clarisse’s clinical rehabilitation has caused her to be more active during the day when Merton spends the most time working with her. Merton takes Clarisse for walks outside of the clinic on a regular basis to help her get more accus tomed to a natural environment. Merton said that she doesn’t sup port having wild animals as pets be cause she values their right to be wild. “Most wild animals that are kept as pets develop nutritional imba lances and die,” she said, “because people aren’t aware of these special needs. “A raccoon needs to be put in an environment where they have free access to the outside,” Merton said. “Yet, they also need to be fed at the same place everyday until they get used to their environment and even tually they will go off and begin foraging for themselves.” Merton said that Clarisse doesn’t know how to completely forage ex cept by what she knows through in stinct. “If we were to let her go some place where she didn’t have access to food,” Merton said, “she’d die from starvation.” But wild animals will always main tain some of their wild instinct, she said. “Last year, we heard of a bobcat that really tore up a baby,” Merton said, “and it was put to sleep. I’vejust heard of so many wild animals en ding up bad because they were kept as pets.” Within several weeks, Clarisse will be sent to live on a ranch in Austin to complete her rehabilitation.