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
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unfollin
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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.
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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.