B-1 bomber maintenance
A8cM prof to head Air Force program
Pages
The Battalion
ten, arrested
u Vallarta last lues'
i rrent and formei
sco state judicial po. ■-
‘ Ilts of the Federal 80 No. 134 USPS 045360 14 pages
tn law, there is no
“ licfendants, if not
remain imprisoned
•ikes up to a yearto
' guilty or innocent.
College Station, T exas
Wednesday, April 17, 1985
FF
nctld
Shultz: change
is under way
in South Africa
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Secretary of
State George: Shultz, responding to
)ofic
Watching the Line Up ' Wov '‘ WORl ' sanmks
jThe Texas A&M football team’s intia-squad Maroon and defensive line. Hal Felwell, a senior physical education ma-
|White scrimmage on Saturday attracted Aggies of ail ages, in- joj’. saw White beat Maroon. 21-0. Seniors don’t participate in
[eluding this three year veteran of the A&M football team s the game since they wonT be on the team in the fall
critics who say l S policy toward
South Africa perpetuates apartheid
said i uesday the United States
must not throw American matches
on the emotional unde r oi the re-
gio.n
Shultz speaking at a Natwmai
Press Club luncheon expressed
sharp opposition to a proposal be
fore Congress that would ban new
U S. investment and reduce U.S.
South African trade ties.
He said the. economic proposal ig
nores tile harm that would be in
dieted precisely on the black rnaj’or
ity whom the advocates of boycotts,
embargoes and sanctions purpor
tedly want to help.
Ac economy that even now
needs to create 2 SO,000 new jobs for
young blacks each year and that will
have twice as many of them entering
the job market by the turn of the
century needs more job opportuni
ties, not fewer,” Shultz said. He
added that a U.S. policy of exacer
bating hardship in South Africa
could promote a ‘‘race war” there.
Shultz said the process of racial
change is under way in South Africa,
contending that there has been more
reform in the past four years than in
the previous 30.
Change has just begun, but it has
begun Shultz said. “Out job is to
continue to encourage it.”
Shultz spoke as the Senate Bank
ing. Housing and Urban Affairs
Committee held hearings on a pro
posal by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy,
D-Mass and Sen. Lowell Weicker,
See Shultz, page 6
Live life to fullest, religion not rational: O’Hair
By ANN CERVENKA
Staff Writer
■“Atheism is a very simple concept
siSd Madalyn Murray O’Hait the
atjieist famous for winning the 1903
Slpreme Court case which removed
idercntial Bible reading and prayer
filiation from public schools “An
alieist is a person who has no
till: LSI) i
■O’Hair spoke on “Freedom From
RlHgion’ Fuesday night at a prog
iln sponsored by Memorial Student
(|nfer Great Issues
■She stressed the importance of liv
iijilifeon earth to the f ullest because
djath is final.
■“An atheist loves hmisell and his
tllow man instead ol God. she said.
Orly through a knowledge of self
and ol fellow man can he find the
ulderstancling that will assure a life
of fuitiilment she said
We simply look at whai religion is
and say we can’t accept that because it
is not rational" she said. Atheists
accept ho God holy books, miracles,
heaven, hell purgatory, oi any stage
in between going up or down ’
In a press conference earlier on
Tuesday. O’Hair emphasized the ra
tionality of atheists, and stated their
single most important purpose,
“How do vou de program a whole
natiion from irrationality?
'We are the rational ones in the
crowd,” she said.
l think Christians are empty Coke
bottles. They’re throw away bottles.
We're square, but we re intelli
gent We have ail our marbles.
Because of inconsistencies found
in the Bible O Hair said anyone who
would read tire Bible objectively from
cover to cover would disregard it.
It s crazy as hell,” she said Read
the Bible. If you’ve got any kind of
brains in your head when you get
done reading it from cover to cover
you will throw it in the trash It s not
fit for human consumption.’
O’Hair also attacked prayer.
So an atheist looks at religion as
what we find: bullshit , piled vei v high
and very deep, she said
“You go pray about it (world prob
lems) and see if whether ycku prayer s
till the bellies of the starving Ftho--
pian children Or you pr ay for peace
and see how far that will get you It’s
wasted useless exercise '
She emphasizes the need to take
action Atheists do deeds, not say
prayers, or build hospitals not chur
ches. she said.
O'Hair said tite Christian idea of
salvation is absurd Just as Adam and
Eve cannot impute their sin onto the
next generation Jesus Christ cannot
die for .others.
A fter her speec n O'B air-
answered questions from the audi
ence
She stressed living a full life on
earth. When asked if handicaapped
oi retarted children are entitled to
life, O Hair said absolutely not.
After working lot 17 years with
retarted and neglected children,
t) Hair sard they are an economic cost
to taxpayers and an emotional cost to
parents.
1 hey ate not. anything that
should be preserved she said If 1
wen in charge ot them I would abso
lutely see that every single one of
them was snuffed out. There is abso
lutely no solution to that monster
child who is born,”
Madalyn Muiray O’Hair
Spacewalkers affix fly swaffer'
Crew ready for satellite rescue
Supreme Court:
CIA may conceal
sources' identities
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- i he CIA
and other U.S spy agencies are
free to conceal f t on the public
the identities of all intelligence
sources, (he Supreme Court
ruled Tuesday
The court, by a 7-2 vote gave
tbe director of the Central inn Mr
gence Agency unlimited power to
protect not only secret agents but
all other sources of information
classified and unclassified.
That includes the names or pri
vate scientists and researchers
and even academic journals.
“Congress intended to give the
director of Central Intelligence
broad power to protect the se
crecy and integrity of the intelli
gence process,” Chief justice
Warren E. Burger said for the
court.
‘The reasons are too obvious
to call for enlarged discussion,”
he said. “Without such protec
tions the agency would be vu-
tuallv impotent. ”
The ruling comes at a time
when the Reagan administration
is continuing to lobby Congress
for broader exemptions from the
Freedom ol Information Act for
intelligence and law enforcement
agencies
Tuesday s decision overturned
a ruling that could have forced
the CIA to disclose the names of
college researchers and others
who contributed to a notorious
project in the 1950s and 1960s in
volving brainwashing and experi
mental drugs like LSD being ad
min i s < e c e d i. o u n $ u s p e c > i n g
individuals
At least two people died be
cause of the experiments,
The U S. Circuit Court of Ap
peals ruled in 1983 in favor of a
Ralph Nader lobbying group that
filed a 19 <8 suit under the Free
dom of Information Act.
I he appeals court said the CIA
.may not withhold the names of its
sources merely, for example, to
guard against, a public outcry It
said the agency could conceal the
names only if it could show that
the promise of confidentiality was
required to obtain the informa
tion.
Burger said the appeals court
misunderstood the realities of in
teiligence work, which often in
volves seemingly innocuous
sources as well as unsuspecting
individuals who provide valuable
intelligence information. “A for
eign government car. learn a
gieat deal about, the (CIA's) activ
ities bv knowing the publit
sources of information that inter
est the agency 1 he said,
1 he CIA said the project was
designed to counteract, brain-
washing and use or mind*altering
drugs by the Chinese and Rus
sians.
See Court, page 6
Associated Press
CAPE l AN a v FRAL, Fla Two
spacewalkers fastened a makeshift
fly swatter to the end of Discov
ery’s robot arm Tuesday, and the
crew practiced ways of using it to
gently pull a switch to activate an or
biting satellite filled with volatile
fuel
At stake in today’s attempt is the
life of the $80 million Syncom com
muntcadons satellite. If NASA
guessed right, flipping the switch
will start z 45 minute sequence thai
erects the satellite’s antenna puts
Syncom into a faster spin and sends
Editor’s note: This is the first arti
cle hi a three-part series on the role
of Texas A&M's Student Govern
ment
By JERR Y OSLIN
Staff Writer
What does Student Government
really do-
What can they do?
While some students might an
swer “nothing to these questions,
the leaders of Student Government
say they can and do make a differ
ence at Texas A&M.
“Student Government s power is
not a structured thing.” says Sean
Royall Texas A&M s nev\ student
body president. “ That is not to say.
we don’t have input in University de
cisions. We have a lot of input ”
While the University does not al
ii off to a useful orbit high above
Earth
Tt i could think of a better bullet
to fire. Id be shooting it, said
Randy Stone, flight director. The
oniv tping on this satellite we can do
anything about is this lever I think
we’ve got a very good probability of
tripping this lever."'
Discovery’s crew has two four-
minute periods, 90 minutes apart to
accomplish the task.
The first try is scheduled shortly
after 9 a.m.. when shut tie and .Syn
com are over two Atlantic Ocean is
lands called St. Peter and St. Paul
northeast ot Brazil.
low Student Government any formal
powers, the administration does ac
cept Student Government’s ideas
and opinions on certain issues, says
Di John Koldus, vice president of
student services.
In addition, Student Government
has the responsibility of budgeting
the money collected from student
service fees, Koldus says.
Student Governments finance
committee recently appropriated
more than $.3.8 million in student
service fees
Though the Student Government
has only advisory powers, those pow
ers are important because the Uni
versity frequently follows Student
Government suggestions, says Eric
Thode, the student senate’s speaker
pro tein.
Clad in clumsy space suits, astro
nauts David Griggs and Jeffrey Hof
fman floated into Discovery’s cargo
bay Tuesday and strapped two jury-
rigged tools - one, described as a fly
swatter, the other as a lacrosse stick
- to the end of shuttle’s 50-foot me
chanical arm.
The unscheduled space walk and
repair attempt extended the flight
which was supposed to end Wednes
day. but NASA, had not decided
whether the landing will be Ehurs-
day or Friday.
If the repair maneuver works on
the first attempt and the weather
forecast is. good, the shuttle may
“While it looks like we have little
to no power, and what power we do
have looks quite informal because its
not written down somewhere,” he
says. T consider it formal power be
cause the University administration
gives us a chance to change things."
Because Student Government
represents the student body, admin
istrators are very receptive to ns
ideas, I hode says.
t hey want to know what student
opinion is ’ he says. We are 36,000
people with an idea They aie a lew
administrators with an idea T hey
arenf always there to see what needs
to be done.”
Royall says the administration has
solicited Student Government’s in
put on certain occasions.
land at the Kennedy Space Center
on Thursday morning. Otherwise,
homecoming day is Friday.
1 oday, commander Karol Bobko
and pilot Don Williams wall close the
40-mile distance with Syncom and
fly alongside it Mission Specialist
Margaret Rhea Seddon wall extend
the arm to allow' the flexible end of
the crude tool to brush along the sa
tellite’s solar panels.
“The idea is to let the fly swatter
drag on the satellite,” Seddon said.
“The swatter ought to catch the le
ver move it to the proper position
and then tear away.”
“In some instances, they'll call us
and say ‘we need to talk to you’ or
‘we want to form a committee to get
your input,’ ” Royall says.
While the administration is open
to Student Government’s ideas, the
organization must prove that its
ideas are credibile, T hode says.
“ 1 he burden of proof is on us to
find out student opinion on how
things should be run be it a shuttle
bus or a change machine,” he says.
“We have to research the issue and
then convince them that it should be
done this way.”
1 he student senate’s bills and res
olutions are sent to Koldus and to
the administrators that the legis-
See GOVERNMENT, page 6
A&M’s SG: Does it make a difference?