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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 25, 1985)
Ambiguous art now featured on floor of Rudder Exhibit Hall — Page 3 WOL- No. 19 A&M destroys TCU; to play 'Horns for Cotton berth — Page 11 , I tie iSattalion Vol. 82 Mo. 61 USPS 075360 14 pages College Station, Texas Monday, November 25,1985 ommandos storm jetliner, over 40 killed Associated Press I VALLETTA, Malta — Egyptian commandos stormed a hijacked Egyptair jetliner Sunday night and shots, explosions and a lire during the assault killed as many as 50 peo ple, a government spokesman said. I “There are about 50 dead by bul let or fire,” spokesman Paul Mifsud told reporters two hours after the as sault. The wounded jailot, Capt. Hani Galal, told a news conference ithat all eight children aboard the plane were among those who per ished. Mifsud said the hijackers hurled iiia< Ok [hand grenades at tne passengers :,when Iriey realized the Boeing Ttf pvas being stormed, and the resulting fire destroyed the inside of the jet liner. The victims “were trapped inside and couldn’t get out,” he added. Mifsud said there were four or five hijackers, possibly four Palestin ians and one Syrian. Most passengers on the plane, co- mandeered Saturday over Greece with 97 people aboard and diverted to Malta, were Egyptians or Greeks. One t of the three American passen gers was killed and the other two were wounded and thrown from the plane by the hijackers before the commando assault. Malta’s state-run television said about 80 people were on the jetliner when the commandos attacked. It said 28 wounded people were taken to hospitals. Mifsud said Prime Minister Car- melo Mifsud Bonnici authorized the assault because “the situation was getting out of hand.” He added that it was totally an Egyptian operation. Mifsud quoted Galal, as saying the hijack leader was “a madman” who sang and danced each time he shot a hostage and tossed the body from the plane onto the tarmac. Galal, 39, earlier told authorities by radio that the hijackers had killed seven people. As the commandos stormed the plane, Galal killed the hijack leader with an ax, Mifsud said. Both the pi lot and the co-pilot were wounded in the struggle. The pilot, his head bandaged and his jacket and white shirt spotted with blood, told a news conference that the hijack leader singled out Americans and Israelis “for exec- nly hope was the storming,” Galal saia. The assault troops “were facing first- class killers. They were desperate and would not hestitate to blow up the plane.” Galal, a pilot for 15 years, said he fully agreed with the decision to storm the plane. “I think the storming operation (was) very, very well conducted, but we were not lucky,” Galal said. Pasadena woman shot in head in ordeal Associated Press PASADENA — The parents of a U.S. passenger aboard the hijacked Egyptair 73/ say their daughter was shot by gunmen before the plane was stormed at the malta airport. Jackie Nink Pflug, 30, was taken to a Valleta, Malta, hospital for treat ment, said Eugene Nink. Family spokesman Eric Beaver said the woman was shot in the head, and m 4 % 1 ■M ■ that doctors removed bone frag ments and a bullet Sunday night. “They shot her in a kneeling posi tion and threw her out of the air plane,” Nink told Houston television station KPRC. “She landed on her face, busted her nose — broke her nose.” Beaver said Pflug was listed in good condition at St. Luke’s Ameri can Hospital in Malta. Beaver said she was conscious and was talking. “She can move all her limbs but she is having problems seeing out of her left eye,’ said Beaver, adding that the bullet enbedded just above her right ear. “The important part is the next 36 hours to see if there are any compli- See Texas woman, page 10 34 hurt in blast from car bomb at military post The Ball Stops Here Texas Christian University’s David Rascoe is brought down by Texas A&M defender Johnny Holland (right) during Saturday’s game in Photo by JOHN MAKEL Y Fort Worth as teammates Sammy O’Brient (center) and Todd How ard (left) show up to ensure a complete tackle. See story page 11. SAA wants A&M's money out of S. Africa Student group calls for divestment By MONA L. PALMER Reporter Students Against Apartheid is calling for the divestment of the $2.95 million that the Texas A&M ■University System has invested in .South African companies. I “We think that a university such as Texas A&M should not support apartheid or things that indirectly support apartheid — like invest- aents,” says Marty Schwebel, divest- tent committee cnairman for SAA. A&M’s investments in South Af rica amount to 1 percent of A&M’s total investment portfolio, Schwebel says. It wouldn’t nurt A&M econom ically to divert that $2.95 million to other companies that don’t support apartheid, ne says. “We want students to be aware that money that deals with them, that is in tneir name, is supporting apartheid,” Schwebel says. “If the students care about where Texas A&M money goes, then I think they need to make their voices heard.” Norman Muraya, president of SAA, says, “They say all it takes for evil to advance is for a few good men to sit still. But your money does not sit still. That money is actively sup porting the government in South Africa. “A&M could easily withdraw its money without going through a lot of drastic changes. IF they did that it would be of strategic ana leadership significance.” Schwebel says the A&M Board of Regents should consider divestment for moral and political reasons. Universities are moral institutions and one of their purposes is to fur ther humanitarian ideals, he says. By supporting apartheid, a system he says has left 75 Uri 75 percent of the South African population without basic civil rights, A&M is not protecting the values of a free world, Schwebel says. See Group, page 10 Associated Press FRANKFURT, West Germany — A powerful car bomb exploded out side a busy U.S. military shopping center Sunday, injuring 34 people, most of them Americans, authorities said. The blast at 3:20 p.m. damaged 42 cars in the centers parking lot, shattered windows and blew a gap ing hole in the back wall of one shop. "‘We suspect leftist terrorists be cause the attack was similar to the car bombing at the U.S. Air Force Base in August,” said spokesman Al exander Prechtel of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe. That Aug. 8 car-bomb attack at the U.S. Air Force Rhein-Main Air Base killed two Americans and in jured 20 people. The terrorist Red Army Faction asserted responsibility for the Au gust attack but there was no immedi ate claim of responsibility for Sun day’s bombing. “Like in August, Americans were the target of the attack,” Prechtel said. Frankfurt police spokesman Kurt Kraus said the bomb was packed in a blue BMW sedan that was bought by a “Moroccan-looking man” Saturday at a second-hand car dealership near Frankfurt. He said police were looking for witnesses who may have seen the car or the man since Saturday. Kraus said the BMW was bought at the same dealership that sold the car used in the August bombing. Bill Swisher, a spokesman for the U.S. Army’s 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt, said 34 injured people were treated at the hospital. He said 27 had been released by late eve- ning. “Seven people are still here and they are listed in fair to good condi tion,” Swisher said. He said a three-year-old Ameri can child was among those released but could give no further details. The injured included 19 U.S. mil itary personnel, 11 American civil ians, a West German civilian and a Filipino, Swisher said. ‘Tor the other two who were treated here we still don’t have any personal details,” he said. The iden tities of the injured were not re leased. “Many people just walked off and took themselves to the hospital,” said a U.S. Army spokesman, Maj. Christopher Cnalko. “Most of the in juries seem to have been bruises and cuts from flying glass.” The BMW was parked in a lot be hind the shopping center that is for the use only of U.S. military person nel and their dependents. A witness, not identified, de scribed the scene to the American Forces Network: “All of a sudden there was a real loud crash. I turned around to look and see where it came from. Auto matically I put my hands over my head. I looked and there was a big vellow flash from between the two yellow 1 Duildine Chalko said those entering the shopping center must pass by a mili tary ponce checkpoint five yards from the blast site. “A guard who was on duty at the time was one of the people injured in the blast,” he said. Chalko was asked how much ex plosives might have been used and he said, “We assume it’s as much as you can load” into the luggage com partment. West German police and U.S. sol diers in full battle gear immediately shut down the shopping center and sealed off the area. angerous chemicals polluting Texas air Associated Press DALLAS — Millions of pounds of danger- fous chemicals, including almost 40 tons of Known or suspected cancer-causing agents, Pouled the state’s air this year as a result of $ Iplant mishaps, state records show. K “Anvthing like this is of concern,” said Her- Pert McKee, who heads the environmental ■y? i iontrol divison of the Houston Health De- Btartment. i According to records examined by the Dal- fi f las Morning News, most of the emissions oc- y cured in the Houston area, the center of the ■ yitate’s huge petrochemical industry, if The chemicals ranged from more than 46 Bullion pounds of carbon monoxide to 45 !?| |pounds ot hydrogen cyanide, which can be :$ E deadly in concentrations as low as one part per 10,000. Other chemicals that escaped this year in cluded hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, am monia and chlorine. McKee and other officials say Texas could suffer a disastrous chemical leak such as the one at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, In dia, or the pesticide leak at a Union Carbide plant in Institute, W. Va., in August. “I’m amazed, really, that we don’t have more accidents like Bnopal or Institute,” said Jerry Crowder, an associate professor of envi ronmental engineering qt the University of Texas at Dallas. “But the potential is defi nitely there.” Texas Air Control Board records show that some of the nation’s largest oil and chemical companies — including units of Union Car bide, Dow Chemical Co., Shell Oil Co., Chev ron Corp., Exxon Corp. and Diamond Sham rock Corp. — are among those responsible for the dangerous emissions. Spokesmen for the companies and for the Chemical Manufacturer’s Association de fended the industry, saying it has an exem plary record. “You can’t eliminate the risk,” said Ed Van Den Ameele, Union Carbide’s manager of media relations. “Hazards are part of the chemical industry. But what we can do is re duce the risks.” Tim Scott, spokesman for Dow Chemical USA’s plant in Freeport, the largest petrochemical complex in the nation, said emissions from the plant — which in cluded 14,000 pounds of chlorinated hydro carbons, which are suspected carcinogens — “have had no impact on the safety of our workers or the environment.” Scientists say it is difficult to assess the health effects of toxic air emissions in Texas. “The chronic effects are our biggest worry,” said Bob Love, chief of the Air Con trol Board’s emissions inventory system. “No one knows for sure what happens when hu mans are exposed to small amounts of these toxic substances over a long period of time. “We know there are effects,” he continued. “How severe they are, we don’t know with any certainty. Therein may lie the biggest dan ger.” Future of tax bill now up to Reagan Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Reagan, who has called tax re form the spark that will ignite a “second American Revolution,” must decide whether to keep the movement alive by endorsing a House Ways and Means Commit tee tax bill that falls short of his demands. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., the committee chairman and chief congressional backer of a tax overhaul, pleaded with Rea gan not to make a snap judgment that could kill the bill, which Rostenkowski said “is a victory of cooperation over confrontation.” While members of Congress take a week’s recess for the Thanksgiving holiday, Ways and Means aides will write the com mittee’s proposal into legal lan- B . Tne plan is likely to be de in the House the week of Dec. 8. The Senate will not con sider it this year. The bill would shift a signifi cant portion of the tax burden from individuals to corporations. Over a five-year period, individ- See Tax bill, page 10