A&M prof says government
should improve railroads
— Page 8
First-place A&M cagers set
for shootout with Houston
— Page 13
The Battalion
%
. 82 No. 81 CISPS 075360 18 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, January 22, 1986
6 students get warrants for unpaid tickets
By MICHAEL MIESCH
Reporter
Ixteen Texas A&M students
[ife served warrants by the College
■on Police Department Tuesday
an effort to alleviate the pileup of
lethan 600 warrants for students
Ohave unpaid traffic violations.
University Police will aid in serv-
warrants to anyone on campus
the CSPD is unable to locate,
Bob Wiatt, A&M’s director of
rityand traffic.
Lt. Bernie Kapella of the CSPD
Ithe police have been unable to
keep up with the backlog because
warrants for arrests have been in
creasing by the rate of at least a hun
dred each week.
University Police detectives will
begin serving warrants Monday to
students in their dorms and class
rooms, Kapella said.
Students have until Friday to take
care of the tickets, Kapella said. If
they do not have the money, stu
dents should still call the court clerk
and make arrangements to pay
within the week to prevent the ticket
from going to the warrant stage.
Kapella said he will not immedi
ately serve a warrant on a student
who calls to say that he does not have
the money to pay the fine and will
take care of it in a couple of days.
But that does not mean he will not
be arrested if pulled over for an
other violation, ne said.
Merely ignoring a ticket can be a
costly affair, Kapella said. One of the
students arrested Tuesday paid
$259 for an $80 ticket.
A person’s signature on a traffic
citation requires them to either ap
pear before a court of law or pay the
fine, Kapella said. Neglecting to take
care of the ticket results in the new
charge of failure to appear and the
issuance of a warrant, he said.
Kapella cited the example of an
what happens when a $40 ticket goes
unpaid. He said additional charges
of $15 for failure to pay the fine, $50
for failure to appear and $15 for the
issuance of a warrant are added to
the original amount.
The average price of tickets that
have gone to the warrant stage is
$120, Kapella said.
The CSPD expects to collect over
$72,000 in revenue, Kapella said.
Police clerks began trying to call
students before Christmas to warn
them but have not been very success
ful, he said.
“We will continue to call until 5
p.m. Friday, but that’s it,” Kapella
said.
Wiatt said University Police have
already been cooperating with the
CSPD.
Kapella called Wiatt Tuesday in
regard to a student who has war
rants for her arrest in both College
Station and Hearne, Wiatt said.
Running her name through the Uni
versity Police computer system, they
discovered she had 10 unpaid cam
pus parking violations.
University Police will begin
searching for her car Wednesday to
tow it, Wiatt said.
When she comes to the University
police station to inquire about her
car, she will be arrested and held for
the CSPD, he said. After settling her
affairs with them, she may then re
turn and pay for her University tick
ets.
In an attempt to make students
aware of their effort to catch delin
quent ticketholders, the CSPD plans
to publish a list of the names of of
fenders in The Battalion, the Bryan-
/College Station Eagle or on the tele
vision information channel.
omputer
roblems
old up
drop-add
By BRIAN PEARSON
Staff Writer
Texas A&M students walking
iver to the Pavilion Monday and
Tuesday to register for spring
sses probably did some jaw
opping when they saw the long,
akelike line outside the build-
r
The line, which some students
ited in for nearly an hour and
ajhalf, was the result of a com
puter system software error
ich caused the registration
ocess to slow down, a represen-
jtive of the registration system
id Tuesday .
Steve Williams, acting director
of the Student Information Man-
t ;ement System, said the delay
)uld occur as terminal opera-
rs helped students find open
is sections and obtain class
hedules and fees.
“Anytime the operator wanted
communicate with the (SIMS)
mputer and wanted to receive a
sponse back, there was an ex-
ssive delay,” Williams said.
He said response time for a
ansaction only should take two
rthree seconds.
Response time during registra-
n hours since Friday some-
mes have taken over a minute.
“We feel like the software is
prking properly except for the
“t that it’s slower than it should
” Williams said.
“No data has been lost in the
tem that I’m aware of,” he
pd. “Nobody has lost any classes
iat they were registered for.”
A problem, he said, also has
Irfaced at the printout station.
“At times the schedules and the
tills do not print properly and
fere working on that problem,
lut we haven’t identified exactly
'hat’s causing it,” Williams said.
TWe don’t believe it’s within
me of the programs that was
written here (Texas A&M),” he
said. “We believe it’s within a
package that was purchased from
the vendor.”
Williams said that once the
computer problem is identified,
the system will be repaired
quickly.
He said the error could be cor
rected as early as today.
“It’s very unfortunate that
we’ve got this problem here and
we certainly regret having to put
the students through! standing in
lines like that,” Williams said.
“We don’t expect it to continue.”
22 die, 102 injured when car
explodes on street in Beirut
Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A car
packed with explosives, gasoline and
oxygen bottles blew up in a huge ball
of flame and shrapnel Tuesday on a
busy street of Christian east Beirut,
killing at least 22 people and wound
ing 102.
It went off 30 yards from an office
of President Amin GemayeTs politi
cal party, but authorities would not
say whether that was the target.
A dozen passing motorists were
killed in their cars by the fireball that
engulfed the street. Witnesses said
scores of pedestrians and shoppers
were cut down by shrapnel or
turned into human torches by blaz
ing gasoline that sprayed over a 50-
yard radius.
Blood-spattered Red Cross squads
clawed through the smoldering
wreckage of eight buildings, under a
dark cloud of smoke and ashes that
hung over the scene. Officials said
they feared the death toll would
climb.
The bombing follows a week of
fighting between Gemayel loyalists
and Syrian-backed Christian and
Moslem rivals in which more than
400 people have been killed and 800
wounded.
Those battles, including a day
long showdown Jan. 15 in which
Gemayal crushed his main Christian
opponent, scuttled a Syrian-spon
sored peace agreement signed Dec.
28 in Damascus by leaders of the
largest Moslem and Christian mili
tias.
The Maronite Catholic president
opposes the agreement, which
would give Moslems more power at
the expense of the traditionally
dominant Christians.
No group claimed responsibility
for Wednesday’s midmorning
bombing in the Furn el-Shubbak dis
trict. Police said the car was deto
nated bv remote control.
Unconfirmed reports said the
bomber parked the Mercedes on the
sidewalk, pretended he had engine
trouble, then walked away and deto
nated the bomb.
It was the first car bomb in Leb
anon this year. Last year car bombs
killed 313 people in Lebanon,
according to police figures.
Yussef Bitar, the top police explo
sives expert, said the car was packed
with 550 pounds of explosives, extra
tanks of gasoline and oxygen bottles
to turn it into a huge fire-and-shrap-
nel bomb.
Syrian-backed militias continued
their pressure on GemayeTs forces
Tuesday in the Christian heartland
north and east of Beirut. Syrian
army units were reported to be de
ploying in the mountains east of the
capital.
Military sources said 1,100 Syrian
paratroopers moved into several vil
lages overlooking GemayeTs home
town of Bikfaya, 10 miles northeast
of Beirut, in the previous 48 hours.
They said the buildup apparently
was intended to buttress Moslem
and leftist Moslem militias Syria has
sent against Gemayel.
Associated Press correspondent
Rima Salameh reported sporadic
clashes with artillery, anti-aircraft
guns and rockets in the mountains
between the Lebanese army units
and the militias. There was no word
on casualties.
2 U.S. officials at odds over policy
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Secretary of
State George P. Shultz and Defense
Secretary Caspar Weinberger are
engaged in an unusually public Cab
inet-level policy debate that could
determine whether the United
States someday attacks a country
that backs terrorists.
Ever since U.S. forces withdrew
from Lebanon after attacks on U.S.
Marines, Shultz has advocated a get-
tough stand toward terrorists that
would include strikes against targets
in countries — such as Libya — that
support terrorism.
In a 1984 speech in which he said
innocent lives might have to be put
at risk, Shultz declared, “We cannot
allow ourselves to become the Ham
let of nations, worrying endlessly
over whether and how to respond.”
Weinberger, on the other hand,
has warned against hastily planned
strikes that could “kill women and
children,” aggravate terrorism and
lead to chaos that could undermine
U.S. strategic interests in the Middle
East.
The Pentagon also has in mind
the experience in Lebanon, where
241 U.S. servicemen were killed in a
single suicide bombing. They were
there fulfilling a mission that Shultz
had recommended, but that Wein
berger had opposed from the outset.
Another consideration of those
who argue against retaliation is the
danger of inciting revenge-seeking,
Mideast-style terrorism in the
United States, especially if innocents
are killed.
For example, officials take se
riously the threat of Libyan leader
Moammar Khadafy, who has
warned that if attacked he would
send terrorist suicide squads to the
United States.
The long-running debate between
Shultz and Weinberger surfaced
anew in the aftermath of the terror
ist attacks on the Vienna and Rome
airports in December in which five
Americans were among the 19 dead.
Although the attacks occurred in
European countries, and one of the
captured Palestinians killers said
their motive was to “kill Israelis,”
Shultz has treated the attacks as an
assault on the United States that
must be answered, with Libya the
most likely target.
Weinberger again was in the pos
ture of urging caution.
“It must be clearly and unequivo
cally the policy of the United States
to fight back,” Shultz said last week
at a conference on terrorism.
But Weinberger told the same
conference:
“I think there are a lot of people
who'would get instant gratification
from some kind of bombing attack
somewhere without being too wor
ried about the details. We have to
consider the appropriateness of the
response and whether what we are
See Weinberger, page 18
S comptroller enforces budget low
U.S. must cut budget by $12 billion
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Comptroller
neral Charles A. Bowsher, carry
out part of a budget-balancing
hat the adminstration says is un-
titutional, directed President
ganon Tuesday to slash govern-
spending by almost $ 12 billion.
Inder the Gramm-Rudman law,
an has no choice but to order
uts by March 1.
ingress could pass its own alter-
package of cuts or could act to
them entirely. But as Congress
ned from its winter recess,
rssaid such action was unlikely,
fe’d run into a buzzsaw,” said
Leon Panetta, D-Calif., a
se member who helped write
nal version of the Gramm-Rud-
Act.
nvsher, who directs the General
unting Office, said that additio
nal cuts in the military of $44.6 mil
lion and in domestic programs of
$3.3 million must be made above
those outlined last week by congres
sional and White House budget of
fices.
Under the Gramm-Rudman act,
the GAO is required to tell the presi
dent how much must be cut from
each federal account to meet deficit-
reduction targets, using figures sup
plied by the two budget offices.
In most cases, the cuts detailed by
the GAO Tuesday were identical to
those announced last week by the
Congressional Budget Office and
the White House Office of Manage
ment and Budget.
The GAO is an auditing and in
vestigative arm of Congress.
In a legal brief filed before a spe
cial three-judge court here, the Jus
tice Department claims that the part
of the Gramm-Rudman law giving
executive-type powers to the comp
troller general is unconstitutional,
infringing on the president’s powers
as chief executive.
However, the administration sup
ports other parts of the act, designed
to reduce the annual federal deficit
from $212 billion last year to zero by =
1991.
Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M.,
chairman of the Budget Committee,
asked whether other contemplated
spending cuts could substitute for
the Gramm-Rudman cuts, said “ab
solutely not, no chance of that.”
In all, the GAO made more than
70 changes in the figures outlined by
the OMB and the CBO, but most
were minor. And it upheld the
OMB-CBO overall conclusion that
military programs must be cut by 4.9
percent and domestic accounts by
3 pe
$11.7 billion in cuts.
The report by the congressional
and White House budget offices, the
GAO said, neglected to apply cuts to
some $6.3 billion in military spend
ing — mostly in procurement and
research-development programs.
Under Gramm-Rudman, the
1986 deficit target is $171.9 billion.
Tuesday’s GAO report noted,
however, that revenues in 1986 are
estimated at $776 billion and outlays
at $996.5 billion — for a estimated
deficit of $220.5 billion, far above
the target.
However, for this year alone, the
magnitude of cuts are limited to a to
tal of $11.7 billion.
Social Security benefits are
exempted from the cuts, as are mili
tary personnel and a number of pro
grams for low-income Americans.
Two Sikhs found guilty
in Ghondi murder trio!
Associated Press
NEW DELHI, India — A special
judge Wednesday found a Sikh
bodyguard guilty of assassinating
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in
October 1984 and two co-de
fendants guilty of conspiracy to
commit murder. He sentenced all
three to death.
“The present case is one of the
rarest of the rare,” said Judge
Mahesh Chandra, who heard the
eight-month trial without a jury.
“The extreme penalty of death is
called for.”
Gandhi was shot and killed on
a garden path in her compound
on Oct. 31, 1984. Satwant Singh,
a 22-year-old bodyguard was
found guilty Wednesday of mur
dering her, conspiracy, illegal use
of firearms and wounding a po
liceman at the scene.
The two other defendants,
who also are members of the Sikh
religious minority, were police
guard Balbir Singh and civil ser
vant Kehar Singh. Kehar Singh
was an uncle of Beam Singh, a
second bodyguard who police
also say shot Gandhi.
Beant Singh was killed by Mrs.
Gandhi’s guards at the scene.
Political observers had pre
dicted a guilty verdict for Satwant
Singh despite his lawyer’s conten
tion that he was an innocent sca
pegoat in a family plot involving
Gandhi’s son and successor as
prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
Several hundred police were
deployed outside the courthouse
where the verdict was read to pre
vent demonstrations by angry
Sikhs. The public was kept away
from the jail, which was cordoned
off, and no trouble was reported.