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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 2, 1986)
Wiley Series lecturers cite problems of U.S, government — Pages 45 pa No. 25 Aggies take 1-of-2 from Eagles on late homer — Page 9 Tiie Battalion [ol. 83 No. 126 USPS 075360 12 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, April 2, 1986 American death toll set at nine in crash IpOMOCA, Mexico (AP) — Emer- ■ncy workers hampered by rugged lei lin struggled Tuesday to recover Be remains of all 166 people aboard K etliner that slammed into a moun- nside. Nine U.S. citizens were re- ftrted among the dead. ■Witnesses said the Mexicana Air- ■esBoeing 727, which was en route fi m Mexico City to Los Angeles lih stops in the Pacific resorts of ■erto Vallarta and Mazatlan, ex- ■oded “like thunder” and burst into ■mes before it hit the 7,792-foot ■ak, known locally as El Carbon, ■ortly after takeof f Monday morn- Ig. ■ In Mexico City, U.S. Embassy ■okesman Vincent Hovanec said, We can confirm that nine Ameri- Bns were on the plane.” ■ Although the bodies had not yet Wen identified, reports from the ■rline, family and f riends were that m e Americans held tickets for the ■ght and “were indeed on the Jane," he said. Earlier reports said Bnly five Americans were among the dead in Mexico’s worst air disaster. 1 Although the passenger list did 1m include nationalities, informa- lonavailable Tuesday indicated that a least nine French citizens, four ■vedes and two Canadians were ■ward the plane, which carried 158 lassengers and eight crew members. 1 Officials at a base camp impro- ■sed here, 3 l /v miles southwest of p crash site, said the remains of 89 See Crash, page 8 Ford, Carter analyze U.S. foreign policy Former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Car ter meet Tuesday afternoon in the Memorial Stu- I for aid in stabilizing market Photo by Dean Saito dent Center. Later they debated “U.S. Interven tionism: Resolving International Conflict.” By Frank Smith Staff Writer Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford told a capacity crowd of 2,500 in Rudder Audito rium Tuesday night that decisions on U.S. interventionism must be made on a case-by-case basis. Carter and Ford shared the stage with historian Dr. Stephen Ambrose and journalist George Will in the main program of the Memorial Stu dent Center’s Wiley Lecture Series. Will moderated the discussion. Although Ford said the United States must not retreat to isola tionism, he recognized that interven tionist policy has not always been successful. He classified the United States’ post World War II interventions as “a mixed bag.” He cited success in Korea, failure in Vietnam and mixed results with Cuba. Ford praised the U.S. reaction to the shipment of Soviet missiles to Cuba in the early ’60s while de ploring the sloppy handling of the Bay of Pigs incident. Carter said the only circumstance under which the United States should intervene in foreign matters is if the United States’ security is di rectly at. stake. He specifically ad dressed the issue of terrorism, offer ing an outline of how to combat it. “The essence of it is (that) when ever possible, act in secret,” Carter said. “Second, to have a concert of nations to act together . . . And the third is to try to delineate the desire of terrorists and not let them suc ceed in their efforts by our giving high publicity and elevating them in stature among nations who don’t like us at all anyway.” Carter said this approach had worked in past incidents with both Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Libya’s Moammar Khadafy. When Khomeini threatened to put American hostages on trial, Car ter said, a secret message was sent to Khomeini from the White House acting in concert with the leaders of Great Britain, West Germany, Italy, France and Japan. In the message Khomeini was told that if any Americans were put on trial, the nations would interrupt all trade between Iran and the rest of the world, Carter said. The message also warned that harm to any hos tage would result in an American military response, he said, conse quently no hostages were put on trial. Carter also said that during his administration he sent Khadafy a se cret message in concert with Ameri can allies after discovering a Kha- dafy-backed plan to have a U.S. ambassador murdered. After Kha dafy denied any knowledge of the plot, Carter said he sent him another message identifying the names of See Wiley, page 12 il prices rally; U.S. to press Run-off election to be held for 1 seat ■ NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices ■ung wildly Tuesday, plunging ■to the single-digit range for the first time since the mid-1970s before Bboundingon news that the United Bates will press Saudi Arabia to help Bbilize the market. ■ Prices for May delivery of West Bexas Intermediate, the main U.S. Budeand an important market indi- Btor, dropped as low as $9.75 per ff-gallon barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, compared with Monday’s price of $10.42. Bices for that grade have not been that low since 1977. ■ Later the New York f utures mar- Bt rallied strongly, sending prices up to $11.27, al ter Vice President feorge Bush said he would tell the Saudi government on his upcoming Middle East trip that the price slide is hurting the domestic U.S. oil in- Bistry. Saudi Arabia is widely blamed for the current supply glut and depends heavily on Washing ton’s strategic support. “This is a major change for the Reagan administration,” said Wil liam Randol, an analyst for First Boston Corp., a New York invest ment firm. “The policy has been that lower is better, period. Now they’re starting to realize that the euphoria of lower oil prices is like a party fol lowed by a hangover.” The Reagan administration has credited falling oil prices with help ing invigorate the economy by re straining inflation. Peter Beutel, assistant manager of Rudolf Wolff Energy Inc., a New York commodities f utures firm, said buyers rushed in toward the close of trading Tuesday in the belief that Bush’s trip will sway the Saudis into changing their policy. A&M faculty elects 32 of 33 senators By Sondra Pickard Staff Writer Faculty Senate elections were held Tuesday with 32 of the 33 available seats being decided. The remaining seat — Place 4 in the College of Education — will be decided in a run-off election held Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eligible faculty in the education college can vote in the first floor lounge of Harrington Education Center and 158 Read Building. Campus-wide voter turnout was 35 percent, with 665 of the 1,900 eli gible faculty members making it to the polls. Election results are listed below: College of Agriculture Place 4 • David Zuberer, soil and crop sci ences Place 6 • James B. Woolley, entomology Place 7 • Edward A. Funkhouser, bioche mistry College of Architecture & Environ mental Design Place 3 • John B. Evans, environmental de sign Place 4 • Walter V. Wendler, architecture College of Business Administration Place 6 • Samuel M. Gillespie, marketing College of Education Place 4 (Run-off Thursday) • Jon J. Denton, educational curric ulum and instruction • James R. Woosley, educational psychology Place 5 • Jerome T. Kapes, industrial, voca tional and technical education College of Engineering Place 2 • Thomas J. Kozik, mechanical en gineering Place 4 • Tibor Rozgonyi, petroleum engi neering Place 6 • C. F. Kettleborough, mechanical engineering Place 13 • James T. Rollins, petroleum engi neering See Election, page 8 Texas officials to continue fighting federal cuts Gramm says deficit-reduction law saves taxpayers money By Kirsten Dietz Assistant City Editor The Gramm-Rudman law doesn’t mean money lost, it means more money returned to the American family, U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm told a Bryan audi ence of about 150 people Tues day. Gramm and 6th District Rep. Joe Barton held a region-wide town meeting to listen to resi dents’ concerns on issues facing Congress. Gramm said he’s read thou sands of headlines saying the law “hurts” or “slashes.” “I have never seen a headline that says Gramm-Rudman saves taxpayers money,” he said. Gramm said the amount of money saved by the law will en able government spending to grow about $10-20 billion for the next year without a tax increase. “I don’t think it is cruel to limit the growth of the government to 2 percent in the next five years when it’s been growing It) to 12 percent for a decade and a half,” he said.. Barton agreed that Gramm- Rudman is working and said he thought the budget should be bal anced by 1991 or ’92. To balance the budget, he said, government should borrow less, not necessar ily spend less. Last week the Senate failed by one vote to approve a balanced budget amendment to the Consti tution. Barton said the House could vote on the issue in two or three months. Barton also said he expects the House will approve aid for the Nicaraguan Contras when it comes to vote again. The House recently voted 222-210 against giving support. Gramm also said he approves of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative or “Star Wars” plan, which would use satellites to knock out missiles before they strike their targets. He said we never will match the number of arms the Soviet Union has, so we must substitute American knowl edge. “I don’t see how the ability to defend ourselves menaces the So viet Union,” Gramm said. ■ AUSTIN (AP) — Texas officials, Buried by the loss of their first Burt fight against federal cutbacks Bid facing still-plunging oil prices, vowed Tuesday to keep up the fight Bainst Gramm-Rudman reductions Bid appealed to President Reagan for help. ■ Larry Neal, spokesman for Texas Bn. Phil Gramm, said Gramm-Rud- Ban isn’t the culprit for the deep ■tsand blamed them instead on the Bfected programs’ funding formu la ■ He said Gramm has introduced Bgislation to correct the formulas’ ■equities. ■ Gov. Mark White said the Tues- ■v drop in oil prices below $10 a Brrel, which could dramatically hurt the state’s collections of oil Bxes, underscores the importance of Bl-import tariffs. T‘I would hope that he (President Fagan) will respond,” White told ■porters. “The state and the nation Bviously are in jeopardy because of pe dumping of oil on the world Marketplace.” Texas already faces a $1.3 billion deficit in its current two-year budget because of the slide in oil prices since the first of the year, Comptroller Bob Bullock said. The state will have to borrow among state funds just to keep itself going until the Legislature meets in January, he said. The 181 legislators will have to decide what to do about the $1.3 billion deficit, including possible tax increases, before the end of the fiscal period Aug. 31, 1987. Bullock spokesman Tony Proflit said, “It’s not a good sign. But at the moment we are not planning to re vise our expected revenue figures. Our budget forecasts were made on posted market prices of oil and the posted market remains within 50 cents of our forecast of an annual av erage of $15 a barrel for this fiscal year.” Attorney General Jim Mattox’s of fice said Tuesday it would continue its challenge of the Gramm-Rudman budget cuts. U.S. District Judge James Nowlin on Monday denied Mattox’s request for a preliminary injunction against federal cuts of $6 million in a pro gram that furnishes assistance to the needy in Texas to pay utility bills and $2.5 million for a state program that provides alcohol and drug abuse services. Elna Christopher, press secretary to Mattox, said Tuesday the attorney general would wait to see what ac tion the U.S. Supreme Court takes on a suit challenging the constitu tionality of the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction measure. Nowlin ruled the state had not proven it was a victim of discrimina tion when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sliced funding for the programs in Texas but not in other states. The judge also said the issue of funding formu las should be debated by Congress. Assistant Attorney General Jose Garza argued Monday that the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction measure required 4.3 percent across-the-board cuts in the pro grams, but that the Texas programs were being pared almost 12 percent under federal formulas.