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Social scientists trying to learn
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— Page 10
Lady Aggies get 3 signatures
on national letters-of-intent
— Page 11
The Battalion
Vol. 83 No. 132 GSRS 075360 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, April 10, 1986
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Under Cover
Texas A&M students brought out their umbrellas
Wednesday to protect themselves from continual
Photo by Mike Sanchez
drizzle. Today’s forecast calls for a high of 72, a
low of 60 with a 40 percent chance of rain.
State’s monthly bill higher
despite governor’s request
AUSTIN (AP) — Checks written
opay the state’s bills during March
an 15 percent higher than the bills
wd averaged over the previous six
nonths, Comptroller Bob Bullock
innounced Wednesday.
Aides to Gov. Mark White said the
eport isn’t a fair reflection on the
pvernor’s executive order to state
tgencies to cut spending.
March was the first full month
fate agencies operated under
Vhite’s order.
Bullock said his bill-paying report
iso showed that the number of state
mployees increased by 889 during
4arch, from 186,632 to 187,521.
White’s executive order called for a
reeze on hiring.
I In releasing his report, Bullock
Iffered no comment on it. He said
the figures were strictly a job of
bookkeeping.
“The agencies sent us their bills
and we wrote the checks,” Bullock
said. “The figures mean nothing
more and nothing less. Maybe next
month the total will be less, maybe it
will be more. That’s what this mon
itoring is all about.”
During March, the comptroller’s
office wrote $1.6 billion worth of
state checks, up $217 million from
the monthly average from Septem
ber 1985 to February 1986.
White’s executive order, issued in
February, called on the approxi
mately 200 state agencies and uni
versities to trim spending by 13 per
cent from March through Aug. 31,
1987, the end of the current two-
year state budget.
He issued the order — which asks
that agencies obey but cannot re
quire them to do so — after Bullock
estimated that plunging oil prices
would leave state government $1.3
billion short of its 1986-87 budget
total.
Ann Arnold, White’s press secre
tary, said there were several reasons
the figures aren’t an accurate reflec
tion on White’s order.
She said the checks written en
compass spending from all state gov
ernment funds, including money
Texas receives from the federal gov
ernment.
She also said March spending in
cluded quarterly state aid payments
to Texas schools, adding that it isn’t
fair to compare that month’s figure
with a six-month average.
Reagan says Libya
declared war on U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi
dent Reagan said Wednesday night
that Libyan Leader Moammar Kha-
dafy had declared war on the United
States and this country is ready to re
spond when it has sufficient evi
dence that Libya is behind terrorist
attacks on Americans.
Calling Khadafy “the mad dog of
the Middle East,” Reagan said his
administration is still gathering evi
dence that might link the Libyan
leader to fatal bombings aboard a
TWA airliner and in a Wester Berlin
nightclub.
Asked at a nationally broadcast
news conference whether the United
States is “in a state of war” with Kha
dafy, Reagan responded: “He de
clared it. We just haven’t recognized
the declaration yet.”
“We’re going to defend ourselves
and we are certainly going to take ac
tion in the face of specific terrorist
threats,” he added.
Earlier Wednesday, Reagan told
newspaper editors the United States
is “not going to just sit here and hold
still” amid mounting threats against
Americans. He said he suspects Kha
dafy is behind surging terrorism.
Vice President George Bush, talk
ing to sailors aboard the USS Enter-
prse in the Gulf of Oman, had called
the Libyan strongman “a mad dog.”
Reagan said, “We have consider
able evidence over quite a long pe
riod of time that Khadafy has been
quite outspoken in his participation
and sponsoring terrorist acts.”
But asked whether he was ready
to announce military action in retal
iation, Reagan said: “We are not re
ady yet to speak on that. Any action
we might take would be dependent
on what we learn and I can’t go any
further.”
The Pentagon said Wednesday
the Navy has taken steps to prepare
a two-carrier battle group, including
an indefinite extension of the carrier
Coral Sea’s deployment, if Reagan
decides to order a military strike
against Libya.
On the issue of retaliation, Rea
gan said: “This is a question that is
like talking about battle plans or
something. If and when we could
specifically identify someone as re
sponsible for these acts, we would re
spond. So this is what we are trying
to do — to find out who’s responsi
ble.”
In Tripoli, Khadafy said he and
his top commanders have completed
military plans to challenge the
United States.
During a brief question-and-an-
swer session at the annual meeting
of the American Society of Newspa
per Editors, Reagan said, “We are
investigating and trying to gather all
the information we can so that we
can actually, with solid evidence,
point a finger at who is responsible”
►Also see Navy, page 9
for last week’s explosion aboard a
TWA jetliner and the bombing of a
West Berlin disco.
Asked if the evidence gathered so
far points to Khadafy, Reagan re
plied, “Let me say he is definitely a
suspect.”
Reagan promised to look into an
editor’s complaint that journalists
covering the recent naval exercises
off Libya were taken off the carrier
USS Saratoga without being told
when an exchange of fire took place
between Libyan and U.S. forces.
He said he was unaware that six
journalists aboard the carrier partici
pating in the challenge to Khadafy’s
claim over the Gulf were spirited
away from the region when fighting
broke out and were not told of the
conflict.
But the president defended keep
ing some military operations secret,
saying leaks can endanger U.S.
forces and increase casualties. He
called the White House “the leakiest
place I’ve ever been in.”
Reagan began his news confer
ence by reading two statements —
one urging Congress anew to ap
prove his $100 million aid package
for Nicaraguan rebels, with no
strings attached and prodding law
makers to get on with passing a fed
eral budget.
Noting that Congress appeared
likely to miss the April 15 deadline
for completing action on a budget
for fiscal 1987, which starts next Oct.
See Reagan, page 14
West Germany ejects
2 Libyan diplomats
BONN, West Germany (AP) —
West Germany ordered two Li
byan diplomats out of the country
Wednesday and said it has “seve
ral indications” that Libya was be
hind the bombing that wrecked a
Berlin discotheque frequented by
American soldiers.
Chief government spokesman
Friedhelm Ost added, however,
that the expulsions were not “di
rectly connected” with the bomb
attack early Saturday on the La
Belle nightclub that killed two
people and wounded 230.
In Washington, the State De
partment said kicking the two
diplomats out was “an important
initial step.”
Ost told a news conference the
two diplomats had been under
observation for some time “for
various activities not in accord
ance with the norms of diplo
matic behavior.”
He would not elaborate on his
comments and refused to say
whether the Libyans would have
been ordered out if the bombing
had not occurred.
The government spokesman
said there were “indications but
no concrete prooF’ that the Li
byan Embassy in East Berlin, cap
ital of communist East Germany,
was behind the bomb attack.
On Tuesday, a West Berlin In
terior Ministry official confirmed
a newspaper report that Elamin
Abdullah Elamin, a 47-year-old
diplomat in the East Berlin em
bassy, was suspected of directing
the attack.
U.S. officials, while welcoming
the expulsions, said they would
like to see more anti-terrorist
measures by the West Germans.
State Department spokesman
Bernard Kalb said the West Ger
man action, and France’s expul
sion of two Libyan diplomats last
week, represents “increasing rec
ognition” of the threat posed by
terrorists.
He would not reveal what in
formation the United States pro
vided to West Germany, saying
only that “there is a close working
relationship” and exchange of in
formation.
Western diplomatic sources
said Ost’s statement about no di
rect connection between the ex
pulsions and the bombing did not
seem credible.
“I don’t know why they said
that. It could be that they don’t
want to look like vassals of the
Americans” one said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
West German officials, also
speaking privately, identified the
Libyans expelled as Ahmed
Omar M. Isaa and Mahmud
Ahmed Shibani, both “middle-
level diplomats” responsible for
administration.
Foreign Ministry spokesman
Juergen Chrobog said represen
tatives of the Libyan Embassy in
Bonn had denied that staff mem
bers behaved improperly.
Parents’ Weekend
to start Friday at A&M
Parents’ Weekend, a tradi
tional activity at Texas A&M since
1925, begins Friday. The week
end allows parents to visit A&M
in the University setting.
The tentative schedule for Fri
day follows. The rest of the
schedule will be in Friday’s Battal
ion.
Student Government Open House
214 Pavilion
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
MSC Camera Print Sale
MSC 1st Floor
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Society for Entrepreneurship
and New Ventures Reception
1st Floor MSC
4 p.m.
Federation of Aggie Mothers’ Club
Boutique
Rudder Exhibit Hall
11 a.m.
Meet deans and professors
at mining engineering department
Doherty Building
11 a.m.
Engineers’ Week Awards Ceremony
Zachry Lobby
2 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Sterling C. Evans Library Open
House
1 p.m. - 5 pm.
Federation of Aggie Mothers’ Club
Meeting
Rudder Theater
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Who’s Who Reception
205 & 206 MSC
3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
PSI CHI Psychology Reception
Academic Building 3rd Floor
3 p.m. - 5 p.m.
RHA Casino
MSC
7 p.m. to midnight
MSC Variety Show
Rudder Auditorium
7:30 p.m.
MSC Aggie Cinema presents
“The Jagged Edge”
Rudder Theater
7:30 p.m. & 9:45 p.m.
Impact with sea shattered module
Shuttle cabin survived blast
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)
— Challenger’s crew cabin structu
rally survived the Jan. 28 explosion
and nine-mile plunge from the sky
but shattered when it hit the surface
of the Atlantic Ocean, a federal
safety expert reported Wednesday.
However, experts do not believe
the astronauts survived the fall to
the ocean. They believe the seven
probably were killed instantly from
the shock of the explosion or from
aerodynamic forces as the cabin
tumbled from the sky.
Terry Armentrout, director of the
National Transportation Safety
Board’s bureau of accident investi
gation, said the cabin section broke
cleanly away from the rest of the
shuttle and when it “struck the wa
ter, it had some mass inside; that
mass was the crew module.”
Armentrout said aerodynamic
forces rather than the explosion
caused most of the initial breakup of
Challenger and that the 140-to-180-
mph impact with the water did the
rest of the damage.
"The external tank did not explode. With all its poten
tial, it would have been a much greater fireball. ”
— Terry Armentrout, director of the NTSB’s bureau of
accident investigation.
In fact, he said, there was no large
explosion as everyone at first be
lieved. He said it was more of a fire
ball and that the cloud of smoke and
flame resulted from the flames that
flashed when liquid oxygen and liq
uid hydrogen propellant mixed af
ter the huge external fuel tank rup
tured.
“There was evidence of explosion
visually, but the explosion of the en
tire shuttle is not something we’re
seeing,” he said. “The external tank
did not explode. With all its poten
tial, it would have been a much
greater fireball.”
Armentrout talked with reporters
as he led them through hangars
where the shuttle debris that has
been recovered has been laid out
over a pattern of 4-foot-square
grids.
It was the first public viewing of
the debris, and it was a sobering
sight to see the remains of the once
sleek space plane spread out, bat
tered, jagged and charred.
Most pieces were small, but in the
hangar where the orbiter chunks are
being examined there were large
sections of the fuselage, the cargo
bay doors and the right wing.
In a portable hangar nearby are
chunks of the external tank, two of
the three main engine nozzles and
the two forward segments of the
booster rockets. Some of the tank
parts are huge rectangular slabs
measuring 10-to-25-feet on a side.
The crew cabin debris is being ex
amined elsewhere in the main han
gar and was not seen by the report
ers. Most of the booster rocket parts
are in a secure building because they
still contain hazardous fuel.
Divers believe they have recov
ered all the astronaut remains they
are going to find. These are being
examined and identified in a medi
cal laboratory here.
An estimated 14 percent to 16
percent of the total shuttle assembly
has been recovered. Some was found
floating in the days following the ac
cident; the rest has been pulled from
the ocean floor.
NASA asked the safety board the
day after the accident to help it find
the cause of the accident, usyng its
expertise in investigating^aircraft
crashes.