Expert says snakes dangerous
but few people die from bites
Horsemen's group to host
3 shows at A&M this weekend
A&M guns for NCAA qualifiers
at Baylor track and field meet
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^—.TexasA&M W •
The Battalion
Serving the University community
■ ——
dI.83 No. 138 GSPS 075360 14 pages College Station, Texas Friday, April 18, 1986
ierrorists strike back against U.S., Britain
(AP) — Terror struck back against
: United States and its friends on
■continents Thursday, in an ex-
Hn of vengeful fury ignited by
: American bombing of Libya.
Terrorists “executed” three kid-
Myictims in Lebanon, tried to
nv up an El A1 jetliner in London,
d tossed firebombs at U.S. targets
Tunisia.
in city after city around the world,
■ crowds swirled around U.S.
Hsies and screamed their hatred
“U.S.A. Aggressor.”
Bomb-disposal squads scurried
mnd European capitals in re-
rnse to threats. American embassy
^members were being airlifted
t of Sudan. In Libya itself, ner-
See related stories, page 9
vous Westerners looked desperately
for ways out of the country.
And in Moscow, in a possibly omi
nous development, the Soviet Union
summoned foreign ambassadors
and formally asserted its right to
free passage through the seas and
air around Soviet-aligned Libya, a
move that might signal Kremlin in
tentions to move naval vessels or
other military equipment into the
tense Mediterranean.
The Reagan administration was
clearly braced for further shocks.
“We are prepared for an increase
in terrorism,” White House spokes
man Larry Speakes said in Washing
ton.
But he said the U.S. leadership
believes its bombing of Libyan cities
Tuesday will “in the long run . . . re
duce the risk to Americans” from
terror attacks.
In Lebanon, retaliation for the
U.S. raid was swift and bloody.
The bodies of three kidnap vic
tims — identified as writer Alec Col
lett,.64, and teachers Leigh Douglas,
34, and Philip Padfield, 40, all Bri
tons — were dumped on a highway,
each shot once in the head.
A note found nearby claimed they
were U.S. and British spies and had
been executed by Arab commando
cells in reprisal for the attack on Li
bya.
Collett was kidnapped 13 months
ago and Douglas and Padfield were
abducted last month.
Arab anger has been directed at
the British government because it al
lowed the United States to mount
the air attack on Libya from a U.S.
air base in Britain.
Soon after the bodies were found,
a British television cameraman was
abducted by gunmen in Beirut.
Eighteen kidnapped foreigners,
including six Americans, are still
missing in Lebanon.
In London Thursday, an alert se-
See Terrorism, page 14
Photo by Bill Hughes
Texas A&M University police officers escort Rogelio Sanchez Garza (center) to a squad car.
I arrested
in theft
of auto
By Brian Pearson
Senior StHfl Writer
A stakeout by the Texas A&M
University Police Department
Bed Thursday with the arrest
oftwo men in connection with the
hef t of an automobile.
■ Bob Wiatt, director of security
and traffic at A&M, said officers
;)i| the stakeout saw two men
slumped down in the front seat of
a 1975 Malibu Classic, which was
luising slowly through Parking
\nnex 61 across the railroad
lacks from Kyle Field.
■iatt said Detective Will Scott
>f University Police saw them
top. enter a 1976 Monte Carlo
tnd drive off with it.
[They then drove south on Gl
en Road, Wiatt said, and were
ollowed by University police. He
aid although the two men didn’t
ittempt to outrun the officers,
teither did they pull over when
police turned on the lights and si-
ens.
According to Wiatt, “They
suspects) got caught in some tra-
Bpand officers boxed them in.”
■he police apprehended the
tien near the intersection of Ol-
lenRoad and Jersey Street.
Rogelio Sanchez Garza, 25,
ind Mario Alfaro Lozano, 17,
Tom Houston were taken to the
ffrazos County Jail and charged
nth felony theft.
Felony theft carries a prison
lenience of from two to 10 years
ind a fine of up to $5,000.
Brad Mercer, a sophomore bi-
pedical science major from Fort
iVoTth and owner of the Monte
iiarlo, said he was lucky his car
vas recovered.
“1 was extremely surprised,”
Mercer said. “I can’t believe any-
)ody would want that car.”
Mercer said University police
lidlan excellent job of handling
he situation.
“I am pretty impressed,”
Mercer said. “I use to think all
they did was write tickets.”
Wiatt said the stakeout was ini
tiated because four motor vehi
cles had been stolen last week
f rom the same area.
“Stakeouts pay off,” Wiatt said.
A similar stakeout occurred in
January when University Police
arrested three men in connection
with the theft of two motor vehi
cles.
Wiatt said students should be
careful about parking cars on
campus and leaving them unat
tended for long periods of time.
“The students that leave their
cars over there need to go out
and check it every once in a whi
le,” Wiatt said.
Reagan: Raid on Libya
Itie right thing to do 7
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Reagan administration, facing a spi
ral of international terrorism, de
fended its bombing raid on Libya as
“absolutely the right thing to do”
and said Thursday that the world
will benefit in the long run from a
hard-line stance against terrorists.
President Reagan called the slay
ing of three Britons in Lebanon a
tragedy that demonstrates that “ter
rorism is something that we have to
deal with once and for all, all of us
together.”
A note found by the hostages’
bodies on a mountain highway out
side Beirut claimed one of the vic
tims was a CIA agent, and said the
killings were in retaliation for the
British-supported U.S. attack on Li
bya.
Presidential spokesman Larry
Speakes said he did not know of any
ties between any of the victims and
the CIA.
Another Briton was seized by
gunmen en route to the Beirut air
port and a previously unknown
group claimed responsibility.
Elsewhere, firebombs were
thrown at a U.S. Marine post in Tu
nisia, and police in London arrested
a woman as she tried to board an Is
raeli jetliner with plastic explosives
hidden under a false bottom of her
iuggage.
While refusing to link the attacks
to Monday’s bombing of Libya,
Speakes said, “We were aware there
was a potential for increased activ-
ity.”
Speakes said, “We are prepared
for an increase in terrorism. That is
why we have issued the alerts” to em
bassies and military installations
around the world. “We are not cer
tain it will happen, but it is a possibil
ity.”
Reagan “believes that his action
taken in Libya was absolutely the
right thing to do,” Speakes said.
“The U.S. had no choice but to
drive the point home to (Libyan
leader Moammar) Khadafy that he
would have to pay for terrorist activ
ities. We believe in the long run that
this will reduce the threats, danger
to Americans and other citizens
w’orldwide.”
Speakes announced the evacua
tion of up to 500 Americans — non-
essential diplomatic personnel and
dependents — from Khartoum, Su
dan, following the shooting Tuesday
of an American embassy employee
and a flag-burning demonstration
Wednesday by thousands of people
there in protest of the U.S. military
strike.
He said the shooting “bears the
marks of Libya” and “our suspicions
are very great that this was a Libyan
type of operation.”
Of the hostage slayings in Leb
anon, Speakes said, “We do not
know who is responsible but it bears
the marks of the type of activity en
gaged in by Abu Nidal,” an accused
Palestinian terrorist with a base of
operations in Libya.
The administration said it still was
not certain about the whereabouts of
Khadafy, who appeared on state-run
television late Wednesday and
pledged “to stand and fight U.S. ag
gression.”
Speakes said information from va
rious sources, including news re
ports, indicates that shooting contin
ues in Libya and that some elements
of the army were “involved in muti
nous type of activity.”
He added, “We do not know how
widespread it is and (we) cannot
draw any conclusions about dissen
sion in the Khadafy ranks.”
Reagan, posing for pictures with
visiting Australian Prime Minister
Robert Hawke, said Khadafy was
“staying under cover while the
shooting’s going on.”
Khadafy, whose infant daughter
was reported killed in the attack,
said in his television appearance that
“we do not bomb children like the
United States does.”
Speakes was openly skeptical that
Khadafy even had an adopted child.
“We were not aware previously that
there was an adopted Khadafy in
fant,” he said, adding, “We had not
seen the adoption papers.”
The president’s spokesman was
the first government official to pub
licly question whether Khadafy had
such a daughter since a physician in
Tripoli said Tuesday that she had
been killed and that two Khadafy
sons were injured.
Defending the U.S. bombing,
Speakes said 938 people were killed
worldwide in terrorist attacks last
year, “many of them attributed to Li
bya and Khadafy.”
In another development, the Pen
tagon announced that the two crew
men from the F-lll missing in the
attack have been declared killed in
action, instead of missing. The two
crewmen were Capts. Fernando L.
Ribas-Dominicci of San Juan, Puerto
Rico, and Paul F. Lorence of San
Francisco.
At a Pentagon briefing, spokes
man Robert Sims said the U.S. raids
involved more than 100 strike and
support aircraft and succeeded in
damaging all five designated targets.
The bombing runs were mounted
during the dead of night at altitudes
of less than 500 feet and speeds in
excess of 575 miles per hour, he
said.
“This was a near-flawless profes
sional operation under extremely
difficult circumstances, in the mid
dle of the night, long distances from
bases . . . ,” Sims said. “It was rather
extraordinary and I don’t think
we’ve had anything like it in U.S.
military annals, frankly.”
The mission was not without
problems, however.
Sims disclosed that five of the 18
Air Force F-lll bombers and two of
14 Navy A-6 attack jets were forced
to abort their bombing runs either
because of equipment problems or
for other, unexplained reasons.
500 students at A&M
'ace possible arrests
O'Neill: Reagan lost best chance
‘Odds of reviving aid bill slim’
By Brian Pearson
Senior Staff Writer
Texas A&M University Police will
iist the Place 1 and Place 2 Justice
the Peace offices in the possible
rests of 600 A&M students.
Bob Wiatt, director of security
0traffic at A&M, said that starting
nil |28, about 200 students with
tiding warrants and 400 outstand-
; warrants may soon be arrested if
:y don’t pay off their University
lice citations filed with the Justice
the Peace.
Ptese warrants are for all out-
nding University Police citations
rept parking tickets.
University Police will receive a list
alll students with warrants filed
h the Justices of the Peace, Wiatt
d.
Hel said these students will be
ledlfirst, made aware of the war
rant and warned about the possibil
ity of being arrested.
“If you don’t heed, then we’ll have
to go out and drag you in,” Wiatt
said.
He said the University Police will
be responsible for arresting on-cam
pus students while the Bryan or Col
lege Station police departments will
handle the off-campus students.
Wiatt said any student who has re
ceived a University vehicle citation
other than a parking ticket is going
to be on the Justice of the Peace list.
“I am requesting all students to go
down memory lane and recall get
ting a ticket and probably throwing
it out the window,” Wiatt said.
Students having questions con
cerning the citations should call 693-
3006 or go by the Justice of the
Peace office at 303 University Dr. on
weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and
noon or 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House
Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. said
Thursday he thinks the Republicans
face long odds in their gamble to win
an up-or-down vote soon on Presi
dent Reagan’s program of aid to Ni
caraguan rebels.
O'Neill told reporters he thought
Reagan had his best chance on
Wednesday, when consideration of
the issue Was halted abruptly by a
GOP tactic aimed at divorcing the
vote from an unrelated spending bill
that Reagan wants to veto.
Told of O’Neill's prediction that
the GOP would have problems in
getting the Contra aid issue consid
ered as a separate measure, House
Republican leader Robert Michel, R-
111., said, “I don't think we’ll have
difficulty. We’re going to come
down hard on our own people.”
Michel said his goal is a free
standing bill limited solely to the
question of giving military and other
assistance to the Contra counterre
volutionaries.
Both leaders agreed that the polit
ical fight has delayed for at least a
month any new vote on Reagan’s
plan to send $100 million to U.S.-
backed guerrillas fighting Nicara
gua's lef tist Sandinista government.
To win their gamble, the Republi
cans will need the support of some
Democrats, who hold a 252-182
edge in the House. One seat is va
cant.
On Wednesday, the Republican
minoritv pulled its surprise tactic by
voting tor an amendment that would
have ended Reagan’s program of as
sistance to the Contras — an amend
ment that had been widely expected
to fail. As a consequence, the
amendment passed overwhelmingly
— stopping any further immediate
consideration of other amendments,
including one which would have at
tached several strings to any such
continuing assistance program.
Democratic leaders admitted they
were surprised, but said the GOP
tactic reflected deepening divisions
in Congress over the contentious is
sue. Both sides traded charges after
the move, with Democrats saying the
GOP used “offensive” and “cynical”
tactics and Republicans calling Dem
ocrats “corrupt” and “fraudulent.”
The House last month had voted
down Reagan’s plan, but the Senate
approved a different version and
O’Neill agreed to reconsider it only
if the package were attached to an
unrelated spending bill that Reagan
has threatened to veto.
Rather than vote for Contra aid
attached to the spending bill, Repub
licans joined with Democrats to ap
prove the amendment which had the
effect of temporarily killing Rea
gan’s plan.
“We didn’t have anything to lose,”
Michel said Thursday. “The spend
ing bill isn’t going anywhere any
way.”
Michel said the GOP will now try
to gather the necessary 218 signa
tures to bring a separate Contra aid
package to the floor.