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Tourist Bureau gearing up
Soviets prepare to resume
A&M softball team earns
for record-breaking summer
operations at Chernobyl
berth in College World Series
— Page 3
— Page 4
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TexasASM m m — 9
The Battalion
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Serving the University community
to I 83 No. 154 (JSPS 075360 8 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, May 21, 1986
Botha compares raids
to strike against Libya
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
(AP) — President P.W. Botha said
Tuesday that raids on alleged guer
rilla targets in three countries were
justified pre-emptive strikes similar
to the U.S. bombing of Libya.
The raids Monday into Botswana,
Zambia and Zimbabwe brought con
demnation from around the world,
caused the nation’s currency to
plunge on financial markets, and
inspired protests by thousands of
college students, both black and
white.
Botha was defiant in his remarks
to Parliament on Tuesday.
“South Africa will not allow the
double standards and hypocrisy of
the Western world ... to stand in the
way of our responsibilities to protect
our country,” he said. “The smug
glers of terrorist arms into our coun
try and murderers of innocent peo
ple must be hunted down.”
The text of Botha’s speech, dis
tributed to reporters, ended with the
sentence: “I congratulate (our secu
rity forces) and assure the country
that we will do it again when the oc
casion demands.” He omitted those
words when speaking in Parliament.
His comments were the first gov
ernment response to an outcry that
included condemnations from the
United States and Britain, which
have resisted international attempts
to impose tough economic sanctions
on South Africa. Canada recalled its
ambassador for consultations.
Colin Eglin, leader of the opposi
tion in Parliament, said the air and
ground attacks, in which three peo
ple were killed and at least 15
wounded, were “a major political
blunder.”
The strikes were launched against
what the military called bases and
transit camps of the outlawed Afri
can National Congress, which has
waged a campaign of sabotage
against white rule since 1961.
Botha said international law per
mitted pre-emptive strikes in self-de
fense, adding: “Israel’s attack on the
PLO (Palestine Liberation Organiza
tion) headquarters in Tunisia and
America’s attacks on certain installa
tions in Libya are cases in point.”
A visiting American diplomat re
jected the comparison. Charles Free
man, a senior State Department offi
cial for African affairs, told
reporters the United States had
spent years trying to negotiate an
end to Libyan terrorism.
Senate committee
rejects home ports
We are the Champions
Photo by Anthony S. Casper
A&M’s Fred Gegen (left) and centerfielder Mike Conference baseball tournament trophy after
gpnlin (No. 8) hold aloft the Aggies' Southwest beatin g Baylor 7-6 Monday. See story, page 5.
Caperfon gets Florida trip
Texas senators visit resort
AUSTIN (AP) — At least 10
nenibers of the Texas Legislature,
nclLding Sen. Kent Caperton, D-
Iryan, recently were treated to a
Torida resort vacation by out-of-
tate lobbyists, the Dallas limes
reported Tuesday.
Hhe lawmakers played golf, dined
it sjunset on a pleasure cruise and
lept an evening at the dog races
during the junket, the newspaper
said.
The May 6-9 excursion to North
Palm Beach was hosted by lobbyists
for Unicare Inc., a nursing home
corporation which plans to expand
into Texas, and Florida dog-racing
interests who seek legislative appro
val for parimutuel gambling in
Texas, the newspaper said.
Accompanying the lawmakers on
the trip were lobbyists for the Texas
Civil Justice Coalition, a group of
businesses carrying on a bid to limit
civil liability damages people can
seek from companies and profes
sionals, the Times Herald reported.
Some legislators said they paid for
See Trip, page 8
WASHINGTON (AP) —The Na
vy’s plan to build new home ports
around the nation, including the
Texas Gulf Cbast. was rejected in a
test vote, 9-9, by the Senate Armed
Services'Committee on Tuesday.
The tie vote, during a closed com
mittee session, came on a motion by
Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., the mili
tary construction subcommittee
chairman, to release initial start-up
construction funds.
That money would be for home
ports in New York and Washington
state. No money for the Texas home
ports, at Corpus Christi and Hous-
ton-Galveston, has been proposed
yet. But the vote was seen by many as
a test of support for the entire pro
gram.
“I have no doubt, had the vote
simply been on Gulf home port it
would have passed,” said Phil
Gramm, R-Texas, a member of the
Armed Services Committee. “But it
was on the entire concept. We don’t
have anything in either the ’86 or ’87
budget, so we re not really affected,
but I’m eager to get the issue settled
and eliminate uncertainty around
it."
Some senators rejected what they
felt was Thurmond’s request for a
blanket endorsement of the entire
S799 million plan.
“We were being asked today to ap
prove the whole homeporting con
cept, which involves an awful lot of
money,” said Sen. Sam Nunn of
Georgia, the committee’s ranking
Democrat. “A lot of people feel we
have to weigh homeporting against
other very important priorities and I
think that’s what the committee re
flected today.”
The Navy’s plan to base its ex
panding fleet in new ports has been
criticized as too costly.
According to senators interviewed
as they emerged from the closed ses
sion, some committee members
voted against the proposal because
of uncertainties over what budget
cuts would be needed to pay for the
program.
Thurmond’s motion, approved by
his subcommittee last month, was to
release $79 million that had been ap
proved last year by Congress for
spending in the current fiscal year.
The money, frozen last year by
Thurmond until the Navy answered
questions about costs, is the initial
construction money for the ports at
Staten Island, N.Y. and Everett,
Wash. The Navy plans also to build
new ports in Gulf Coast and West
Coast cities.
But Nunn said he had reserva
tions because “the motion that Sen
ator Thurmond made went beyond
that $79 million. It was not just a $79
million question. It was an $800 mil
lion question.”
2 believed
missing at Lake
Livingston now
accounted for
LIVINGSTON (AP) — A
Houston couple believed missing
following a weekend storm at
Lake Livingston that killed six
people called officials Tuesday, a
Polk County sheriffs dispatcher
said.
“We had two that were unac
counted for,” dispatcher Diana
Davis said. “The people have
called this morning. Everybody
has been accounted for this
morning. The people that were
thought to be missing had gone to
New Mexico.”
Thousands of people had
turned out for a fishing tourna
ment and a sailing race at the
lake, 70 miles north of Houston,
when the storm hit Saturday af
ternoon.
When the storm hit, winds and
choppy waters swamped dozens
of boats and sent people either
swimming or running for cover.
“You could see the dark clouds
coming but they didn’t get out of
the lake. On this lake when you
see dark clouds coming you bet
ter head for land,” said Polk
County Sherif f Ted Everitt.
Oilmen unimpressed by rising crude prices
HOUSTON (AP) — Oil industry officials
ay they are not dusting off idle drilling rigs
Rinse of recent increases in crude pi ices
md note that the start of the summer driv-
ng season usually pushes up prices.
Hit’s extremely traditional,” Houston-
>ased energy analyst Dale Steffes said
Tuesday. “It’s euphoric around here be-
ause the price finally went up a little bit af-
er going down for 120 days.
HTm happy it is going up. But I don’t an-
icipate it will do much because there’s
tothing long term.”
Haude prices have increased by nearly $4
a barrel in the past three weeks, but oil fu
tures prices tumbled more than $1 a barrel
to the $16 level Tuesday. The price for
June delivery of West Texas Intermediate
fell from $17.16 for a 42-gallon barrel to
$16.04 on the New York Mercantile Ex
change.
“The fundamentals have not changed,
except we’re going into the driving season,”
Steffes said. “They’re anticipating that. But
I don’t see too much of a change in the
world picture. Prices from OPEC haven’t
gone up any.”
Mickey Gentry, a spokesman for Pen-
nzoil Co., said the price increase was in line
with his company’s expectations that by the
end of the year prices would be around $20
for West Texas Intermediate, the bench
mark U.S. crude.
The increase was encouraging but not
prolonged enough yet, said Conoco Inc.
spokesman Tom DeCola.
“The little upward movement is not
going to revive any drilling programs that
have been put on hold,” he said.
Asked when it would become more at
tractive to drill. Gentry replied: “I think it’s
got a ways to go vet.”
The weekly Hughes Tool Co. rig count, _
the industry yardstick for drilling activity in
the United States, continued to reflect the
sour exploration and drilling environment,
plunging to another post-World War II
low.
Only 757 rigs were operating last week,
down from 809 the previous week. The last
time the count was this low was April 1943,
when 805 rigs were drilling, Hughes re
ported.
More than 1,000 rigs have been idled
since December, a month after oil prices be-
l gan plummeting from $32 a barrel and bot-
I tomed out at about $11. At the peak of the
i oil boom in December 1981, the Hughes
count stood at 4,530.
The economics of drilling — when it be
comes profitable — vary from company to
company, said one industry official who
asked not to be identified.
“As you get into the offshore business, I
have heard $20 a barrel,” he said. “Some of
the deep water stuff in the Gulf of Mexico,
you need to be above $20. And in Alaska,
offshore, it’s $28. Those are some general
rules of thumb. There is no individual
kicker point.”
Radioactivity levels
in rain sample down
I WASHINGTON (AP) — Ra-
Hlioactivitv in rain from the Cher-
Hobyl nuclear accident is decreas-
Hn g as time goes on,
K nvironmental Protectio n
H^gency figures showed Tuesday.
I Concentrations of iodine-131
Here below 100 picocuries per
Hter in all nine cities listed in
■Tuesday’s report as receiving ra-
Hiioacti\ e rain in recent days.
I Previous reports almost always
Have listed several cities with
Hiore radioactivity than that.
The agency said last week it be
lieved readings had peaked. The
principal contaminant, iodine-
131, has a half-life of only eight
days.
“All detections to date are at
levels so low that even the most
sensitive portions of the popula
tion, including pregnant women
and infants, face no significant
health threat," said the daily
statement on behalf of the inter
agency group monitoring acci
dent development.
Experts say NBC told nothing new to Kremlin
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.
submarines have collected intelli
gence in Soviet waters for 25 years,
according to experts who said Tues
day that NBC told the Kremlin noth
ing new by reporting underwater
eavesdropping.
CIA Director William Casey has
asked the Justice Department to
weigh criminal charges aginst NBC-
TV for mentioning the intelligence
program and identifying its code-
name as “Ivy Bells.”
But government prosecutors have
yet to file charges.
The official Soviet media have re
mained quiet over the latest flap be
tween Casev and the U.S. news me
dia. But as early as Aug. 28, 1961, at
the height of an East-West crisis over
the divided German city of Berlin,
the official Soviet neyvs agency Tass
complained that foreign submarines
had committed “a number of viola
tions against the state seacoast of the
Soviet Union” and were “making ob
servations for intelligence pur
poses.”
The NBC report in question,
aired Monday on the “Today” show,
said that accused spy Ronald William
Felton, a former employee of the
National Security Agency, is sus
pected of giving Russia information
on espionage gathering by U.S. sub
marines, which NBC correspondent
Jim Polk said may be code-named
“Ivy Bells.” Pelton is on trial in Balti
more.
U.S. subs began spying against the
Soviet Union at the end of the Eisen
hower administration, said Ameri
can University professor Jeffrey
Richelson, the author of books on
U.S. and Soviet intelligence.
In 1975 The New York Times
published more detailed articles on
the Holystone program, quoting
high-level intelligence and adminis
tration sources describing it as a
valuable tool for gathering informa
tion at little risk to the collectr
The article said, the
were able to observe cl
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