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Friday, June 20, 1986
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GLASS BORO, N.J. (AP) — Presi-
ient Reagan, in his first formal re-
ponse to Soviet leader Mikhail Gor-
jachev’s latest arms control offer,
taid Thursday “it appears that the
Soviets have begun to make a serious
effort” toward negotiating an
agreement.
Reagan, in a speech delivered at a
New Jersey high school near the site
>f a 1967 U.S.-Soviet summit, said
the Soviet offer cannot be accepted
without change, but could be the ba
sis for serious negotiations.
Citing what he called “fresh devel-
pments” in several areas, the presi
dent said: “We believe that possibly
an atmosphere does indeed exist
that will allow for serious dis-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
House voted approval Thursday of a
resolution urging continued U.S. ad
herence to SALT II, the unratified
nuclear arms control treaty that
President Reagan says he will not use
in the future to guide decisions on
weapons deployment.
The Democratic-controlled
House approved the non-binding
resolution on a 256-145 vote after
liv e hours of debate and following a
222-187 defeat of a Republican-
backed proposal that would have ba
sically endorsed Reagan’s decision.
Before final passage, the House
voted 406-0 approval of another Re-
publican-sponsored proposal saying
the chamber supports the efforts of
U.S. arms control negotiators in Ge
neva to reduce superpower nuclear
arsenals.
On the final vote, 219 Democrats
and 37 Republicans voted for the
SALT resolution. It was opposed by
37 Democrats and 128 Republicans.
At about the same time, the Re-
publican-controlled Senate Armed
Services Committee voted 10-9 pas
sage of a proposal by Sen. Gary
Hart, D-Colo., which also urges con
tinued compliance with SALT' II.
The vote came in a closed session
of the panel as it wrote its version of
a Pentagon spending bill. Hart’s pro
posal, which he announced later,
was adopted as an amendment to the
bill.
Reagan’s May 27 announcement
that he would not be bound in the
future by the limits in the unratified
SALT II has touched off widespread
debate on Capitol Hill, along with
several legislative proposals.
The House resolution was the
f irst measure to reach the floor of ei
ther chamber, but a similar resolu
tion has been introduced in the Re
publican-controlled Senate.
Also pending in both chambers
are bills that would ban the spending
of any money to build nuclear weap
ons that would exceed the limits set
by the 1 979 treaty.
The resolution approved Thurs
day was chiefly sponsored by Rep.
Dante Fascell, D-Fla., chairman of
the Foreign Affairs Committee,
which voted 29-1 1 passage last week.
Rep. William Broomfield of Mich
igan, ranking Republican on the
panel, offered the Republican alter
native that was voted down shortly
before the resolution passed.
Broomfield’s proposal would have
Reagan adhere to the SALT limits as
long as the Soviets do likewise. Since
Reagan says the Soviets don’t adhere
to the pact, that would mean Rea
gan’s new policy could go ahead.
House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill
Jr., D-Mass., said Thursday that “the
president’s making a mistake” by
proposing to discard the treaty. He
argued that the move “gives tremen
dous advantage to the Russians” who
can build up weapons more quickly
than the United States.
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Of the Soviet offer made in Ge
neva, Reagan said, “We cannnot ac
cept these particular proposals with
out change, but it appears that the
Soviets have begun to make a serious
effort.”
In his speech to graduating se
niors, Reagan noted that little had
come of the 1967 summit between
President Lyndon B. Johnson and
Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin at
nearby Glassboro State College.
“I have come here today to say
that the Glassboro Summit was not
enough, that indeed the Geneva
Summit was not enough — that talk
alone, in short, is not enough,” he
said. “I have come here to invite Mr.
Gorbachev to join me in taking ac
tion— action in the name of peace.”
The president noted that he re
cently wrote Gorbachev to press for
high-level talks on summit prepara
tions. No response has been re
ceived, White House officials said.
The school gymnasium was
[jammed to its capacity of 1,200 peo-
[ple and a crowd gathered outside lis-
Itened to the president’s speech over
la public address system.
“The time has come to move for-
Iward,” Reagan said during his
Jspeech. “The goal here is not com-
Iplicated. I am suggesting that we
Wvee nov on how many new bigger,
land more accurate missiles can be
tbuilt, but on how to reduce and ulti-
linately eliminate all nuclear mis-
Isiles.”
Cool Blues
Sisters Tina and T'heresa Thomas and Jen
nifer Williams, right, listen to a blues perfor
mance at Thursday’s Juneteenth celebration
at Sadie Thomas Memorial Park in Bryan.
Photo by Anthony S. Casper
The concert kicked off three days of festivi
ties which will include a free swim at the park
on Friday, a parade in Bryan on Saturday
and religious services on Sunday.
Senate approves
partial deduction
for state sales tax
Guilty as charged
FBI agent Miller convicted of espionage, bribery
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Richard
JW. Miller, the only FBI agent ever
laccused of spying, was convicted of
■espionage and bribery Thursday by
la jury that rejected his claim that he
■was trying to infiltrate the Soviet
|KGB as a double agent to save his
|flagging career.
Miller, the pudgy agent who
Iworked in the counterintelligence
■section of the FBI’s Los Angeles of-
Ifice, sat motionless and stared at the
jurors as the verdict was announced
bin the case that rocked the FBI when
it broke nearly two years ago.
Miller, 49, could be sentenced to
life in prison.
Miller was found guilty of con
spiring to pass classified documents
to the Soviet Union, of copying clas
sified documents and of delivering
them to a foreign government with
knowledge that they would be used
to the advantage of a foreign power,
the Soviet Union, and to the disad
vantage of the United States.
He also was found guilty of com
municating the documents to a
known representative of the Soviets
and of soliciting $50,000 in gold and
$ 15,000 in cash.
The panel had told the judge they
were deadlocked on one count only,
whether or not Miller had accepted
an expensive trench coat from his
girlfriend as a bribe. The govern
ment moved to drop the seventh
count, and U.S. District Judge David
Kenyon granted the motion.
As Miller was being led out of the
courtroom in handcuffs, he was
asked for comment by reporters. He
smiled and said: “Let’s say thank
God for the court of appeals.”
Miller’s attorneys, Joel Levine and
Stanley Greenberg, said they were
confident the verdict would be re
versed on appeal.
The jury, which deliberated 21
hours over four days, was the second
panel to consider the complicated
case. The first jury to hear the case
said it could not reach a unanimous
verdict.
In the second trial, the govern
ment presented essentially the same
case against Miller, portraying him
See Spy, page 6
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Senate on Thursday approved a par
tial deduction for some state and lo
cal sales taxes and agreed to a final
vote next week on a radical plan for
overhauling the federal income tax.
To help pay for the sales tax
amendment, the Senate agreed to
require that every person age 5 or
older who is claimed as a dependent
have a Social Security card. They
agreed to this mainly in an effort to
slow tax cheating by falsely claiming
exemptions.
“We’re in the home stretch,” Ma
jority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., said
near the end of the 10th day of de
bate on the bill. A few hours earlier,
facing a stack of 200 or more
amendments that had stalled final
action on the bill, Dole had threat
ened a weekend session — even the
pending holiday recess — unless
senators got moving.
As the day wore on, amendments
began disappearing; 200 dropped to
fewer than 30. Then, 30 became 60-
plus. Then, Dole and Minority
Leader Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va.,
put together the agreement that im
posed a 4 p.m. deadline for a final
vote on the bill.
Most of the amendments would
benefit only one industry or project.
And those provisions were heading
for approval as one big amendment
whose fate would be left to the Sen
ate-House conference that will write
the final version of the bill.
The bill came out of the Finance
Committee with 175 such amend
ments included, and well over 200
more have been suggested since de
bate on the measure began June 4.
With its passage in sight, several sen
ators were chafing at the leaders’ re
sistance to amendments and some
accused managers of the bill of play
ing favorites.
For the second day in a row, the
Senate defeated an attempt to de
liver more of the bill’s tax cuts to
middle-income people. A 92-7 vote
killed an amendment by Sen. Dennis
DeConcini, D-Ariz., that would have
given larger tax cuts to those with in
comes between $30,000 and $40,000
and shifted the burden to U.S.
businesses operating abroad.
But on a 94-1 vote, with Sen.
Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., in opposi
tion, the Senate adopted a non-bind
ing resolution saying negotiators
should place a high priority on help
ing the middle class when the final
bill is written.
Meantime, Rep. Dan
Rostenkowski, D-Ill., chairman of
the House Ways and Means Com
mittee, said Democratic tax-writers
in the House are “concerned with
how the middle-income family will
be treated” in the final tax bill. The
plan passed by the House would give
more relief to those taxpayers than
would the Senate bill.
Adopted by voice vote was an
amendment by Sen. James McClure,
R-Idaho, allowing Individual Retire
ment Account investments in gold
and silver coins.
The amendment allowing a de
duction for some state and local sales
taxes was accepted by voice vote with
the concurrence of the bill’s man
ager, Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore.
Under the amendment, a person
whose state and local sales taxes were
higher than state and local income
taxes could deduct 60 percent of the
excess.
The amendment would benefit
any taxpayer in any state who pays
more sales tax than state and local
income tax, including residents of
Texas and 13 other states.
Provost to use ‘open door’
to improve communication
By Tom Ownbey
Reporter
When Donald McDonald
moves into the Coke Building the
first of July, he is taking with him
an open door policy to facilitate
better communication between
Texas A&M students, faculty and
administration.
“In my ideal world, all the aca
demic administrators should have
some involvement with the stu
dents,” said McDonald, A&M’s
new provost and vice president
for academic affairs.
As head of the civil engi
neering department, McDonald
said, he enjoyed a close working
relationship wdth students and
faculty.
As provost McDonald expects
to spend more time on manage
rial tasks. But, he said, he doesn’t
want to lose contact with the stu
dents and faculty.
The student body and the un
dergraduate program are of vital
interest to him, McDonald added.
“The undergraduate program
is the source of our strength and
is a very important part of the
University,” he said.
Donald McDonald
He said while he agrees with
the administration’s increased
emphasis on research and grad
uate programs, he remains aware
of undergraduate needs.
McDonald said one of these
needs is a well-rounded core cur
riculum. For this reason, he said,
he supports the Faculty Senate’s
proposed core curriculum.
The proposed core curriculum
increases the emphasis on liberal
arts and modern languages.
“I’ve been on the side of the
core curriculum since it was first
devised,” he said. “I’m delighted
that I heard the president say he
was going to accept it — at least in
its general shape.
“The foundation of this Uni
versity was the agricultural and
engineering sciences. That was
110 years ago . . .. Getting to be a
major university requires a bal
ance. We are achieving a balance.
“We have a good college of sci
ence, a good college of geoscience
but an important part is to have a
good college of liberal arts. I
think we are achieving that and
Fm delighted to see it.”
McDonald said there has been
a lot of discussion in the engi
neering department about the
core curriculum.
A major argument against the
core curriculum is that it can pre
vent an engineering student from
graduating in four years, McDon
ald said.
But he said the engineering de
partment may have to re-evaluate
See Provost, page 6
Police clamp curfews
on black townships
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
(AP) — Police used their emergency
powers Thursday to impose curfews
on dozens of black townships, as
strikes spread among black workers
who demand that their union lead
ers be released from jail.
Bishop Desmond Tutu took the
archbishop of Canterbury’s special
envoy, Terry Waite, to the court
room wedding of a black activist who
is on trial for treason.
White voters in Port Elizabeth, an
auto manufacturing center on the
Indian Ocean, voted 6,104 to 4,957
against integrating their beaches.
Government spokesman Leon
Mellet said in Pretoria that three
more people were killed in unrest,
including a white man missing since
last weekend, bringing the total to 48
in the week-old state of emergency.
Two of the victims were blacks
slain by other blacks in a tribal
homeland, while the third, a badly
burned body found in a black town
ship near Uitenhage, was identified
by Mellet as that of Lodewyk Vlooh.
No details on Vlooh’s death were
disclosed.
Foreign Minister R.F. Botha said a
U.S. House of Representatives vote
to impose a total trade embargo and
order all American companies out of
this country showed a disregard for
the welfare of South Africa’s blacks.
In London, the human rights or
ganization Amnesty International is
sued a statement saying five whites
were arrested last Saturday in Port
Elizabeth by security police while at
tending a briefing with a lawyer on
the terms of the state of emergency.
Those taken into custody included a
mother of two, Amnesty said.
The new curfews in dozens of
townships around Port Elizabeth,
Uitenhage and other south-central
industrial centers run from 9 p.m. to
4 a.m. Police also prohibit possession
of T-shirts or other articles bearing
the names of any of 47 anti-apart
heid and civic organizations.
Authorities had said Port Eliza
beth townships produced the worst
violence in the country Monday,
when blacks mounted a general
strike to commemorate the 10th an
niversary of bloody riots in Soweto.
Several thousand black workers in
the Johannesburg area held sit-
down strikes in at least 50 outlets of
six retail chains. White businessmen,
worried by the difficulty of negotiat
ing with leaderless union members,
arranged a meeting Friday with
See South Africa, page 6
Farm crisis
workers
gather
ARLINGTON (AP) — Farm
ers and ranchers attending a
“farm crisis” meeting complained
Thursday that farmers are being
put out of business by an unsym
pathetic federal government, an
unmerciful Farmers Home Ad
ministration, and a useless 1985
farm bill.
Necie Gresham said she paid
$290 per acre for her 640-acre
Lubbock farm when she bought it
12 years ago. When it was fore
closed, a lien holder sold it for
$52 an acre.
“He stole it, and the FmHA sat
idly by and let him do that,” Gre
sham said. “It left us nothing to
pay our debt. It’s cruelty. It’s un
fairness.”
Gresaham was one of about
200 people, most of them farmers
and ranchers, attending the Na
tional Farm Crisis Workers Con
ference at the University of Texas
at Arlington.
The event, sponsored jointly
by the Texas Department of Ag
riculture and FarmAid, brought
together farm crisis hotline work
ers and members of farm advo
cacy groups from various states
who have tried to help farmers
during agriculture’s tough times.
“In Texas, this is the only thing
farmers can do in their defense
against the bureacratic terrorism
— fight back,” Gresham said.
State Agriculture Commis
sioner Jim Hightower told the
conference, “Agriculture overall
is in a disaster situation.”
Hightower took pokes at the
Reagan administration, saying
125 years ago the national gov
ernment took interest in farmers
with legislation such as the
Homestead Act.
“Today our government is
doing all that it can to take back
the land,” Hightower said. “It’s
not just a matter of losing a num
ber of farmers, but we’re losing
our best farmers. These are peo
ple who are efficient, productive,
innovative and broke."