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The Battalion
12 No. 206 GSPS 045360 14 pages College Station, Texas Thursday, September 11, 1986
Tjlajority of video yearbook staffers resign
ants.
By Rodney Rather
1 -B Staff Writer
a t0 yOUr| ma j orit y Qf the staff of the vi-
T1 P T11 \\ ffl ar ^ 00 ^ ^ ias resigned because
II C II l, >|fB r j es 0 j- on g 0 i n g conflicts with
rl woi f' H’ ona * Broadcasting Services,
tl ScICCtlO:)rding to a resignation letter sub-
■ Friday to President Frank E.
(diver.
ther the video yearbook pro-
1 be continued is at this time
in, Donald C. Johnson, Stu-
lublications coordinator, said.
Student Publications, which
lly had announced the pro-
■t prere^istration time last
■ is studying possible options,
ha is uncertain what EBS might
to do, even without Student
Btipns involvement.
Hn asked if his department
Hake on the task of taping the
Hearbook, Dr. Mel Chastain,
Hrector, said he was optimistic
He yearbook would continue
Hhe auspices of Student Publi-
Shop
)rary
nurser
ohi on said he wants to be sure if
Hject is dissolved, or is contin-
H another form, that students
who already have paid for their
tapes will be given the option of re
funds, but the exact procedure has
not yet been determined.
Ricky Telg, who last April had
been nominated by the Student Pub
lications Board, and approved by
then-Provost Gordon Eaton as pro
ducer of Video Aggieland, was one
of those who resigned. He said the
biggest problem for the video year
book staff was that it was supplied
poor equipment from EBS.
Johnson said Student Publica
tions’ original concept for the video
project, which had been approved in
March by A&M President Frank
Vandiver, was that it would be a stu
dent-run operation using new
equipment bought by Student Publi
cations specifically for the project.
After it was discovered Vandiver
in June 1985 already had authorized
EBS to produce a video yearbook,
the president decided he wanted the
project to continue and urged Stu
dent Publications and EBS to work
out an arrangement using EBS
equipment, under student direction,
with Student Publications adminis
tering the project.
Vandiver could not be reached
Wednesday for comment.
Chastain said he had not been
aware the Video Aggieland staff was
having problems. EBS operates
KAMU-TV and is a broadcast pro
duction arm of Texas A&M.
“No students had come to me and
said, ‘We’re having difficulties,’ ”
Chastain said. “I heard that some
notes had been written by students
saying that they had some problems,
but no student ever came to me or
indicated that things were so bad
they were all getting ready to quit.”
Telg said Student Publications
could have bought new equipment
for the video yearbook for about
$20,000.
Telg said negotiations to work out
a compromise between EBS and Stu
dent Publications started in June but
didn’t end until late August.
Chastain said before an
agreement could be reached, EBS
had to know exactly what the stu
dents wanted to do and how they
planned to do it.
Telg said one of the main issues in
the negotiations involved the rental
rate EBS should charge for video
equipment. It was finally set at $30
per hour for mini-camera rentals,
and other rates for other equipment
which would be needed later. In ad
dition, when taping local events, Stu
dent Publications was to be required
to pay for the services of an EBS stu
dent technician, who went with the
equipment.
Although it was originally be
lieved that Video Aggieland would
be a financially profitable venture
for Student Publications, the rental
situation made Video Aggieland a
money-losing venture, Telg said.
Johnson said projections given the
Student Publications Board at the
time of their approval of the project
last spring indicated Video Year
book probably would have broken
even operationally within two years,
with the cost of equipment pur
chases probably being covered in
three or four years. Johnson indi
cated that under the new EBS ar
rangement, the operational break
even point was probably four or five
years away.
Andy Richardson, former asso
ciate producer of Video Aggieland,
another of those who resigned, said
the rental arrangement did not work
because the equipment given to the
staff was old and faulty.
“We felt the situation wasn’t going
to get any better as far as getting any
type of better equipment, and the
rental situation just wasn’t very
workable,” he said.
Tapes of the first two events cov
ered by Video Aggieland — Fish
Camp and All-University Night —
were not usable because of equip
ment problems, he said.
“I was there for Fish Camp and
the videotape deck that the tape is
housed in when it’s recording mal
functioned somehow — and the way
it was hooked up, we had no idea
anything was wrong,” Richardson
said.
Both Chastain and Rodger Lewis,
programming director of KAMU-
TV, where EBS is located and the
person assigned as liaison for the
EBS project, said they weren’t sure if
the problems were caused by equip
ment malfunctions or by the stu
dents’ lack of knowledge of the
equipment.
Chastain said, “I’m not sure
whether it was ever determined
whether or not the equipment didn’t
work or the students just weren’t
real familiar with how it works.
“I’m not going to say it was brand
new equipment, because it wasn’t,
but it did work and provided accep
table pictures prior to the time they
took it out the first time.”
Telg said the staff had a training
session at KAMU-TV before they
taped Fish Camp. He also had
worked at Channel 3, KBTX-TV,
for almost three years, and Richard
son worked there for over two years,
Telg said.
Both have used portable cameras
in their duties at the television sta
tion, although Channel 3’s equip
ment is different, he said.
As agreed upon with Student
Publications, EBS sent a student
technician along with staff members
on the one local shoot they made —
All-University Night.
Chastain said EBS had ordered
some new equipment at a cost of
$7,000 July 31 specifically intended
for yearbook use but not all of it had
arrived.
Photo by Tom Ownbey
Sean Peters, a senior physics major from Waupaca, nitrogen gas being vented from the tank he is
[Wisconsin, and student worker for the Physics De- filling. T he liquid nitrogen being used to fill the
partment, stands away from the minus 328-degree tank will be used to make liquid helium.
raeli attack on arms depot
si)0N, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli
rplanes attacked a Palestinian
mi depot Wednesday, killing three
ilians and destroying more than
shops in an industrial district on
(■geofthis port city.
Shortly before the raid an Israeli
nioat intercepted a rubber
ighv carrying Palestinian guerril-
!or a mission to attack Israel, Is
land Palestinian officials said.
Hospitals said 13 other civilians
were injured in the air raid, which
began just after 6 a.in.
It was Israel’s eighth air raid in
Lebanon this year. Israeli officials
said it was not linked to Saturday’s
terrorist killing of 21 Jews in a syna
gogue in Istanbul, Turkey, which Is
rael has vowed to avenge. Turkish
officials have said they do not know
who was responsible for that attack
but thought the two terrorists, who
were blown up by their own gre
nades, were Arabs.
The Israeli command in Tel Aviv
said the pilots who carried out the Si-
don raid reported accurate hits on a
warehouse used by the Popular
Struggle Front to store weapons.
But police and witnesses in Sidon
said Israeli rockets missed the front’s
two ammunition depots.
A&M official: Spy case
may be intentional ploy
Soviets may try to cancel
summit meeting with U.S.
By Craig Renfro
Staff Writer
The filing of espionage charges
against American reporter Nicholas
Daniloff may be a ploy by the Soviet
See related story, page 9
Union to cancel a year-end summit
meeting between the two superpow
ers, a Texas A&M official said
Wednesday.
Dr. Richard Thomas, director of
the Center for Strategic Technology,
said the Soviets don’t want to nego
tiate arms control talks and by im
prisoning Daniloff they hope to pro
voke the Reagan administration into
canceling the proposed summit. '
kills 3
Another guerrilla group, the Pal
estine Liberation Front, issued a
communique saying the raid came
after four of its fighters tried to
carry out a seaborne attack on the Is
raeli coastal town of Nahariya.
Both the Palestinians and Israelis
said one of the four guerrillas was
wounded during an exchange of
gunfire at sea, and the Palestinians
said he died later on shore.
“If the business of ending the
summit comes up they will hold
Daniloff until the U.S. cancels,”
Thomas said.
Thomas, who was involved in a se
ries of talks with the Soviets in April,
said they are accusing the United
States of trying to turn the detention
of Daniloff into an excuse not to en
gage in arms negotiations.
“The Soviets would say, ‘We want
peace, but the Americans won’t
talk,’ ” Thomas said.
Daniloff was arrested Aug. 30 af
ter a Soviet acquaintance gave him a
packet later found to contain secret
maps and photographs.
On Sunday, a military prosecutor
charged Daniloff with espionage un
der a law that imposes penalties
ranging from seven years in prison
to death. He has been held in Mos
cow’s Lefortovo prison since he was
grabbed by eight KGB agents in a
Moscow park.
Thomas said Daniloff was framed
by the KGB in retaliation for the ar
rest of Soviet United Nations em
ployee Gennadiy Zakharov, who was
arrested in New York Aug. 23.
Thomas would not rule out the
possibility of a prisoner exchange
between the two nations.
Thomas cited examples of Ameri
can businessmen and government
employees being confronted with
charges of espionage while in the So
viet Union. Most of the charges were
Dr. Richard Thomas
dropped, but the actions proved the
powerful influence of the KGB, he
said.
“The KGB has much greater con
trol than our CIA or FBI,” Thomas
said.
“KGB influence permeates the
Soviet Union,” he said. “The average
Russian is used to that type of gov
ernment so they are disinclined to
revolt.”
Thomas said the KGB is similar to
the SS secret police of Hitler’s Ger
many.
“They (the KGB) became so pow
erful because they are a secret po
lice,” he said. “They know about the
skeletons in the closet and are in a
position to blackmail to gain sup
port.”
Thomas said Soviet politics are
strongly influenced by the KGB.
The KGB’s political strength was so
lidified when Yuri Andropov, for
mer KGB chief, became general sec
retary of the Soviet Union, he said.
bp Lions Club official
(idnapped in Beirut
BURUT, Lebanon (AP) — The
p official of the International Li
ns Club for Lebanon and Jordan
as kidnapped Wednesday in Mos-
m west Beirut, one day after an
merican educator was abducted on
slay to play golf.
ffilice said three men armed with
enter-equipped pistols and riding
a wine-colored BMW intercepted
ons Club governor Victor Kenou
9:35 a.m. near the French Em-
iSsy compound on Rue Clemen-
:au.
|f|vo of the assailants forced Ke-
OU out of his white Mercedes-Benz
at gunpoint and bundled him into
their car, police said.
Kenou, 50, heads the 39 Interna
tional Lions Clubs in Lebanon and
Jordan. A Syrian-born Christian,
Kenou is a naturalized Lebanese citi
zen who runs a prosperous import-
export business in both the Moslem
and Christian sectors of the Leb
anese capital, according to police
and family friends.
Kenou’s abduction, like the kid
napping of American educator
Frank Herbert Reed on Tuesday,
was an apparent challenge to Syria.
'Onvicted murderer
ets stay of execution
HUNTSVILLE (AP) — A federal
dgeon Wednesday halted the exe-
tion of a 26-year-old Houston
an convicted of raping and rob-
ng a woman and then killing her
■inning her over with her own
r.
Antonio Nathaniel Bonham, who
fed execution early today, was
nlcted in 1981 in the death of
arie McGowen, 62, a teacher at
ouston’s Massey Business College.
Bonham would have been the
nth Texas inmate to be executed
is|ear and the 19th — tops in the
nation — since the state resumed the
death penalty in 1982.
U.S. District Judge Ross Sterling
issued the stay about nine hours be
fore the scheduled lethal injection,
The judge said in a brief written or
der that he thought the request
should have been denied.
But Sterling said because the re
quest came so close to the scheduled
execution, he would allow more time
for the trial record to be studied.
Bonham’s attorney is seeking a
new trial for Bonham.
Shuttle commercial payloads to end
Private firms will launch satellites
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Reagan’s
decision to force most commercial payloads off
the space shuttle to a non-existent private U.S.
launch industry is prompting communications
satellite owners to consider France, China and
even the Soviet Union for sending their cargoes
aloft.
The Aug. 15 White House announcement has
thrown the satellite industry into confusion.
Some satellite firms, with multi-million-dollar in
vestments, will be favored with a shuttle launch;
others will have to buy expensive rockets from
American firms that won’t even have them for at
least two years or will have to stand in line over
seas.
The government’s choices are to be made in a
few weeks.
Troy D. Ellington, GTE’s vice president for sa
tellite programs, said, “We don’t know whether
we are on the shuttle or off the shuttle for
launch. We don’t know what the availability of
commercial launchers is or will be.”
When Challenger exploded Jan. 28, NASA
had 44 commercial payloads under contract for
future flights, mostly communications satellites.
It had collected $190 million in advance pay
ments and has made no refunds.
The backlog was created by the two-year shut
tle standdown and the priority which military
cargoes will get when flight resumes. Only 15
commercial satellites will be launched from the
shuttle through 1992.
John E. Koehler, president of Hughes Com
munications, Inc. which holds contracts to launch
10 commercial and one military communications
satellite from the shuttle, said, “Had we had any
hint that the government of the United States
would seriously consider abrogating contracts
entered in good faith, we wouldn’t have made
those deals. For a country that paid its Revolu
tionary War debt to walk away from contracts
like this is a little distressing,” he said.
Before the accident, commercial satellites were
to be mixed on the shuttle with military and sci
entific payloads. The flight rate was to rise to 24 a
year and — because the shuttle was the country’s
prime launch vehicle — no U.S. firm was man
ufacturing rockets for private use.
Initially, the redesigned shuttles will make
only four flights a year.
President Reagan promised that the private
sector “with its ingenuity and cost effectiveness”
would take over w'here NASA left off. But Otto
Hoernig, vice president of American Satellite
Company, said that just adds more uncertainty,
because “I don’t think there is a large-enough
commercial satellite base to support a commer
cial expendable launch vehicle industry.”
Charles D. Walker, a McDonnell Douglas engi
neer who has flown in the shuttle three times
with his company’s drug-purifying equipment,
said the launch vehicle industry will find survival
tough without government subsidy.
“I’ve got to wonder how the federal govern
ment thinks we are going to have a viable com
mercial space transportation industry when the
federal government has never made rail trans-
portaion pay, when it took decades to begin to
get the commercial airline business into a situa
tion where it was paying,” he said. “I have to
wonder what historical and economic basis we
are operating on in these decisions.”
Two major aerospace firms — Martin Mari
etta, which built Titan rockets for the Air Force,
and General Dynamics, manufacturer of Atlas
and Atlas Centaur — say they’ll sell launch con
tracts. McDonnell Douglas has not decided
whether to enter the commercial market with its
Delta rocket.
“We are listening to everybody,” said Richard
R. Colino, director general of Intelsat, a cooper
ative of 110 countries, which is the world’s most
frequent user of launch services. “We have made
backup plans with the Ariane launch vehicle,
which isn’t completely reassuring since they had
two failures in their last four flights, including
one of our satellites.”
Arianespace, the private French-based com
pany, recently signed a contract to launch an In
dian government satellite. It was the fourth satel
lite originally scheduled for shuttle launch to
make other arrangements. Arianespace is
booked until late 1990.
Colino said Arianespace is taking advantage of
U.S. delays to raise its prices at least 20 percent.
China, trying to market its Long March rock
ets, has had a delegation in the United States try
ing to capture business.
American Satellite’s Hoernig said, “I think it’s
a regrettable situation where we in the United
States are having to talk to foreign entities to ob
tain an opportunity to launch.”
iford, l nC