Battalion
lol. 83 No. 21 CJSPS 045360 8 pages
College Station, Texas
Monday, September 29, 1986
Up, Up And Away
Photo by Anthony S. Casper
More than 2000 red, white and blue balloons were re
leased during halftime at the Texas A&M-Southern
Mississippi game Saturday to mark A&M’s month-long
observance of the Sesquicentennial. Other Sesquicen-
tennial events include a seminar on the Spanish Heri
tage of Texas Oct. 10-11 and “Texas A&M Salutes Ses
quicentennial,” a musical presentation with the Singing
Cadets and the A&M Symphonic Band Oct. 24.
Fighting in Beirut
leaves 62 dead
Takeover attempt quelled by militia
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Christian mili
tia hardliners crushed a comeback attempt by
an ousted, pro-Syrian commander Sunday in
24 hours of street battles in Christian east Bei
rut, which police said killed 62 people and
wounded 198.
Fighting began at dawn Saturday when
about 600 supporters of Elie Hobeika, former
commander of the Lebanese Forces Christian
militia, stormed across the Green Line divid
ing east Beirut from the Moslem western sec
tor.
“The last pocket of resistance was mopped
up at daybreak, when 12 infiltrators from Elie
Hobeika’s supporters surrendered,” said a
communique issued by the Lebanese Forces,
the nation’s largest Christian militia.
Police confirmed that loyalists of Lebanese
Forces commander Samir Geagea defeated
the pro-Hobeika attackers.
There was no word on the whereabouts of
Hobeika.
Hobeika was ousted from the command of
the Lebanese Forces by Geagea’s hardliners
Jan. 15 for signing a Syrian-sponsored peace
pact with Moslem militia leaders.
President Amin Gemayel, himself a Maro-
nite Catholic, was among the Christians who
felt the accord’s power-sharing provisions
conceded too much to the Moslems.
One report Sunday said Hobeika was in
Chtaura, the Bekaa Valley town which houses
command headquarters of 25,000 Syrian
troops stationed in Lebanon under a 1976
peacekeeping mandate from the Arab
League.
The report, however, was not confirmed.
The collapse of Hobeika’s thrust consol
idated Geagea’s position as the strongman of
Lebanon’s 1.8 million Christians.
Pro-Geagea militiamen in armored person
nel carriers and jeeps mounted with 106mm
recoilless rifles on Sunday patrolled all four
residential districts where street fighting
raged all day Saturday.
Hundreds of residents were trapped in
basements and bomb shelters by the fighting.
They finally ventured out cautiously to take
stock of losses, which police estimated at
about $10 million.
Broken power cables dangled across streets
littered with broken glass in the sprawling dis
trict of Ashrafiyeh, where the heaviest fight
ing took place.
Dozens of cars were reduced to piles of
charred, twisted metal.
The army’s 10th Brigade, predominantly
Christian, replaced Christian militiamen
along the east Beirut side of the Green Line.
The army stepped in Saturday to help beat
back the pro-Hobeika attackers.
The regulars then took over Geagea’s
Green Linepositions in an attempt to avert an
outbreak of all-out civil war after Hobeika’s
defeat, according to police.
They said three soldiers were killed and
five wounded.
Hobeika supporters lost 25 lives and suf
fered 42 wounded.
Geagea’s militia saw 27 killed and 56
wounded.
Seven other people were killed and 95
wounded in shelling duels across the Green
Line.
Sporadic mortar exchanges persisted Sun
day, but no fresh casualties were reported.
Pentagon reports U.S. not prepared to deal with terrorism
Israeli expert: Terrorist leader Abu Nidal on the move
(AP) — Terrorist leader Abu Nidal, feeling the
U.S. heat, has decamped from his Libyan head
quarters and begun shuttling secretively among
Arab capitals, an Israeli expert says of the noto
rious Palestinian fugitive.
Yossi Melman also writes that Israeli intelli
gence officials suspect Abu Nidal, blamed by
some for the recent Pan Am hijacking in Pakistan
and the Istanbul synagogue massacre, has ties to
East European secret services.
“Abu Nidal’s organization is the only one
which is able to maintain a secret infrastructure
in Eastern Europe,” Melman says in his new book
“The Master Terrorist.”
The 215-page study, published by Adama
Books of New York, is the most thorough sum
mation yet of the deadly career of the 49-year-
old Abu Nidal, born Sabry al-Banna. And it
makes clear that his group, formally called Fatah-
Revolutionary Council, is by far today’s single
greatest Palestinian terrorist threat.
Israeli intelligence specialists blame Abu Nidal
for more than 100 terror attacks and 200 deaths
over 13 years, Melman reports.
Major recent attacks include last year’s bomb
ings of British and Jordanian airline offices, a
cafe in Rome, hotels in Greece and the gun-and-
grenade slaughter of 16 people at Rome and
Vienna airports last Dec. 27.
Israeli and other specialists suggest Abu Nidal
also may have plotted two shocking attacks ear
lier this month — the Pan Am jetliner hijacking
at Karachi airport, in which 20 people died, and
the massacre of 21 Jewish worshipers at a syna
gogue in Istanbul, Turkey.
In his book, Melman, who is diplomatic corre
spondent of the Israeli newspaper Davar, relies
heavily on official Israeli sources. But much of
his detailed knowledge of the terror group de
rives from his own coverage of the London trial
of three alleged Abu Nidal agents convicted in
the near-fatal shooting of the Israeli ambassador
to Britain in 1982.
Melman, citing Israeli and Western intelli
gence sources, says the Abu Nidal group has no
more than 150-200 active members, drawn from
two main sources: Palestinian students in Europe
and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite
earns of rhetoric and multi-million
lollar budgets, the United States has
ineffective strategy to cope with the
icreasing threat of terrorism and
uerrilla warfare, according to a
entagon study.
The report says the U.S. effort to
irotect its interests around the
torld is hampered by bureaucratic
nfighting and the inability of U.S.
eaders and agencies “to comprehe-
lend the nature of this type of con-
lict.”
The report was prepared over the
last year by a joint team from the
Irmy and Air Force. There are no
ilans to publicly release the docu-
aent, although a copy was made
ivailable to the Associated Press.
While the authors were military,
he report also looked at such civil-
an agencies as the State Department
md the CIA.
The report said it is intended as “a
tart point” for the U.S. government
o understand the problem and
tasn’t designed “to recommend
hose few relevant ‘fixes’ that would
ettle this bothersome problem once
md for all. As such, the project is
lota blueprint but a dialogue.”
More and more, the study noted,
U.S. interests around the world are
being threatened by “low-intensity
conflicts,” a term used to include ter
rorism and guerrilla warfare of the
type being waged in Central Amer
ica, the Mideast and the Philippines.
“As a nation, we do not under
stand low-intensity conflict,” the
study concluded. “We respond with
out unity of effort, we execute our
activities poorly, and we lack the
ability to sustain operations.”
America’s vast and powerful mili
tary machine was built to fight a nu
clear war or a large-scale conventio
nal war, particularly in western
Europe, but was not structured to
cope with the current situation,
which the report notes is “neither
war, nor peace.”
A central feature of the Reagan
administration’s foreign policy has
been to strike back at terrorists who
hit U.S. citizens, such as the bombing
raid on Libya earlier this year. The
administration also is supporting
guerrilla groups around the world
who are fighting Soviet-backed
forces, particularly in Central Amer
ica and Afghanistan.
But there is no overall policy, the
report says, warning that “a compre
hensive civil-military strategy must
be developed to defend our interests
threatened by the series of low-in-
tensity conflicts around the globe.”
“It must be crafted in comprehen
sive terms, not focused on a single
conflict or on a single department,”
it said. “It must integrate all the na
tional resources at our disposal, mili
tary and non-military, lethal and
non-lethal.”
Many recent U.S. efforts have
been hampered by failures, the
study noted. Examples cited were
the October 1983 deaths of 241 U.S.
servicemen from a suicide terrorist
attack in Lebanon, inter-service ri
valries that marred the 1983 inva
sion of Grenada, and the disastrous
1980 mission to rescue American
hostages held in Iran.
“Our current defense posture re
flects our inability to understand the
form and substance of this direct
challenge to our interests,” the re
port said.
Two A&M researchers
to begin experiments
for NASA space station
By James Florez
Reporter
NASA’s space station got one
step closer to becoming a reality
when two Texas A&M research
ers started conducting prelimi
nary experiments in October to
measure the effects of weightles
sness on the station’s power
source.
On Oct. 2 and Oct. 3 Dr. Fred
erick Best, an assistant professor
of nuclear engineering, and Leo
Kachnik, a graduate research as
sistant from Fort Worth, will take
a flight into zero-gravity to ob
serve the effects of the weightles
sness of space on the circulation
of liquids and vapors.
Best said the research will aid
in designing thermal energy
power systems to be used by the
space station NASA hopes to
have in orbit by the mid-1990s.
“The project itself is in support
of the space station,” Best said.
“That is, the new power systems
required by the space station need
thermal energy more characteris
tic of regular commercial power
plants as opposed to the solid
state technology we currently fly
on spacecraft.”
As the space station is ex
panded, more power will be
needed, Best said. As on earth,
the power will probably come
from a boiler system fired by a
fuel source — either solar or nu
clear— producing vapor (steam)
that runs turbines that generate
electricity.
While there is a long history of
zero-gravity research, Best said
most of it has dealt with the ef
fects of weightlessness on solid
structures and biological activites.
“The first zero-gravity experi
ment of this type (thermal en
ergy) was flown by NASA in
1962,” Best said, “but the pro
gram lost funding because there
were no projected demands for
‘big power’ in space.
“Now that we have the man
ufacturing of the space station on
line there is a resurgence of inter
est in high-power systems for
space,” Best said. “In order to
build up the necessary informa
tion, we must now fly experi
ments in zero-gravity.”
Best said an experiment pack
age has been constructed that
uses high-speed photography
(2,500 frames per second) and a
computer-controlled data collec
tion system to record how vapor-
liquid mixtures react in the
weightlessness of space.
“All of this technology relies on
the circulation of vapors and liq
uids," Best said. “On Earth, liq-
See Space station, page 6
Ruling could have long-term impact
Host sued in alcohol-related death
SAN ANGELO (AP) — A suit
filed in the traffic death of a 17-year-
old boy who became drunk at a party
contends the blame should be placed
on the teen-ager who sold the liquor
to him.
Michael Morrison, a tort specialist
at the Baylor University School of
Law, says the case could have a long
term impact in this generally un
charted territory of Texas civil law.
The suit, filed in state district
court by the family of the late David
L. Hasty, alleges David Vallanding-
ham, 18, is responsible for the death
of Hasty, 17, and the serious injuries
of Richard W. Goins, 18.
The driver, David Brent Adams,
18, of Dove Creek, was killed. His
family is not involved in the suit.
Hasty, Goins and Adams became
intoxicated at Vallandingham’s
party Aug. 15, 1985, the suit con
tends. Vallandingham was convicted
in Tom Green County Court-at-Law
in March of selling alcohol at the
party without a permit.
The civil suit and evidence at Val
landingham’s criminal trial say he
sold advance tickets, collected an ad
mission fee at the gate and sold
vodka-laced punch at the party at
tended by many other minors.
As the three boys drove home on
a rural road, their pickup truck
veered off the road and flipped, kill
ing Hasty and injuring Goins, the
suit alleges.
The accident and resulting inju
ries and death were the direct result
of Vallandingham’s unlawful serv
ing of alcoholic beverages, the suit
contends.
Vallandingham declined to com
ment on the suit.
Morrison said Texas courts tradi
tionally have held that a person be
comes intoxicated because he drank
too much, not because alcohol was
provided to him.
The legal questions to be ad
dressed are whether a party host is
negligent for not protecting some
one who is intoxicated, whether it is
reasonable to provide alcohol to mi
nors, and whether the accident was
caused by the host’s negligence,
Morrison told the San Angelo Stan
dard-Times.
The youths’ status as minors may
not have much impact on the case or
on Texas law, Morrison said.
The case could have more long
term impact if the lawyers place full
responsibility on the host instead of
spreading the blame both to the host
and to the victims’ ages, Morrison
said.
Historically, Morrison said, appel
late courts have been hesitant to
trace liability to individuals, believ
ing party-host liability is a social issue
better handled by the Legislature.
Plaintiffs attorney Ralph Dreyer
said the principle issue to decide is
whether Vallandingham, as the
seller of the alcohol, should have
protected the patrons of his party.
Case against anti-abortion center to begin
FORT WORTH (AP) — A suit is scheduled to be
heard today against an anti-abortion center that uses
graphic films and offers of financial assistance to con
vince abortion-seeking women to carry their babies to
full-term.
The Texas attorney general’s office argues that the
Pregnancy Problem Center is violating deceptive
trade laws by misleading women about what the clinic
does. If the center continues to disguise its true inten
tions, the state says it will seek to close it.
The center’s anti-abortion operators counter that
because they do not charge for their services, they
should not be subject to state laws governing com
merce.
Both pro-choice and pro-life advocates say the case
could affect the futures of such centers across the
country.
Center operators say they are competing with abor
tion clinics for customers. Citing a success rate of 77
percent, or nearly 1,000 babies saved in two years,
they say they are fully convinced that the end justifies
the means.
“I understand that under other circumstances, it
would be improper to go as close to the line as we go ..
. avoiding telling people we’re pro-life,” said Chuck
Pelletier, who opened the center in June 1984 after
meeting pro-life advocate Robert J. Pearson. “The
bottom line is we’re in competition with the death
chambers for the same lives.”
Inside the clinic, women seeking information on
abortions instead are shown graphic films of abor
tions, given impassioned counseling and offered fi
nancial assistance.
Three women, who said they were misled into
going to the clinic and then were battered emotion
ally, filed suit in March 1985 against Mother and Un
born Baby Care of North Texas Inc, which operates a
Pregnancy Problem Center.
During a court hearing in April 1985, a woman tes
tifying under the name Elizabeth Collins said a pro
life counselor called her a murderer after she told her
that she had had a previous abortion.
The case scheduled for trial today is an outgrowth
of the women’s action.