The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, October 22, 1986, Image 1
$ —jTexasA&MQ _ _ __ 1 ne tsattalion Vol. 82 No. 38 GSPS 045360 10 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, October 22, 1986 United States expels 55 Soviet diplomats ■r on a mow m subject muterk Gil ets lealed Down Buddy Connor, a second-year graduate student in environmental design at Texas A&M, works on a scale model of the state capitol building as part of a Photo by Doug Driskell project to renovate Congress Avenue in Austin. Connor is one of several students working on the Austin Urban Design Project. loslem group in Lebanon claims kidnapping of another American andwi i EIRUT > Lebanon (AP) — An .-range m. SS ,!^fJ < ^ ound S rou P said . Id *esday it nf rhMrttaP'i™ ^dnapped a long-time Anien- iles due tolei| esi ^ n I t T of B , e ' rut ' calli "g him . a i Mylor the United States and Israel, est Germany, lu ri . , , . . . , v ,i i A handwritten statement in Ar tie NetnerlandK'BB ji i- in i purportedly trom the Kevolu- inary Justice Organization said it had abducted Edward Austin Tracy, of Rutland Vt., one of a few icricans who stayed in west Beirut ite the kidnapping of 60 for- rs there since January 1984. I Is 26 3ding stock-index fi* professional tnifi tit tires Seven Americans are among the 20 kidnapped foreigners still miss ing in Lebanon. The Revolutionary Justice Organization, believed to be made up of Shiite Moslems loyal to Iran, earlier claimed to have kidnap ped another of the seven Americans and three Frenchmen. Tuesday’s brief statement was de livered to a Western news agency in west Beirut. It did not say where or when Tracy was kidnapped or make any ransom demands. State-run Beirut radio quoted un identified police sources as saying he disappeared Friday. A color photograph of Tracy and a copy of the first page of his Ameri can passport accompanied the Revo lutionary Justice statement. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said he could not confirm Tracy had been abducted, saying Tracy lived in west Beirut, but the embassy hadn’t heard from him lately. WASHINGTON (AP) — The Reagan administration Tuesday or dered 55 Soviet diplomats to leave the country within nine days, but said it hoped the action would not sour the prospects for arms control. Five of the diplomats were de clared “persona non grata” in retal iation for the earlier expulsion of five U.S. diplomats from Moscow. The additional 50 were ordered out to bring the Soviet embassy staff in Washington and consulate staff in San Francisco “to parity” with the size of the U.S. contingent in Mos cow and Leningrad. President Reagan, at a state din ner Tuesday night in honor of West German chancellor Helmut Kohl, said the explusions were ordered be cause “we feel that they were con nected with intelligence operations — the KGB.” “Besides,” Reagan added, “they had more than we did and we just leveled it out.” Asked whether he believed the in cident might damage chances for arms control agreements, Reagan said that “there is no way of knowing that now — but I have to believe that it is as important to them as it is to us.” State Department spokesman Charles E. Redman announced the massive retaliation with “regrets,” but said it was forced on the admin istration by the Soviet Union. Redman also sought to assure Moscow that the United States did not want to lose the momentum achieved at President Reagan’s sum mit meeting in Iceland with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. “This problem of espionage is an important one,” he said, “but it is a separate problem, and our plan is to go ahead with the dialogue.” The administration is preparing new arms control proposals, based on the summit meeting, to present to the Soviets in negotiations in Ge neva. Under the new ceiling, required by Congress last year, the Soviets will be permitted to have no more than 225 people at their embassy in Washington and no more than 26 at the consulate in San Francisco. This amounts to a reduction of 54 positions in Washington and 15 in San Francisco. But with some of the posts currently unfilled, 38 people will be required to leave the capital and 12 must quit San Francisco. The five Soviets declared “per sona non grata” were identified as counselors Vasiliy Fedotov, Oleg Likhachev and Aleksandr Metelkin and attache Nikolay Kokovin, all at the embassy in Washington, and Lev Zaytsev, consul in San Francisco. This matches the expulsion of the five Americans from Moscow for what the Soviets Sunday called “im permissible activities.” Redman said the five Soviets were singled out because “they are per sons we have reason to believe have engaged in activities inconsistent with their diplomatic status.” tall tally, nbered advance 1, with 1,1I2*« 105 unchand, le turnover in V| including tra(le : s on re[ cl in the o# rket, totaled ;s. American Steel i* market value .31, down 1.85. „ Sc Poor's index oil' 1 1 fell 3.13 to 500-stock a >wn 2.87 at 235i Bar owners to keep past policies despite new liquor-liability ruling :o Servici lepairAtllsBt* moral Repairs Cars & LigiilW iestic&Forels» N-FRI P SERVICE INMOtif FOR APPOINT© 46-5344 one mile north of AW the Shuttle BtiiWi I Royal, Bryan College FromTcrT By Craig Renfro Staff Writer ■Some area restaurant and bar owners Tuesday said business will continue as usual despite the re cent Texas Supreme Court decision that ruled that their establishments can be held liable in tra ffic deaths caused by their patrons who leave while intoxicated. Richard Benning, owner of Duddley’s Draw, said his employees have always been aware of the need to monitor his customers’ drinking. ■“We’ve been doing this for 13 years,” Benning said. “It’s not like it’s anything new.” ■Benning said his employees are taught to no tice the first signs of intoxication. If it appears customers have had too much to drink, Benning said, employees will ask them to stop. ■“If they appear to be drunk we will cut them off,’’ he said. “If they don’t the College Station Police will come get them.” Ray Knotek, Bennigan’s general manager, said it has always been Bennigan’s policy to be on the lookout for patrons who have had too much to drink. pKnotek said employees carry a pocket card which states the signs of intoxication. If the per son appears to be intoxicated, Knotek said, drinks will no longer be served. ■The manager of Graham Central Station would not comment on the subject. I The Court decision, handed down Oct. 16, af firmed a 14th Court of Appeals decision against the El Chico Restaurant Corp. |g,The appellate court found that El Chico was liable in a lawsuit involving the traffic death of a Houston-area resident in 1983. The lawsuit was filed by the parents of Larry B. Poole, who was killed when a drunken driver ran a red light and crashed into Poole’s car. Some area lawyers said more suits will be filed against drinking establishments as a result of the court’s decision. 'Sara Goode Jones and Michael B. Calliham both said they expect to see more cases filed ini tially, but that the number of suits filed in the fu ture will depend on the results of the first cases. “I hope that juries will give some serious thought to the evidence before deciding that the bar is totally responsible,” Jones said. Jones said many of the cases filed probably will be “deep pocket” suits. A “deep pocket” suit is one in which a business, rather than an individ ual, is sued because the plaintiff thinks there is a better chance for being awarded damages. However, Calliham said, not all cases will be decided in the plaintiffs favor. The courts will require statements proving that the bar owner knew the plaintiff was drunk, and this could be hard to do, he said. “You need witnesses who say the man was fall ing down and that employees of the bar saw, or knew, he was intoxicated,” he said. “It can work a good purpose,” he said. “We will just have to see what thejuries do.” Calliham said the Court decision is fair if ap plied to bar owners who serve drinks to intoxi cated personsjust to get more money, but it is not fair if customers sue and the bar owner couldn’t tell if they were drunk. Jones said the court ruling was not fair because it will be difficult for bar owners to tell how much someone has had to drink. However, she said, the decision must have some justification because 41 other states follow the same procedure. The state’s beverage code prohibits any seller of alcoholic beverages from selling alcohol to a person who is intoxicated. Violators are subject to a fine of up to $1,000 and a jail sentence of up to one year. Benning said the decision eliminates personal responsibility on the part of the consumer. “The days of personal responsibility seem to be over,” Benning said. “Now no one is responsi ble for their actions. “A good example of this would be someone graduating from A&M and then suing the Uni versity because they couldn’t find ajob.” To control customers’ drinking, Benning said employees are assigned to each room to watch for people who have had too much to drink. “First, we will try to use social peer pressure,” he said. “We’ll tell their friends that the guy has had too much to drink, and then hopefully they will tell him, ‘Hey buddy, you’ve had too much to drink. Let’s go.’ ” Knotek said one of his main concerns is serv ing drinks to someone who has already been drinking. Since Bryan establishments quit serving alco hol at midnight, Knotek said customers arrive af ter midnight in College Station and expect to be served. Benning said he doesn’t expect many prob lems because today’s social drinker is more aware of the consequences of drinking and driving. “It’s becoming easier to cut them off because of all the publicity surrounding drunk driving,” he said. “Folks are just limiting their intake.” This appeared to an allegation that they were involved in espionage activites, but Redman did not make the charge directly. However, he stressed their expulsion was caused by “the unjustified action by the So viets in expelling five U.S. diplomats in Moscow.” In Moscow, Gennady Gerasimov, a spokesman for the Soviet Foreign Ministry, said “if the United States will insist on continuing this game of tit-for-tat, then this can continue in definitely. We consider it is time to stop.” The official Soviet news agency Tass, in a Russian-language dispatch datelined Washington, said Tuesday that with the expulsion, “the Reagan administration has undertaken the next step aimed at worsening Soviet- American relations.” Congress last year, in an amend ment by Sens. Patrick Leahy and William Cohen, gave the executive branch three years to bring the dip lomatic staffs in the two countries to equality. The amendment permitted the administration to determine how and when to meet the deadline. A second amendment by Leahy, D-Vt., and Cohen, R-Maine, was passed and signed earlier this month. It requires that within three years the U.S. and Soviet U.N. mis sions be roughly equal. Twenty-five Soviets who were working at the U.N. mission in New York were identified as intelligence agents last month and ordered to leave. The Soviets responded Sun day with the expulsion of the five American diplomats by Oct. 31. Gramm-Rudman to be discussed at A&M program By Sondra Pickard Senior Staff Writer The far-reaching impact of the Gramm-Rudman law will be ad dressed Wednesday at Texas , A&M by Sen. Phil Gramm; James C. Miller III, director of the Of fice of Management and Budget; and John Anderson, former pres idential candidate. The presentation, sponsored by the Memorial Student Center’s Great Issues Committee, is titled “Gramm-Rudman: Bureaucratic Inertia and the U.S. Taxpayer,” and will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Rudder Auditorium. If fully implemented, the Gramm-Rudman law has vast po tential to change the nature of the political relationships between the states and the federal govern ment, and the degree to which the federal government will coor dinate and provide many services and payments. One issue surrounding Gramm-Rudman is how much these federal cuts will be covered by the state and local govern ments, and to what extent serv ices and programs will be elimi nated. Gramm is the junior U.S. sen ator from Texas and chief ar chitect of the Gramm-Rudman- Hollings budget-balancing law, which has created an immense degree of constitutional debate, congressional stopgap measures and bureaucratic fear. Gramm was a professor of economics at A&M until his political career be gan in 1976. Larry Neal, Gramm’s press sec retary, said Gramm will talk in general terms about what Con gress has accomplished this year in terms of economics, and what has occurred since the inception of Gramm-Rudman As director of the Office ot Management and Budget, Miller implements the president’s fed eral budgetary policy, making him a major player in the Gramm-Rudman balancing plan. Before becoming OMB director, Miller served as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. From 1972 to 1974, he was an as sociate professor of economics at A&M. Anderson announced his pres idential candidacy as an indepen dent in 1980, while he was serv ing his 10th term in Congress. He originally was a candidate for the 1980 Republican presi dential nomination, but during the campaign, he became known for his strong, often liberal, statements on controversial is sues. His political views differed greatly from those of many other Republicans, and he withdrew from the race after losing pri mary elections in several key states. Anderson then decided to run as an independent. South Africa losing American investment WASHINGTON (AP) — Ameri can companies, squeezed by a lag ging economy in South Africa and anti-apartheid activists at home, are leaving the white-ruled country at a brisk pace, analysts say. International Business Machines Corp. and General Motors Corp., two industrial giants, are the most recent concerns to announce plans to sell operations in South Africa. Their decisions increase to 29 the number of American companies that have left or voiced plans to do so in 1986, according to Investor Respon sibility Research Center, a Washing ton-based group that tracks U.S. business activity in South Africa. The Coca-Cola Co., Procter & Gamble Co. and the Marriott Corp. are among the others who are pull ing up stakes. Thirty-nine American companies left in 1985, compared with seven in 1984. U.S. firms in South Africa num ber 244, with investment totaling $1.3 billion, down from $2.6 billion in 1981. Disinvestment has long been a goal of American opponents of South Africa’s apartheid system of strict racial separation. They argue that withdrawing U.S. capital sends a strong message to Pretoria’s white government. “This remains a major victory for the anti-apartheid movement,” said Randall Robinson of the lobbying group TransAfrica. “We are going to see . . . increasing isolation of that country.” The announcements by GM and IBM were especially significant be cause those corporations are big, well-known entities with global iden tities, Robinson said, predicting that more American firms will pull out shortly. Disinvestment, however, is not a requirement of the sanctions legis lation passed by Congress earlier this month. The law, which was enacted over President Reagan’s veto, pro hibits any new U.S. investment in South Africa, among other things. The Rev. Leon Sullivan, a black Philadelphia minister who has dealt with American firms in South Af rica, has called for withdrawal of U.S. investment and a blockade of the country if apartheid is not abo lished by May 1987. For years, Sullivan urged U.S. companies to stay in South Africa as an engine for change, but he set the 1987 deadline as a means of step ping up pressure on Pretoria. Sullivan, who hailed GM’s deci sion, devised the so-called Sullivan Principles, a code of conduct that many American businesses follow in hiring, training and promoting black workers in South Africa. South Africa’s recession-plagued economy has played a big role in the exodus of U.S. firms.