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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 1986)
V Texas A&M m m M * The Battalion Vol. 82 No. 66 CISPS 045360 10 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, Decembers, 1986 'widen! I'uder.i ' Presidi plans io i A’spiit •y. black," I pin.tllf; sitive i Reagan issues call special counsel Former CIA official named as NSC head d sir :omrai use, 1 peiua I asnr,! vinninjlBWASHINGTON (AP) — Under 'lagr mounting pressure from Congress, I if ht fPrt siclent Reagan called Tuesday for Hpointment of a special counsel to insestigate the diversion of Iranian >n,dirfi:Hnis sales profits to Nicaraguan re- Conn fbels and named a former top-rank- inc CIA official as his national secu- rits adviser. ^Hliesides seeking to invoke a post Matergate-era law providing for .Hobes independent of the executive ■anch, Reagan urged members of thi House and Senate to consolidate under one committee their own pi lies of the affair. ■ ‘‘If illegal acts were undertaken, Rose who did so will be brought to •Kstice,” the president declared as he ^bo announced that Frank Carlucci, ■te-time deputy CIA director and ipeputy secretary of defense, will re- Race Vice Adm. John M. Poin dexter. H Poindexter resigned last week as llfiDj) national security adviser. I The president said he’d been in formed by Attorney General Edwin ■eese III earlier Tuesday that “rea- Ljonable grounds” existed to seek ap- Rointment of an independent coun- |iel by a three-judge court. I While Reagan was speaking in a pare midday broadcast to the nation, |Poindexter made a brief appearance ■ the site of closed-door hearings by |iheSenate Intelligence Committee. ■ According to two sources who de- iclined to he identified by name, ■uesday’s witnesses were two “top- Rvel” intelligence officials. One source said the reason for Poindexter’s brief appearance was “a request by him to have some more time to get ready before he ap pears,” possibly today. “What we’re trying to do right now is piece together the mosaic of facts,” one source said of the Iran- Contra connection. “This was clearly held extremely closely, but a lot of people knew something about it, particularly in the upper reaches of “It illegal acts were under taken, those who did so will he brought to justice.” — Ronald Reagan the CIA. “What we’re trying to figure out is exactly who knew what about the arms and Contras and when they knew it. It’s a process of trying to track the internal workings of the in telligence community.” Both sources said the operation run by Marine Lt. Col. Oliver W. North apparently was outside of the normal intelligence chain of com mand, even though that chain al ready is highly compartmentalized. Republican congressional leaders praised Reagan for moving decisi vely to end the disarray wrought by the Iranian arms sales disclosures. Democrats, too, applauded the president’s decision to seek an inde pendent counsel. But lawmakers argued about whether investigations now under way, or planned, should be merged under the umbrella of a select com mittee — as was done in the Water gate period. Upwards of nine congressional panels have announced investiga tions. Members of both parties said, however, they were pleased with Carlucci’s appointment. Since Poin dexter’s resignation Nov. 25, Alton Keel has been serving as Reagan’s national security adviser on an act ing basis. In his speech, Reagan said he told Meese to immediately apply to the court for the appointment of an in dependent counsel. But the attorney general refused to say when that would be done, tell ing reporters such a disclosure would violate the Ethics in Govern ment Act, the post Watergate-era law that provides for independent counsels. In the four-minute speech from his desk, Reagan assured the nation: “If illegal acts were undertaken, those who did so will be brought to justice. If actions in implementing my policy were taken without my au thorization, knowledge or concur rence, this would be exposed and ap propriate corrective steps will be implemented.” eat. H i helps ackson ted bis Perot says he put up money to free hostages in Lebanon Hi I WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot said Tues- py that at the behest of a now-dis- aissed National Security Council ide he put up $2 million earlier this ear to ransom U.S. hostages in Leb anon. Perot, in an' interview on ABC- V’s “Nightline,” confirmed an ac- ount published in Tuesday’s edi- ions of the Washington Post, which aid the billionaire put up the money at the request of Marine Lt. Col. Oli- er L. North, the NSC aide. North was fired Nov. 25 for what the ad ministration said was his role in fun- neling Iranian weapons payments to Nicaraguan Contra rebels. | On May 23, North asked Perot, listed by Forbes magazine as the Ihird wealthiest American, to de posit $2 million in a Swiss bank ac count, said the newspaper, quoting anonymous “informed sources.” Perot was on the point of telexing Ihe money when North called and liasked him to send it by courier to yprus for an exchange in “a ship- ;o-ship transfer,” the Post said. i as Perot’s courier waited five days on Jyprus, but the deal for the release of five Americans fell through for reasons that coidd not be deter mined, the newspaper said. “It didn’t work out and that was just an unfortunate try that failed,” Perot said. “It’s my understanding that the people that were supposed to produce, didn’t. It’s that simple.” The newspaper said its informa tion was provided by people with firsthand knowledge of the trans actions described. Contacted Monday night, Daniel Howard, a White House spokesman said the ransom attempt, if it oc curred, was undertaken without the knowledge or authorization of the National Security Council. But Perot told ABC that he as sumed North had higher authority. “My sense is always that people who do these types of things in the government are very meticulous in getting approval for their activities,” Perot said. “. . . Maybe by the time I started dealing with Col. North spe cifically, I had been pretty well pro grammed in that direction because that’s always been the case.” The ransom attempt directly con tradicted President Reagan’s stated policy of refusing to negotiate for the release of hostages, but one source told the Post the ransom at tempt was justified on the grounds that the money was from a private individual, not the government. Explained Perot: “As I under stand the government’s policy, it is they don’t want to use U.S. money, but if and when they can find a will ing citizen to help in matters like this, then they can go to great efforts to save the person’s life.” Imprismed Kirk Houser shines a prism at the MSC craft fair Tuesday afternoon. Houser has been making Photo by John Xtarr prisms and stained-glass ornaments for 12 years. He will be at the craft fair today as well. Phone services give amnesty cold shoulder By Christi Daugherty Staff Writer While Star Tel Inc. begins its 15- day amnesty program for illegal us ers of access codes, other long-dis tance services indicate that they have no intention of changing their cur rent policies toward offenders. John Houscer, MCI’s corporate public relations manager in New York, said MCI will stick by its policy of filing charges against all who use the stolen codes, and said that he could not see how an amnesty pro gram would help the situation. “If students get amnesty then they end up not being punished for their actions,” Houscer said. “What they’ve done is illegal and we have every intention of continuing to prosecute to the furthest extent of the law.” Houscer said MCI has filed charges against three Texas A&M students so far and plans to pursue more cases. “Now if Star Tel wants to start an amnesty program because they want to get five football players off the hook, that’s their problem,” Houscer said. “As for us, we have no inten tion of softening our stance on this issue. We will continue to prosecute until we have solved this problem.” But Dr. Ed Stephenson, Star Tel’s chief executive officer, has denied that the fact that five A&M football players were among those to be ar rested this week had anything to do with the decision to offer amnesty. Until Star Tel announced the am nesty program Monday, the com pany had a strict policy of prosecut ing all violators, he said. Stephenson said that as soon as the 15-day amnesty period is over, the company will return to its regu- Brazos TABS head: Budget cuts hurt staff * Hiring freeze may force program cuts f Editor’s note: This is the sec ond of a three-part series on the effects of state budget cuts and Texas' slumping oil economy on the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. Part 2 examines the toll budget cuts have taken on the Brazos County Extension Office. By Bob Grube Staff Writer Budget cuts sometimes lead to layoffs and firings, and the peo ple whose jobs end feel the effects in a bad way. But sometimes, the people who remain to take up the slack pay a price too, in the form of mounds of paperwork and ex hausted employees. Such is the case at the Brazos County Extension Office in Bryan, where Jim Mazurkiewicz, 31, works for the Texas Agricul tural Extension Service as the ag riculture program leader for the county. State budget cuts and the hir ing freeze implemented by Gov. Mark White have chopped his staff from five full-time agents to three. County funds were cut by about 10 percent ($9,000) from 1986 to 1987, but the majority of that funding was for the agent salary that was eliminated by the state. The hiring freeze has made its impact felt much more harshly than the funding cutbacks. Mazurkiewicz is a man with a million things to do and too few hours to get them done. His life is a continuous string of paper work, phone calls and committee meetings. And yet, a fire of desire to do a good job burns in his eyes. But he acknowledges it is sometimes hard to keep giving 100 percent all of the time. “I’ve taken on the non-pro gram leader’s responsibilities, in addition to my job responsibili ties,” Mazurkiewicz says. “So far, I’ve not had to cut any programs, but it’s about to kill me. “I’m putting in over 80 hours a week between the two positions. My typical day starts at 7 a.m. and ends around 10 p.m. I also put in about 13 hours over the weekend. I basically have no family life.” So far, no major programs have had to be cut and he has even managed to implement a few programs of his own. But he doesn’t know how long he and his staff can hang on. “We started a fire ant program last year that saw 1,000 citizens buy $48,000 of Fit e ant bait,” Ma zurkiewicz says. “This year, we can’t have the program because we just have too many other things going on.” The employees at the exten sion office bring to mind the Tex ans at the Alamo, except they’re battling paperwork, overtime hours and exhaustion rather than Mexican soldiers. But their administrative battle could have the same outcome as the Alamo. “This county has over 100,000 taxpayers who all feel like we work for them,” Mazurkiewicz says. “And in reality, we do. There’s just not enough of us to go around. “Yesterday was one heck of a day. I still haven’t gotten over it. I’m hurting so bad in my chest right now that I feel like I should go home and lie down. It’s just too much for one guy.” The result of the extra work and long hours eventually will be a reduction of programs offered to the public. But Mazurkiewicz says he and his staff will keep pro grams operating as long as they can, and the smaller, non-educa- tional programs will be the first to be cut. “The little personal services, like taking soil samples or looking at a tree fungus, have been cut out,” he says. “But that’s OK be cause it makes us more efficient. “It makes some of the people mad because they’ve gotten used to the personal service. But it’s just as easy for them to take soil samples over to A&M as it is for me to do it. “If people want to bring some thing into the office, I’ll look at it and try to help them, but I can’t run out and look at everyone’s home problems anymore. People have to realize this.” Mazurkiewicz also has had to drop monthly horse and beef cattle newsletters but is continu ing the horticulture newsletter (about 900 subscribers) and the two weekly newspaper columns he writes for the Bryan-College Station Eagle. Mazurkiewicz has every reason See TAES, page 9 lar policy and will begin prosecuting all who have not made restitution. A&M Athletic Director Jackie Sherrill would not speak to report ers, and referred all calls to the A&M Office of Public Information. Lane Stephenson, the director of that office, said, “We don’t have any communication one way or another with MCI, and I think they might be taking some liberties with Star Tel’s intentions.” Bob Wiatt, director of security and University Police, said this is not the first time a long-distance service has filed and then withdrawn charges, and that his department will continue to pursue any com plaints issued by the companies. “WeTl continue to accept com plaints and file them through the criminal justice system,” Wiatt said. “I can’t just say, ‘You had your chance, and we can’t do any more for you.’ We’ve got to file charges if they request it and if they’ve got proof. It’s our job. “It’s not uncommon for people to press and file charges and then de cide to drop. That doesn’t mean that the next time they file charges we’re going to refuse. We can’t do that.” Of the other long distance services in town, Sprint’s public relations spokesman in Kansas City, Phil Her- menson, said Sprint has a special in vestigative unit that finds and pros ecutes people committing telephone fraud with Sprint access codes. “We crack down hard whenever we find people committing this crime, and we do have people serv ing time in jail for this,” Hermenson said. “If we find them we will pros ecute to the fullest extent of the law.” University Communications has a policy of never prosecuting except in extreme cases where they get no co operation from the person who made the calls. Hank Miller, an official with Call America, said his company has never had a problem with illegal access, perhaps because they do very strin gent credit checks before they grant anyone an access code.