V Texas A&M m m M *
The Battalion
Vol. 82 No. 66 CISPS 045360 10 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, Decembers, 1986
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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.”
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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.