TKe Battalion
82 No. 83 CISPS 045360 18 pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, January 23, 1987
arines kill 12 in Philippines street clash
MANILA, Philippines (AP) —Ma
es fired M-l(i ault rifles into a
iwd of peasants and leftists de
riding land reform Thursday,
Vr 12 and wounding 94 in the
pdi( si su eet clash of Corazon
^^■o’s presidency.
'"There will be those who seek to
ll'Bt this tragic incident to derail
t^Kfforts to bring democracy,”
uino said in an address broadcast
KBiwide after the slayings.
ligHo on Thursday, her peace ini-
tive toward Communist rebels all
irveit collapsed as Communist and
T Hnment negotiators suspended
talks indefinitely because of death
threats.
An estimated 10,000 people orga
nized by the leftist Movement of
Philippine Farmers marched from
the downtown Post Office toward
the presidential palace to demand
that farm plots be given to the land
less.
About 500 national police and
marines lined up eight deep waiting
for them at the Mendiola Bridge,
300 yards from Malacanang Palace’s
main gate. The bridge was the site of
several bloody civilian-military con
frontations during the 20-year rule
of ex-President Ferdinand E. Mar
cos.
As the front ranks of marchers
approached police lines, they began
chanting “Come and join! Don’t be
afraid!” Marchers linked arms across
Recto Street and began pushing
against the front line of brown-uni-
formed troops of the Integrated Na
tional Police deployed in front of the
bridge.
The police, behind long plastic
shields, shoved the marchers back a
few steps. But the protesters then
surged forward. The police fell back
about 10 yards. Stones flew from
among the marchers.
Suddenly, marines in full battle
dress deployed behind the police
opened fire with M-16s, first into the
air for about two minutes, then into
the panicked crowd for three more
minutes. The firing continued while
people ran into the street to drag the
dead and wounded out of the firing
line.
When the firing ceased, four
jeeploads of police raced forward,
scattering the remaining demonstra
tors with volleys of tear gas.
Before the clash, Jaime Tedeo,
the leader of the Movement of Phil
ippine Farmers, exhorted the
marchers to challenge the forces
guarding the palace.
Denouncing what he and other
leftist and peasant leaders have
called slow and inefficient imple
mentation of land reform, he told a
rally before the march: “Charge to
Malacanang! Let’s break down the
barricades!”
Several young men among the
marchers tore iron bars from a gate,
and others carried wooden clubs
with protruding nails.
Aquino recently granted land ti
tles to nearly 6,000 tenant farmers in
northern Luzon. Fleherson Alvarez,
the agrarian reform minister, says
his ministry is preparing to distrib
ute about 18,000 titles and more will
come later.
Aquino, who came to power 11
months ago after a civilian-military
uprising forced Marcos to flee to
Hawaii, expressed shock over the
killings.
She announced creation of a spe
cial commission under retired Su
preme Court Justice Jose Feria to in
vestigate the clash and promised to
punish those responsible.
ES
Officials: Crash
If jet occurred
n maneuvers
STIN (AP) — Two Air Force
hat collided near Brownwood
killed two pilots were experi-
enting with aerial attack-and-
ade maneuvers and not locked in
simulated dogfight as witnesses
rs| thought, officials said Thurs-
k
Two Air Force officers were
and two managed to par-
;hute to safety Wednesday after
ic fiery collision.
It was the second military air di-
ister in two days.
Bfficials at Bergstrom Air Force
ase in Austin, where the jets were
ased, declined to be specific about
'hat may have caused the crash.
Capt. Michael K. Elder, 31, of
cattle, and 1st Lt. Walter W. Ko-
ak, 24, of Ormond Beach, Fla.
rere killed in the collision.
The RF-4C Phantom II jets,
thicli can fly at twice the speed of
ound and are used as photo-
J
Badets’
or assault
fe By Curtis L. Culberson
Staff Writer
A tenative court date of Feb. 4 has
ten set for the six freshman cadets
targed with the Nov. 18 assault of
mone Weaver at the bonfire site,
at investigations by both the De-
irtment of Student Affairs and the
ammandanf s Office are being con-
icted to determine if other parties
sre involved.
Brian MacManus, James L. De-
ase III, Andrew C. Cooper, Cody
:ogin, Clinton D. Taylor and Wil
ma Paul Miller have requested a
■Strial and will be represented by
•.conomy
|U.S. hit
)y deficit
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Bcconomy, weighted down by a
ge foreign trade deficit, turned in
worst performance in 1986 since
; last recession, the government
aoried Thursday.
The Commerce Department said
is gross national product, the broa-
stinieasuie of economic health,
j||2.5 percent last year, the wea-
st growth rate since a 2.5 percent
cline during the recession of 1982.
Bui the news on inflation was ex-
ational. A price index tied to the
*1? turned in its best performance
ce 1967, a 2.7 percent rise last
tr which was held down by the
Hade plunge in oil prices. For
J fourth quarter, this inflation in-
Hose at an annual rate of 1 per-
it, the slowest advance of the
tole year.
/ He administration believed that
H>ly lower oil prices and falling
Ar ip st rates would help lift the
inomy out of the doldrums.
Hwever, the country’s trade defi-
Hared to a new record, throwing
Hountry’s manufacturing sector
o a virtual recession, while the big
| op in oil prices forced layoffs in
• j# ipetroleum industry.
l^pHvate economists said the weak-
' * Hin the fourth quarter was dis-
, Hng and some analysts forecast
owth could drop even farther be-
of adverse impacts from the
ax law.
graphic reconnaisance aircraft, col
lided about 14,000 feet above Lake
Brownwood, Bergstrom spokeswo
man Wanda Whitney said.
Lake Brownwood is in a military
operations area that is about 140
miles northwest of the base, Whit
ney said.
“The defensive maneuvering
training mission is one in which air
craft maneuver to defeat a simu
lated aerial attack,” she said.
She said that it was not a simu
lated dogfight as some observers at
the scene said.
She declined to give further de
tails, including whether the two sur
vivors were on the same plane.
Herman Thompson, a farmer
near the crash site, said he looked
skyward after hearing what
See Crash, page 14
date set
charges
attorney Henry C. Paine, said Justice
Clerk Louisa Dunn.
The case has been turned over
from Justice of the Peace Michael
Calliham to Justice of the Peace Wes
ley Hall, who will decide whether or
not there will be a preliminary hear
ing before the official court date,
Dunn said.
“It takes time to get a jury toge
ther,” Dunn said. She added that
there was more work to be done be
fore an official date for a hearing
could be released.
Weaver has said that she would
not have filed charges against the
freshman cadets had they revealed
the names of the people who or
dered them to attack her.
Weaver’s suspicions about the at
tack were investigated by University
Police.
“Initially, when I talked to the
people involved, I wasn’t able to get
any names out of them,” Detective
Will Scott said. “They claimed they
didn’t know.”
But Scott did say he has received
information that the University Po
lice may soon be getting some names
from investigations being conducted
by Student Affairs and the Com
mandant’s Office.
Scott added that if other parties
were found, they could probably
charged as accessories to the misde
meanor assault.
Dave Rogers, a junior in Company S-2, sits in the upper tiers of G. Rollie White Coliseum during All-U Night.
Photo by Bill Hughes
Corps yells dominate poorly-attended
'87 spring version of Al -University Night
Photo by Bill Hughes
The Aggie Band got a little too loud for Leslie Thornton, 2, the
daughter of assistant basketball coach John Thornton. Leslie’s
brother Gabe, 5, didn’t seem to be affected by the noise.
By Robert Morris
Staff Writer
Is it a spring sports pep rally or a
chance for love-starved, prema
turely balding, young men to make
loud animal-like noises as the wom
en’s track team walks in their pres
ence? Both descriptions are suitable
in assessing the 1987 spring version
of All-University Night.
The answer depends largely on
the observer’s point of view.
Of course, that observer would
most likely be a whoop-happy mem
ber of the group mentioned above.
The crowd was composed largely
of members of the Corps of Cadets,
who, in their exuberance, created
most of the excitement in an other
wise extremely long introduction
ceremony.
The latest edition of the spring
All-University Night was held
Thursday night at G. Rollie White
Coliseum. It played to an audience
of about 800 to 1,000, considerably
less than the attendance the football
team receives for its fall counterpart.
The welcome back pep rally was
designed to heighten attention to
ward and attendance at spring
sports events such as baseball games
and tennis matches.
Women’s Athletic Director Lynn
Hickey said, “Aggieland is a very
special place to be, but the thing that
makes us special is not the traditions
and the customs, it’s the people that
carry them on.
“We need you at our contests. If
you will attend our event you will be
proud of what you see. We are win
ners, but we will be bigger and better
winners if you will help us.”
Hickey was followed by Charlie
Thomas, the men’s and women’s
track coach, who was upstaged by
the ever-present barrage of cheers
of appreciation from the Corps of
Cadets. Seemingly, the women’s
team received ovations according to
skirt length rather than athletic ac
complishment.
The subsequent introduction cer
emonies by the coaches of other
post-football sports largely followed
the same pattern.
The program closed with a brief
yell practice.
A&M prof’s libel suit moved to Houston
By Christi Daugherty
Staff Writer
A year-old libel case filed by a
Texas A&M professor is still
awaiting trial but has been trans
ferred from a Minnesota federal
court to a Texas federal court.
The suit was filed June 18,
1986 by Terry Anderson, an asso
ciate professor of history, against
both the Accuracy In Academia
(AIA) and Accuracy in Media
conservative watchdog corpora
tions.
It is based on a syndicated col
umn published by the Washing
ton D.C.-based AIA and printed
in about 10 college newspapers
around the country.
Anderson, who is a University
of Minnesota graduate, has said
he originally filed the $50,000
case in that state because he first
heard of the column from the ed
itor of the University of Minne
sota newspaper.
William D. Harper, Anderson’s
attorney, said that the Minnesota
judge decided to change the ve
nue of the case because none of
the parties involved lived in that
state.
The case will now be tried in
the Houston court of Federal Dis
trict Judge Carl Bue, Harper
said, if one more hurdle can be
cleared.
Matthew Scully, one of the de
fendants in the trial, is out of the
country and participants in the
case must wait for him to return
in order to determine if the case
can be tried in federal court,
Harper said. Scully has declared
Texas his legal residence, and if
that proves true the case does not
fall within federal jurisdiction.
If the case is tried in federal
court, Harper said, he is confi
dent of a victory, and if the case
cannot be tried in that court, An
derson will refile at a different
level.
The Campus Report column
on which the case-is based was dis
tributed in October 1985 and gar
nered its information and quotes
from a Battalion article published
the year before. The AIA column
compared Anderson’s beliefs, as
published by The Battalion, to
those of the devil, Lucifer, and
called him a “hog charging the
morning trough.”
The October 1984 Battalion
story was written when Anderson
won the Association of Former
Students’ award for distinguished
teaching and described his goals
as “to provoke, stimulate and
challenge students’ ideas.”
Anderson, who is still a profes
sor at A&M but is currently in
Malaysia, was also quoted in The
Battalion article as saying, “I do
not believe in the institution of
marriage, I am atheist and I do
not claim any political party. I am
not patriotic toward Texas A&M,
Texas, the flag or America. But I
am not any different than other
Americans as far as emotions and
a concern for humanity.”
The Campus Report authors,
Scully and lies Csorba III, used
part of that quote but left out the
last line. The authors, who are
defendants in the case, followed
the quote with, “Lucifer himself
could not have framed his credo
any better.”
John Hemenway, an attorney
with Accuracy in Media, called
the situation and the case wild
and absurd.
“The article was published
from a Battalion article which he
never claimed to have an argu
ment with,” Hemenway said. “We
just said what you printed that he
said. And within all this it’s wild,
just absurd that he would try to
sue us — located as we are in
Washington — in a court in Min
nesota.”
Hemenway described the AIA
as completely separate from Ac
curacy in Media, but sharing
many of the same views. Both
groups, he said, despise things
that offend the democratic proc
ess.
“There is a constant need on
campus and in the news industry
to have people who care about
freedom or honesty or truth in
reporting and in the classroom to
tell their co-workers that what’s
important is not to grind their
own axes, but to teach and report
the truth,” Hemenway said.