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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1987)
Friday, January 23, 1987/The Battalion/Page l3 Lack of national energy policy boses ‘serious threat’ to nation 3 on. I noti( ( lavs i the« it a of atioi)! f Hue in \i jusei! Castro ■ WASHINGTON (AP) — Growing U.S. de- ^Rendence on foreign oil, the Iran-Iraq war and Hae lack of a clear-cut national energy policy pose serious economic and geopolitical threats to this nation, two energy experts said Thursday. I “We are today sowing the seeds of the next en- ■rgy crisis,” the Senate Energy Committee was Hold by James R. Schlesinger, who headed the de- ^Bartments of Defense and Energy and the CIA at ^various times in the 1970s. I Schlesinger and James E. Akins, U.S. ambassa dor to Saudi Arabia from 1973 to 1976, were crit- al of the Reagan administration’s abandoning ol its proclaimed neutrality in the Persian Gulf ar by secretly selling weapons to Iran. “An Iranian victory would be catastrophic for the United States,” said Akins, who called on Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz to forcefully restate U.S. neutrality in the 6-year-old conflict and work to prevent U.S. allies from sup plying Iran with weapons. I Akins said there was a 50 percent chance Iran ould win the war. "ho u usesdl ol v t ap|*J|f Roth witnesses said that should Iran defeat Iraq, Iran’s influence among Arab states would be strong enough to allow it to supplant Saudi Arabia as the dominant Persian Gulf member of the international oil cartel. This, they said, would leave Iran with the abil ity to force cutbacks in global oil production and a further rise in crude prices at a time when im ports supply 39.4 percent of U.S. oil needs — the same level that existed just before the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Schlesinger said this figure could rise to 50 percent by 1990, further increasing the U.S. for eign trade deficit and leaving this country even more vulnerable to cutoffs of imported petro leum. “Quite simply, American oil dependency means lessened leeway in foreign policy,” said Schlesinger, pointing to last year’s U.S. bombing of Libya to protest that nation’s support of inter national terrorism. “How easy would it be for some future presi dent to strike at an Arab oil producer under con ditions in which the international oil market is tight and the United States were dependent on imported oil for more than 50 percent of its sup ply?” Schlesinger asked. Akins said his discussions with oil ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Coun tries have convinced him there is “real determin ation” in OPEC to reduce production and force a rise in oil prices. The agreement to cut production came in De cember after about 14 months of OPEC disarray and tumbling prices that made gasoline cheap for American motorists but sent domestic oil pro ducers into a tailspin. Hitting the administration’s free-market ap proach to energy regulation, Schlesinger said “the administration has been content to allow laissez-faire to prevail. . . . The consequence will be a rise in America’s energy vulnerability far more rapid than required by our resource base.” Town's residents draw shades early for fear of sniper id ts iversmj j cor orrecj esiinj •! Yam ally en i uific 1 n in ennei r prd s ago : :)ted l. % ither i lardid 1. ting m Speat aid sd upr in foe; he H 1 one of introls" ; ■publicr on, '■ itionalt- se in Politician shoots self at meeting HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — [Pennsylvania’s treasurer, facing jail for defrauding the state, pro- Iclaimed his innocence at a news conference Thursday but said “It’s too late for me,” then pulled a pistol from a manila envelope, put it into his mouth and killed 1 himself. R. Rudd Dwyer died instantly [after he fired a single shot from a .357 Magnum pistol in front of I two dozen horrified reporters, photographers and aides in his office suite in the state Finance | Building, Dauphin County Coro- I ner William Bush said. Dwyer’s son Rob, 21, said his | father had given the family no in dication of what he intended to do. He said he heard the news at home with his mother, Joanne, 47, and sister, Dyan, 18. On Wednesday, the attorney general’s office had declared that Dwyer, 47, would be out of office as soon as he was sentenced today in federal court in Williamsport. Siamese twins die during surgery that offered chance at life for 1 PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Twin SW-week-old boys died Thursday af ter surgeons operated for eight hejurs to separate the infants, who shared a heart, liver and intestines, a hospital spokeswoman said. The second twin died at 6:30 p.m., 6‘/2 hours after the first infant died during the operation doctors had said would give only one of the twins a chance to live. The second baby’s death was caused by “multiple problems relat ing to surgery, primarily cardiac problems,” Childrens Hospital spokeswoman Patricia Unser said. Dr. James O’Neill, chief of sur gery at the hospital, had said after the operation that everything “went as well as could be expected, and it is very questionable” whether the sec ond infant would survive. Surgery to separate the twins, joined from breastbone to abdomen and together weighing IVi pounds, began at 8.20 a.m., two hours after they were wheeled into the operat ing room. It was completed at 4 p.m. Unser said “Baby A”, separated from his brother at 2.30 p.m., was clinically dead at noon, less than four hours after the operation be gan. He was kept attached to his brother while surgeons moved the heart and liver into the proper places in “Baby B’s” body. Earlier, the hospital reported “Baby A” had not died until sepa rated. “To separate the children one had to be sacrificed, but without the sur gery neither infant could have sur vived much longer,” Unser said. Shirley Bonne m, another spokeswoman, said,“It was a very sad and difficult decision, and the only way we were able to justify it was knowing in our own minds that at least you have a chance to save one.” The boys were born Dec. 27 to a New York City woman who re quested anonymity for her family. The twins were identified only as “Baby A” and “Baby B.” Midway through the surgery the 12-member team moved the con joined heart outside the bodies and trimmed the excess heart tissue away to make the necessary connections that eventually diverted the blood supply system to the survivor. When this was completed the heart was put into Baby B’s chest. irmanc the Hof ly appeg to oust:' in Pricf make : Pentaf ! mosi ( he Hoi concert he MX' nilitar' 1 H s, twop :nt Re* mocrati ted the 1 * sing A? »11 Engineering, Computer Science, BANA And Business Majors... Find Out Where You Fit In A Big 8 Firm util The Management Information Consulting Division of Arthur Andersen & Co* Invite you to a presentation/reception on Thursday, January 29, 1987, at 6:30 p.m. at the College Station Hilton. Casual attire. We will be on campus interviewing graduate students in business and computer science as well as undergraduates in business, engineering, BANA and computer science on February 9 and 10, 1987. Arthur Andersen The defect in Baby A’s cardiovas cular system kept blood from flow ing back to his heart, doctors said. The twins came to Children’s Hospital two weeks ago. Since 1957, the hospital has performed six oper ations to separate conjoined twins, which occur once in every 500,000 births. Of these, four succeeded. Dr. Everett Koop, now U.S. Sur geon General, performed a similar operation at the hospital on twin girls in 1977. However, the surviving infant died three months later from an infection. Before beginning the operation, the hospital said it had been assured by the district attorney’s office that there would be no murder or other- charges brought because of the death of one infant. Dr. Howard Grant, a physician adviser to the hospital administra tion and a key participant in the hos pital’s review of the case, said, “The question you need to raise is: Is it le gally acceptable to cause the death of one of the babies in order to justify saving one of the babies, when both of them can’t survive without a pro cedure at this point? We have an ob ligation to try to preserve life.” NORTH SMITHFIELD, R.I. (AP) — Five-thirty. The day is dy ing, dusk falling softly over the Blacks tone Valley’s cozy homes and wooded hills. The National Guard moves in. The dozen soldiers stuff their flak jackets with candy bars, pull on their helmets and troop from the smoky warmth of the bar racks to waiting jeeps that trundle up the rural highway. A military helicopter buzzes overhead. Local police and state troopers prowl the streets, ran domly stopping people, asking them where they’re going and what they’re doing. On the lonely backroads, the soldiers take up their posts. Hid den by the darkness, they watch and wait. Somewhere in the night, a sniper does the same. Using a 22.-caliber semi-auto matic weapon, the gunman usually takes aim through lighted picture windows as his victims re lax in their living rooms. Eleven attacks in a month have left four people wounded, two of them se riously. Investigators have no descrip tion of the sniper and say there is no pattern to the attacks — seven in this northern Rhode Island town of 11,000, two in neighbor ing Cumberland and two just across the border in Bellingham, Mass. Nerves are taut. In house after house off the valley’s winding roads, curtains are drawn at sun set. Porch lights are doused. Tele vision sets are moved to back rooms. A car backfires and the special sniper hotline police have set up rings with another false re port of gunfire. A state trooper reports driving by one house and seeing a family silhouetted behind the sheer cur tains. Concern turned to amuse ment when he realized they were cardboard figures in front of the TV. Sniper bait. “Every time a dog barks, your ears perk up,” said Sharron Farbsten, a 46-year-old dental re ceptionist who lives on an isolated road in North Smithfield. inil&jc Rock or Roll “My 9-year-old spent the first week since this all started crawl ing across the living room oh his stomach,” she said. Business at a local gun shop is in a slump. “All the people who ordinarily go target shooting aren’t coming out anymore because they don’t want to get hassled by police and be mistaken for the sniper,” said the shop owner, who, like many valley residents, did not want his name used for fear the sniper would see it. * The latest attack came Jan* 8 — exactly one month after the first — when a bullet shattered the kitchen window of a state home for the mentally retarded and lodged in the back of Alan Gor- den, the house supervisor. The lull since Gorden was shot offers little reassurance to jittery homeowners, though. Two weeks went by without incident at Christmastime, then the sniper returned, hitting four homes in seven days. Alarmed by the frequency of the attacks, Gov. Edward DiPrete last week offered a $10,000 re ward and called out the National Guard, sending 30 soldiers to help beleaguered police. “We drive around awhile and just observe,” said Lt. John LoUghlin, spokesman for the Guard’s 43rd Brigade. “We’re not out here to apprehend anyone or get in any shootouts.” Deborah Aguire feels reas sured whenever she hears the Na tional Guard chopper overhead or sees one of the jeeps patrolling her street. The 30-year-old grocery clerk had put her two little boys to bed and was in the living room watch ing a wrestling match on TV with her mother-in-law when she heard a loud pop just after mid night on Dec. 13. A spent bullet bounced off her mother-in-law’s arm, leaving a red welt, and the two women no ticed that the front window was shattered. Aguire's 6-year-old son panics if the sun goes down and all the shades aren’t drawn. • 1 J