Monday, January 26, 1987/The Battalion/Page 7
i(
>
ire
World and Nation
Report: Reagan’s intent
as hostages’ release
iov;-.
ih,
•Hliitl
1 me I
enrcv
h!
nil:,,
tenj
cist ■
?01 k|
i
)ui i
■ WASHINGTON (AP) — A new
draft report being prepared by the
Senate Intelligence Committee on
tjie Iran arms-Contra affair says one
of President Reagan’s chief motiva
tions in approving the arms transfer
was the release of U.S. hostages in
Beirut, congressional sources said
Sunday.
I Ever since the U.S. dealings with
Ii an became public in November,
Reagan has maintained that his chief
motivation was the re-establishment
■f ties with the Moslem government
of Iran because of the oil-rich na-
■on’s strategic location on the Per-
||}an Gulf.
I But “it is clear that getting the
hostages back was one of the main
Concerns, and was a higher priority
than the White House has been will
ing to admit publicly,” a source said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
The draft is being prepared by
the staff of the Democratic-con-
trolled committee and will be circu
lated to panel members this week,
said another source, also speaking
on condition of anonymity.
The panel, when it was under the
control of Republicans last month,
investigated the controversy, and a
draft report prepared at that time
contained little detail about the pres
ident’s role, the sources said.
The new draft has more informa
tion about Reagan’s role, partic
ularly his concern for the hostages,
they said.
Attorney General Edwin Meese
III told the panel last month that Lt.
Col. Oliver North, the Fired National
Security aide who oversaw both the
Iran and Contra programs, said
Reagan was preoccupied with the re
lease of the hostages, the sources
said.
North has cited his Fifth Amend
ment rights against self-incrimina
tion and has refused to testify or
publicly talk about the controversy.
Meese is the only high govern
ment official to talk to North about
North’s role in the deals. Those con
versations, including North’s com
ments about Reagan’s worries about
the hostages, came several days be
fore the link between the two pro
grams was publicly announced by
Meese on Nov. 25.
inisters complain march
isrepresented community
ectK
n H
ils (J
i Ltvj
wop |
ir xb
er
r as it
even'
■ GUMMING, Ga. (AP) —Aday af
ter this all-white community was
Jammed with up to 25,000 march
ers demanding racial tolerance, min
isters complained Sunday that Gum
ming had been characterized
Unfairly.
1 But a counterdemonstrator, one
of 56 people arrested in the South’s
largest civil rights demonstration
since the 1960s, said he would work
to oust the officials who welcomed
the marchers.
I “The politicians and system
Stooges are through here,” said
Frank Shirley, Forsyth County
leader of the White Patriot Party, a
militaristic white supremacist group.
H “We’re going to put our own can
didates in the next election,” he was
quoted as saying in Sunday’s editions
of the Forsyth County News.
I The marchers had come in re
sponse to a Jan. 17 attack by a jeer
ing crowd of 400 Ku Klux Klansmen
and their supporters who pelted
about 75 marchers with bottles,
forks and mud.
I Televised images of that attack
Spurred Saturday’s huge turnout
that left behind some would-be
marchers in Atlanta when more than
160 charter buses were filled.
I “It looked like Forsyth County is
the worst place in the world to live,
and is filled with the most hateful
E eople,” the Rev. Gary Armes told
is congregation at the First Chris
tian Church. “I wanted to shake the
TV and say, ‘That’s not so!’ ”
Gumming, a community of 2,800
people that is becoming a suburb of
Atlanta, was quiet Sunday. The last
of the marchers had left town at
about 9 p.m. Saturday after walking
1V* miles to the courthouse square in
the name of racial tolerance.
They were shielded by 1,700 Na
tional Guard troops called out by
Gov. Joe Frank Harris and by 600
“It looked like Forsyth
County is the worst place
in the world to live . . . I
wanted to shake the TV
and say, ‘That’s not so!’ ”
— The Rev. Gary Armes
state and county law enforcement
officers who arrested 56 people, ap
parently none of them marchers.
Media reports put the bill for the
Guard protection at hundreds of
thousands of dollars, but a spokes
man for Harris, Barbara Morgan,
refused to say how much calling out
the Guard had cost.
Again, the marchers were jeered
by about 1,000 people, some wear
ing Klan robes, who chanted racist
slogans and waved Confederate and
U.S. flags.
Saturday’s marchers were greeted
by local officials. “I just want to wel
come you,” Gumming Mayor Henry
Ford Gravitt said. “I just want to wel
come you. This generation today
can’t help what happened 75 years
ago. Let’s start now and move for
ward.”
Forsyth County’s blacks were
driven out in 1912 after a white
woman was raped and later died.
Three blacks were accused of the
crime; one was killed by a mob and
two were convicted and hanged.
County authorities today say they
still know of no black residents that
live in the county.
Civil rights veterans among Satur
day’s marchers praised the Forsyth
County Chamber of Commerce,
which placed newspaper ads wel
coming the march, and the over
whelming number of blacks and
whites who turned out. Observers
estimated that about one-third of the
marchers were white.
Marcher Ermias Aregay of At
lanta, gesturing toward angry coun
terdemonstrators, said, “I just won
der what happens tomorrow and the
day after tomorrow. I will march for
the purpose, but I think we’re not
solving the problem. We have to talk
to those people.”
Southern Christian Leadership
Conference President Joseph Low
ery said Forsyth County has nothing
to fear from Saturday’s visitors.
“We did not come to Forsyth
County to scare you to death, but to
challenge you to a new life,” he said.
“You don’t have to hate.”
I pledge |
t on»
e fori
Congratulations to the members of the Sigma
Chi fraternity, with the initiation of the 1986 fall pledg
class and specifically:
Wade W. Beckman/ you have displayed
an insight and a perspicacity that attests to both your wisdom
and your character. They will prove to be the pride of
Texas A & M University. You are to be applauded/
^XWe. /^d\/erfh;r<£. Cc*iVnue^>!
ana your
|[fexas/
sot
MSC SCONA 32
THE UNITED NATIONS
DELEGATE APPLICATIONS MSC 216
DEADLINE JANUARY-27, 5 PM
INTERVIEWS JANARY 28 & 29
FOR INFORMATION
845-7625
Texas A&M
Flying Club
COME LEARN TO FLY WITH OS
Interested people are urged to attend our meeting
January 27 at the Airport Clubhouse
For information
Call Bret Orr 696-2434 7:30 p.lTl.
Summer Engineers
M.E., Chem E„ I.E.,
and M.B.A.’s with technical undergraduate degrees:
What does an engineer
do in
MANUFACTURING MANAGEMENT?
FIND OUT!
PROCTOR & GAMBLE
will be hosting an open house