THeBattalion
Vol.82 No.88 USPS 045360 14 pages College Station, Texas Friday, January 30, 1987
Robbers
it hotel
in Bryan
By Jade Boyd
Reporter
■ Three men, one of whom used a
coat to conceal what may have been a
Bin, robbed the Bryan Holiday Inn
at 2300 Texas Ave. Wednesday
night, taking an undisclosed amount
c| cash from the front desk cash reg
ister.
I Detective Sgt. Elvin Walker con-
finned that the robbery occurred
shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday
Hght.
■ The night clerk, a Texas A&M
student, said one of the robbers had
what appeared to be a gun concealed
under a coat. The student described
He robbery as follows:
■ At about 9:45 p.m., three men en-
Hred the hotel and asked for change
H use the lobby telephone. They ap-
^fcrently used the telephone and left.
Hen minutes later they re-entered
He lobby and asked the clerk for
Hore change. After the register was
Opened, one of the men raised the
Heapon while another demanded
money.
■ “At the first instant I was more or
le s stunned,” the clerk said. “People
come in and out of the hotel all the
time. It’s not uncommon for people
to come in off the street and use the
phone. I was not suspicious of them
when they walked in so it was totally
unexpected. But, when they said
^fcive me your money,’ I realized it
very much for real.
■ “I just kind of stood there and
they said ‘Give me your money’
again. At that point, the second one
leaned over the counter and
grabbed the money out of the regis
ter.”
■ After the men left, the clerk called
police. Investigators from the Bryan
Hblice Department arrived within
five minutes, the clerk said.
I Walker said he received a good
description of the robbers from the
clerk, but police are unsure at this
point what charges will be filed if an
arrest is made.
■ “From the first day I started work
ing at hotels I knew this was possi
ble,” said the clerk, who has worked
at the Holiday Inn for less than a
month.
It He said the robbery would not
cause him to quit his job.
I “It’s no big deal,” he said. “But I’ll
be more leery of people as they come
in for a while.”
Senate report tracks
funds for arms deal
Profits traced to concealed island account
Class of ’99?
Photo by Chris Lane
Tommy Kunkleman lends a hand to yell leader Marty Holmes during
one of Texas A&M’s basketball games. Kunkleman has been leading
yells at volleyball and basketball games throughout the year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Senate Intelligence Committee has
traced Iranian arms sales profits, ap
parently intended for Nicaragua’s
Contra rebels, to a secret Cayman Is
lands bank account, the panel’s
chairman said Thursday.
But Sen. David Boren said a newly
written committee report has not yet
determined “the ultimate resting
place of this money.”
The report, released Thursday
night, said information regarding
the flow of money was in part “based
on sources of unknown reliability,”
whose statements could not be inde
pendently verified by the committee.
Boren said the report includes no
direct evidence that would state that
President Reagan knew of the diver
sion or that he directed the diversion
of funds to the Contras.
“You cannot finally resolve that
question when you don’t have the
testimony of North and Poindexter
and others,” Boren said of two de
parted administration figures, Vice
Adm. John M. Poindexter and Lt.
Col. Oliver L. North.
Across the Capitol, sources said
the House panel investigating the
Iran-Contra connection had notified
independent counsel Lawrence
Walsh that it might have to make a
decision on granting limited immu
nity to witnesses sooner than he
wishes.
These sources, who spoke on con
dition of anonymity, said the panel
notified Walsh of its feelings in a let
ter.
“The House has to make its own
judgment,” said one source, noting
that while Walsh may take many
months to complete his work, the
committee’s charter expires in Octo
ber.
Walsh had earlier written the
panel that a grant of limited immu
nity might create barriers to possible
prosecution. Poindexter and North
have refused to answer questions,
citing their constitutional rights
against self-incrimination.
Boren said the Senate Intelligence
Committee report reveals that Rea
gan met a number of times with
North, then a deputy on the Na
tional Security Council staff, gener
ally with others present.
The White House denied last year
that Reagan ever met alone with
North over the past two years.
Of the Iran-Contra money con
nection, Boren said: “We take it one
more step, the Cayman Islands ac
count. The creation of that, of
course, is tied to the ultimate benefi
ciary being in some way the Contras.
But in terms of showing the final
trail in terms that absolutely nail
down the fact that they received the
funds, no.”
In the past the Contras have used
Cayman Island bank accounts —
protected by bank secrecy laws in
that small island nation — for trans
fers of funds to pay for military op
erations in their war against the left
ist Sandinista government in
Managua.
The report said that after the
committee completed its initial in
vestigation last Nov. 28, the panel re
ceived information “indicating that
profits from Iranian arms sales were
deposited in account(s) in a Swiss
bank called Credit Fiduciere Serv
ices (CFS) and that such accounts
were opened and/or controlled by
Richard Secord, Thomas Clines and
Theodore Shackley. CFS then trans
ferred money to its subsidiaries in
Grand Cayman which disbursed it to
the Nicaraguan resistance.”
Secord, Clines and Shackley are
See Report, page 14
Biotech funding
means foothold
in med center
Judge: Error may lead to reversal in 7-11 case
By Curtis L. Culberson
Staff Writer
i An error in the charges presented
to the jury hearing the case against
the two surviving suspects of the Oc
tober attempted robbery of a 7-
Eleven store may provide grounds
for a reversal, District Court Judge
John Delaney said Thursday.
1 Felix Orta, 32, of College Station,
and Crispin Morales, 26, of Bryan,
were found guilty of three counts of
aggravated robbery by a jury
Wednegday evening after three
hours of deliberation. But the
charges presented the jury before
deliberation were incomplete.
The phrase “. . . with intent to
maintain and control the property”
is part of the official charge of ag
gravated robbery and it was left out
of the formal charges given jurors
before deliberation, Delaney said.
Delaney said he found the mistake
Wednesday night while reviewing
the case after the guilty verdict had
been reached.
After consultation with the attor
neys and other law experts Thurs
day morning, it was decided that de
fense attorney William W. Vance’s
objection about the incomplete
charges could get an appellate court
to set aside the decision and retry the
case.
Despite another objection by
Vance, Judge Delaney re-presented
the corrected charges to the jury
Thursday morning and had them
re-decide the case, instructing them
to disregard the first verdict.
“This has never been done before
in the state of Texas,” Vance said.
After about 20 minutes of deliber
ation the jury again found Orta and
Morales guilty of three counts of ag
gravated robbery.
The jury then deliberated six
hours on the punishment of the de
fendants before sentencing Orta to
life imprisonment for each of the
three counts of aggravated robbery.
Morales was sentenced to 36 years
imprisonment for each of the three
counts.
Orta and Morales were injured
and another suspect killed on Oct.
22 when police arrived at the 7-
See Error, page 14
By Robert Morris
Staff Writer
By appropriating funds for the
preliminary design of the Institute
of Biosciences and Technology, the
Texas A&M Board of Regents has
taken the initial step toward giving
the University a valuable foothold
into the Texas Medical Center in
Houston.
In a written project justification
prepared for the Board, Dr. Eu
gene Sander, deputy chancellor for
biotechnology development, said
the institute will provide the Uni
versity with a presence both in the
world’s largest medical center and
in Houston, the largest city in
Texas.
The regents’ Planning and
Building Committee Sunday ap
proved a $550,000 architectural
contract for the institute.
The Bernard Johnson architec
tural engineering firm received the
contract.
The building is slated to be built
on the parking lot and tennis court
areas next to the landmark Sham
rock Hilton Hotel, purchased by
the Texas Medical Center in late
1985.
Pending approval by the TMC,
construction will begin by May
1988.
The building is scheduled to
open two years later.
Gerald Hickman, vice president
of the TMC, said with the purchase
of the hotel property, land had be
come available for an expansion.
“Since the acquisition of the land,
we were approached by a number
of institutions, one of which was
Texas A&M,” Hickman said.
Group seeks to restore university funding
Higher education PAC seeks support
By Amy Couvillon
Staff Writer
1 A recently formed political ac
tion committee for higher educa
tion is asking Texas A&M and
other public universities in Texas
for financial contributions.
B University of Texas Board of Re
gents Chairman Jess Hay, who is
the leader of the Higher Education
Hj-egislative PAC, said the main ob
jective of the committee right now
is to restore state funding for uni
versities to at least 1985 levels. He
lias said the cuts made in the 1986
special sessions reflect legislators’
lack of commitment to higher edu
cation.
fl A legislative political action com
mittee is a registered special-inter
est group formed for the purpose
of making financial contributions to
political candidates.
■ The higher education PAC will
contribute on a non-partisian basis
to legislators who “clearly and un
equivocally” support Texas higher
eclucation, Hay said.
I Hay said he has gotten a good re
sponse from public universities
around the state, as well as from
business leaders and other benefac
tors of higher education.
1 “The support has been very grat
ifying to date,” said Hay, who is also
the chairman and chief executive
officer of Lomas & Nettleton Fi
nancial Corp. of Dallas. “There is a
very strong and large body of sup
port.”
At A&M, Arthur Blair, assistant
to President Frank E. Vandiver,
said the president, along with mem
bers of the Board of Regents who
serve on the PAC, has sent letters of
information to administrators on
campus as well as to the Faculty
Senate and the Association of For
mer Students.
“The chairman of the A&M
Board of Regents, working closely
with the chairman of the UT Board
of Regents, is disseminating infor
mation and asking for our sup
port,” Blair said.
“Each element within the system,
I would assume, is doing the same
thing that A&M is doing,” Blair
said.
DeWayne Wommack, treasurer
of the higher education PAC, said,
“Higher education has got to be a
priority in order for the state to be
competitive — in achieving good
people in the teaching profession as
well as being competitive in re
search.
“All those reasons for supporting
higher education are reasons for
supporting a higher education
PAC.”
Bill C. Presnal, executive secre
tary for the A&M Board of Regents
and vice chancellor for state affairs,
agreed.
“The idea is to promote higher
education,” Presnal said. “It allows
the public, the individual, to partici-
“All those reasons for sup
porting higher education
are reasons for support
ing a higher education
PAC.”
— DeWayne Wommack,
PAC treasurer.
pate in a way that he can be heard.”
Blair said that although Van
diver is in the process of sending a
letter to the former students and
some of the senior staff members,
the president has left the decision
as to how to approach A&M faculty
up to the Faculty Senate.
“In dealing with the faculty
themselves,” Blair said, “Dr. Van
diver thought it would be more ap
propriate for the Faculty Senate —
which really represents the faculty
— to explain and ask the faculty if
they would want to support it.”
At its Jan. 19 meeting, the Fac
ulty Senate received a letter from
the office of the president asking
for support for the PAC.
“I hope you can look favorably
on this — time presses!” Vandiver
said in a Jan. 14 memo to Dr. Sam
Black, the Senate’s speaker.
The Senate agreed to postpone
consideration of the higher educa
tion PAC — putting it on the Feb. 9
agenda — since most of the sen
ators agreed that they wanted more
information about the PAC before
they endorsed it.
But the Senate also authorized its
executive committee to research the
PAC and compose an appropriate
letter that would inform the faculty
and give them the opportunity to
contribute.
The Faculty Senate executive
committee is still in the process of
gathering information, and it has
not yet sent out a letter, said Dr.
Leonard Ponder, the Senate’s dep
uty speaker.
“Our obligation was to write the
letter if we could answer the ques
tions they were posing,” Ponder
said.
The letter would not require any
one to contribute, but would just
PAC
give information about the
and its purposes.
Blair said that getting informa
tion to people is half the battle.
“I don’t think half a dozen peo
ple on campus know what is going
on in this thing,” he said.
One senator said at the Jan. 19
meeting: “We’re just asking for at
tention to the problem.”
The Texas Legislature last sum
mer, prompted by drops in oil
prices and state revenues, cut fund
ing for state colleges and universi
ties by 10.5 percent. A&M’s state
funds dropped 6 percent.
A Nov. 26 article in the Chroni
cle of Higher Education said:
“With so much at stake for the
colleges, higher education officials
have become much more politically
active. ... In addition to lobbying
for more money, the officials have
been forced to enter the discussions
about how the state should get
those funds. In the special legis
lative session this year, that placed
them in the position of arguing for
tax increases.”
Gov. Bill Clements has said he
absolutely opposes any tax increase.
He said this process began in late
1985 to early 1986.
While the final agreement has
not been signed, Hickman said it is
under development.
He said he anticipates no prob
lems in coming to terms with the
University.
Sander said the $24 million re
search center, which will be paid for
with money from bond sales, will
provide an important interface be
tween similar research at A&M and
the various parts of the Texas Med
ical Center.
The center also will provide sci
entific leadership and support for
both new and established Texas in
dustries in biotechnology and sup
port for outreach programs to
Texas citizens in areas such as how
nutrition relates to health.
The Texas Medical Center cov
ers 550 acres and is made up of 37
separate institutions.
To become part of the center
complex, an institution has to be
non-profit and must be devoted to
patient care, medical research or
medical education, Hickman said.
“When we buy land, such as the
property the hotel stands on, that
land will be parceled out free of
charge to those institutions that
qualify under the terms given, and
that would obviously make a great
contribution to the overall system,”
Hickman said.
He said the land the University
will occupy falls under those terms.
Sander said, “The key to success
will be in establishing internation
ally recognized scientific excellence
in six to nine areas that will comple
ment research both at the Univer
sity and the Texas Medical Center.
“These scientific areas will ad
dress major scientific problems rel
ative to biotechnology using a select
group of chemists, biochemists, bi
ophysicists, and molecular genetic
ists organized to address major sci
entific problems, rather than
support specific disciplines.
“Another important function of
the institute will be to provide op
portunities for College Station-
based scientists in biotechnology to
interact with their counterparts in
the Texas Medical Center.”
The tie between students and the
research center will largely be
through graduate programs,
Sander said.
“In addition to the research ac
tivities, which will be highly sup
portive of the biotechnology indus
try in Texas,” Sander said, “it is
believed that the institute will give
graduate students new and exciting
opportunities in the sciences that
support biotechnology.”
Sander said that at this time he
has no way of knowing what the in
stitute’s budget would be.
However, he said he thinks the
center will receive strong support
from the Houston business commu
nity.
Sander said he thinks that the
combination of research capabilities
available will allow all involved to be
more competitive for support from
federal agencies, the private sector
and private foundations.
Hickman said he feels both the
Houston business community and
the city government of Houston are
in full support of the proposal.