Texas A&M mm The Battalion J®ol.82 No.93 GSRS 045360 14 pages Colleae Station, Texas Friday, February 6, 1987 axi drivers report seeing Waite in Beirut BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Two i drivers said they saw missing lOStage negotiator Terry Waite alking in a southern Beirut suburb hursday with an escort of about 10 nmen and four turbaned Shiite oslem sheiks. Waite, the 6-foot-7 Anglican hurch envoy, was last seen by re- rters Jan. 20 when he left the Riv- ra Hotel in west Beirut to meet the dnappers of two Americans. Since en, Waite has not contacted the church or his family. ■ The taxi drivers, who spoke on | jtondition of anonymity, told the As- | iociated Press they saw Waite walk- png with his escorts in a street close to Hie Lebanese capital’s airport high way at about 3 p.m. Thursday. “I saw him smiling and waving his nd to onlookers as he walked. He wore a gray raincoat,” said one wit ness. “I stopped my taxicab to watch, but the escorts waved me away, shouting: ‘Don’t stop. Drive on.’ I did.” Waite wore a raincoat when he was last seen by reporters. Another taxi driver said he saw Waite at the same time in the same procession, smiling and waving his right arm to onlookers on the left side of the street. Both drivers work in the neigh borhood of the Riviera Hotel, where Waite stayed between his arrival in Lebanon on Jan. 12 and the time he dropped from sight Jan. 20. Waite came to Beirut to try to win the freedom of foreign hostages. A total of 26 foreigners, including eight Americans, are missing and presumed kidnapped in Lebanon. ers nun® d settler lements' budget reportedly targets igher education By Olivier Uyttebrouck pen-irEi Senior Staff Writer rt in tte' . j D | aa ,(lJg Describing Governor Bill Clem- •omnwe ems budget as “sketchy,” Bill Pres- pial, Texas A&M vice chancellor of state affairs, said Thursday that veral substantial higher education dget cuts have been proposed, ich of which would require special islation. The proposal calls for a $140.2 lion withdrawal from the Per- nant University Fund to be bud- ted for university research, Pres- ff Hi said. H But he doesn’t know if this would be a one- or two-year appropria- tipn. ■ The budget also calls for a $49.2 ■ ^Hillion cut in “special items” appro- J ■ Hiations, but doesn’t specify what ^^Hose special items are, Presnal said. ■ The budget also would eliminate $85 million the Legislature agreed H pay to Texas universities for Herestimates in the revenue uni- Hrsities would receive in tuition ■id other income, he said. iroup A&M’s share of this payment is around $6 million, he said, explain- ^Hg the payment as follows: '"'H During the last regular session, He Legislature calculated the higher education budget based on the overestimate of revenues. In September, during the second special session, the Legislature agreed to repay universities an amount between $32 million and $42 million for the miscalculation. Under the governor’s budget however, this payment would be eliminated. Presnal said he has requested a more detailed version of the pro- posed budget. The University had no immedi ate plans for responding to Clem ents’ proposal to draw money form the PUF, he said. “It’s not that we don’t take it se riously, but it’s not brand new ei ther,” he said. “This is the same issue that came up during the special session,” Pres nal said. In August, House Speaker Gib Lewis proposed drawing $1.1 bil lion from the PUF and the Perma- nant School Fund but the bill died in the House Appropriations Com mittee. Presnal said the proposed cut couldn’t be put into effect by pas sage of an overall appropriations bill.Instead, a separate bill would have to be proposed for each mea sure. Many are believed held by Shiite Moslem captors. The taxi drivers said that before Waite’s disappearance, they fre- quendy had seen him walking on the In West Germany, the mass-circu lation newspaper Bild quoted un identified “Beirut security circles” as saying Waite was shot and critically wounded after he tried to escape “I saw him smiling and waving his hand to onlookers . . . I stopped my taxicab to watch, but the escorts waved me away, shouting: ‘Don’t stop. Drive on.’ I did.” — Beirut taxi driver beach or traveling in a motorcade. “I haven’t the slightest doubt about his identity,” one driver said. “I know him and I saw him this af ternoon.” There have been a spate of con flicting reports about Waite. from captivity in Lebanon. The newspaper, in a report prepared for its Friday editions, did not say when the alleged shooting occurred or provide other details. Shiite and Druse militia officials in Beirut scoffed at the newspaper re port. “It’s absolute fantasy,” said one militia official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. Also Thursday, police and mili tary officials in Beirut renewed their denial of any U.S. military action anywhere in Lebanon, following ru mors that U.S. Marines were landing to attack Shiite guerrillas. “We have had no report of any such attack anywhere in Lebanon, yet,” a police official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity. The rumors were sparked by the presence of a flotilla of U.S. warships off Lebanon. Some Leb anese politicians and news media said the warships were ordered into the area to put pressure on groups holding foreign hostages. Two of those groups have threatened to kill their captives in response to an at tack. In Washington, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said no attack on Lebanon was planned. The Reagan administration an nounced the aircraft carrier USS Kennedy would begin a port call in Israel on Friday and that four of the Kennedy’s escort warships had been ordered to sail for home. The Washington sources said one of two Marine amphibious groups now in the Mediterranean soon also would be allowed to head home. “We’re dropping back a bit be cause our presence there is being blown out of proportion with ru mors of invasions,” one U.S. official said. Mid-jet Larry Batton, left, and Jeff Seippel take a look at a Wscale model of an F-16 that was parked near Rudder Fountain Thursday afternoon. Photo by Bill Hughes The model is part of an exhibit which was brought to campus by the Air Force Orientation Group from Dayton, Ohio. w Immigration hotline' experiment allows Social Security card check Two bills before Legislature seek to regulate abortions ristif! By Melanie Perkins Staff Writer In an effort to aid potential em- ers and prospective employees, e Social Security Administration las launched an “immigration hotli- ie,” which, if successful in Texas, nay be expanded nationwide. A six-month test of the hotline be- Hjan. 20 and is aimed at employ ers in the Dallas, El Paso and Corpus 3hristi areas. The program allows employers to receive telephone veri fication of the authenticity of Social Security cards. “For the new immigration law to function properly, employers must be able to hire with confidence and workers must be able to seek jobs without fear of discrimination,” said Sen. Phil Gramm, D-Texas, in a re cent news release. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act — the most sweep ing immigration law in years — con tains two primary issues. First, am nesty will be granted to illegal aliens who came to the United States be fore 1982 and have lived here con tinuously since then. Second, civil and criminal penalties will be im- osed on employers who knowingly ire illegal aliens. Under the latter provision, the See Hotline, page 14 Sandstone Center for Psychiatry to give B-CS more than 100 jobs 7