ink its j|
iiati
loval. I
:obegir ;
need fcl
The Battalion
|Vol.82 No.95 GSRS 045360 12 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, February 10, 1987
page 1|
ponsortfl
:tv Foui
the DP5l
licensed f
HotoroJ
certified j
Beirut terrorists extend
eadline for hostages
ould enti
tv strictli
icense,
he apt
‘d, and
rs
ember oij
problerij
t being pi
erate i
8, yoiiffil
gestandia
he said 1
y. Their,
u tobeif
ttter iimJ
■e should I
ds smik'l
driving 6
' exampit|
.’ehicleo)
innot dml
So Ifedj
ularmote
•r regular^
except
dels of b
motorot^
togetal
ling. ,
s in favottil
orcyie dr j
tompeteri'j
before li
ley belieiil
decrease I
nd accidtr
response to pleas from
5, their families, Leb-
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Mos
lem kidnappers said at their Monday
idnight deadline for killing three
merican hostages and an Indian
that they had extended it “until fur-
her notice.”
A handwritten statement in Ar-
bic signed by Islamic Jihad for the
iberation of Palestine described the
ecision as a
he hostages,
nese organizations and the Indian
overnment.
But the statement also said the
roup would retaliate for the “in
sult” by U.S. Secretary of State
eorge P. Shultz, who said the peo-
le of kidnapping-beset Beirut
have a plague.” It did not indicate
hat form the action might take, or
hether it could involve the hos-
fages.
The statement was delivered to
Jhe Beirut office of a Western news
ligency with a picture of Robert Pol-
hill, one of the hostages. Polhill,
frail-appearing and bearded, wear
ing a T-shirt and spectacles, was pic
tured looking into the camera with a
faint smile.
Hostage Alann Steen had said in
an earlier message Monday that the
hostages would die unless Israel
freed 400 Arab prisoners. He said
the captors would not reconsider the
death verdict or extend the dead
line.
“We will be executed at mid
night,” Steen, 47, of Boston, said in
the letter to his wife. It was accompa
nied by notes to their wives from the
two other kidnapped American col
lege teachers.
“Until then, if you do love us and
your hearts beat for us, put pressure
on Israel to show good will,” Steen
wrote. “Let Israel promise the orga
nization (of the kidnappers) to show
good will.
“Let Israel promise the organiza-
McFarlane in hospital
rom Valium overdose
naidf
I
TRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former
national security adviser Robert C.
McFarlane, who figured promi
nently in President Reagan’s clan
destine sale of weapons to Iran, was
nospitalized Monday for a Valium
Overdose that a broadcast report said
vas a suicide attempt.
McFarlane, 49, was admitted to
lethesda Naval Medical Center
about 9 a.m. CST. Hospital spokes-
nan Lt. Rus Sanford said McFarlane
vas in good condition.
Peter Morgan, one of McFarlane’s
jlawyers, said the former White
louse official had taken an over-
iose of the drug, a tranquilizer that
frequently is prescribed to relieve
anxiety disorders and tension result-
ag from stress.
CBS News, quoting unnamed, in
formed sources, reported that hospi-
al officials believed the overdose re
sulted from a suicide attempt. CBS,
Citing unnamed friends of McFar-
pane, also reported that he had been
iepressed and emotional recently.
Morgan, reached by telephone af
ter the report had aired, said he
would have no comment.
Presidential spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater noted that McFarlane is a
private citizen and said, “We don’t
liave any information on his condi
tion.”
Symptoms of a Valium overdose
can include sleepiness, confusion, di
minished reflexes, depressed blood
pressure or coma. Treatment in
cludes close observation and the ad
ministration of intravenous fluids,
according to medical reference
books.
The authoritative Physicians’
Desk Reference said that because
Valium use can result in physical or
psychological dependence, patients
should be monitored closely and
prolonged use should be avoided. It
was not known when McFarlane be
gan using Valium, a trade name for
the drug diazepam.
McFarlane is a former Marine
lieutenant colonel and combat vet
eran, which permits him to use the
Navy’s medical facilities near his
home in suburban Maryland.
tion plainly and officially that 400
Palestinian mujaheds (holy warriors)
will be free. Otherwise, we won’t be
alive after midnight.”
The statement at midnight said
the kidnappers found “certain posi
tive points” in remarks by Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres of Israel
about their demand for the release
of Arab prisoners.
Peres said Monday in Jerusalem
that Israel had not received a request
from the United States to free the
prisoners, and that “Israel won’t take
any initiative on its own.”
He declared on Sunday, however,
that Israel was willing to discuss tra
ding Arab prisoners for an Israeli
airman shot down in Lebanon.
The kidnappers’ midnight
statement also said its retaliation for
Shultz’ comment about Beirut would
“deter everybody from daring to at
tribute his own cancerous diseases to
the others.”
Shultz said in New York Sunday
that the “people of Beirut. . . have a
plague there. They’re isolating
themselves from the world, and the
world should isolate them.”
Steen’s three-page letter was de
livered eight and a half hours before
the kidnappers’ deadline to the Bei
rut office of a Western news agency
with a photograph of Steen.
It implied that an Israeli promise
would do and that the 400 prisoners
would not actually have to be re
leased Monday. .
In Washington, the Reagan ad
ministration position, as expressed
Monday by both White House
spokesman Marlin Fitzwater and
State Department spokesman
Charles E. Redman, was once again
to rule out concessions to terrorists.
Steen’s wife, students and officials
of Beirut University College, where
Steen and fellow educators Robert
Polhill, Jesse Turner and Mithilesh-
war Singh were abducted two weeks
ago, authenticated Steen’s hand
writing.
Steen is a communications in
structor; Polhill, 53, of New York
City, lectures on accounting;
Turner, 39, of Boise, Idaho, is a vis
iting professor of mathematics and
computer science; and Indian-born
Singh, 60, a legal resident alien of
the United States, is a visiting profes
sor of finance.
1111111
m.
Mr
a. I
T V
Down To Earth
Senior business administration major Rob Bonner
and senior education major Jill Hickok parachuted
onto the polo field Monday. Both are members of
Photo by Andrew Migliore
the TAMU Sport Parachuting Club. Members of
the club will be jumping again today at 10:45 a.m.
and at 11:45 a.m.
officials: Texas prisons to reopen again
\nnual Jol
amber of'f
cident I
State CtfS
an outslanfl
>sident olfe|
i.
ite starts
itorsarei
t should tfl
a part of j
tram's Wf
rare g
aont
HUNTSVILLE (AP) — Texas prison officials
Ssaid the system would reopen today to new in-
Imates as paroles dropped the population below a
jstate-mandated 95 percent capacity level.
At the same time, authorities warned the large
Inumber of inmates awaiting transfer from
Icrowded county jails would force the state system
quickly to close again.
“I’m thinking we’ll probably be deluged by a
[lot of people,” Texas Department of Corrections
ispokesman Charles Brown said Monday. “Say we
lopen today. We get a bunch in today. But we
|won’t have figures until Wednesday and we’ll
Istay open for business until 5 p.m. Wednesday.
We’ll probably be closed Thursday.”
The prison system closed last Wednesday for
the second time in a month.
Although some inmates have been released on
parole, none have been accepted since then, forc
ing some crowded county jails to put mattresses
on floors for prisoners.
Monday’s count of prisoners — taken at mid
night Friday — showed the system at 94.80 per
cent of capacity, or 81 beds under the limit, said
Sarah Dunn, a prison spokeswoman.
“We’re open in the morning, then we’ll see
how many we receive,” she said.
She said about 117 inmates were slated for re
lease Monday, meaning the system would have a
cushion of about 180 inmates heading into today.
Prisons remained closed Monday on the basis
of Thursday’s count, which showed the 26 units
held 38,412 inmates, or 95.06 percent of capac-
ity.
About 136 prisoners were paroled Friday and
about another 58 were expected to be released
Monday, Brown said.
The shutdown last week included Thursday,
traditionally a busy day for prison admissions
from the state’s most populous counties. Tuesday
is normally a busy day also, Brown said.
A state law adopted in 1983 requires the cor
rections department to stop accepting transfers
from county jails until enough inmates are re
leased to bring the population below the cap set
by a federal judge.
Sandinistas, Contras
violate human rights,
new study charges
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-
backed rebel forces in Nicaragua
carry out “selective but systematic
killing” of perceived Sandinista gov
ernment sympathizers and routinely
kidnap civilians, including signifi
cant numbers of children, a human
rights group said Monday.
The Nicaraguan government,
meanwhile, although it generally re-
acticesit*!
Dm,
or more*
Afghanistan’s development,
lecline traced by speaker
Student service fees, SCONA
lead MSC Council meeting
iy fields!'
1.10,7 pH]
urs.,Fe^ 1
captains ( |
Thurs,,
nthe
ffs begin
Part
)ountry^
food
Feb,'
By Melanie Perkins
Staff Writer
Though Afghanistan throughout
history has been a war-torn culture,
j Afghans had never fought a modern
var until the invasion of the Soviets
April 27, 1978, said Rosanne
Uass, director of the Afghanistan
Information Center and vice presi
dent of the Afghanistan Relief Com
mittee.
Klass’ presentation, sponsored by
the MSC Jordan Institute For Inter
national Awareness, gave a detailed
history of Afghanistan and its cultu-
jal development and subsequent de
fine to a group of approximately
three dozen people Monday in Rud
der Tower.
“They (the Afghans) have never
fought a modern war,” Klass said.
jThey fought with troops who grew
up on a battlefield — when men
went out and fought each other.”
She said the people of Afghani-
tan weren’t prepared, because they
missed World Wars I and II, many
were uneducated and all of their
aders were executed in the first
months after the invasion. They had
to learn how to fight and sometimes
liey didn’t know what to do with
kinds, booby traps disguised as toys,
he
11
Photo by Dean Saito
Rosanne Klass
weapons, she said, so they didn’t use
them well.
“They never saw women and chil
dren bombed,” Klass said, “They
never saw torture chambers. They
never saw any of this — napalm, poi
son gas, chemical weapons of all
doused with gasoline and set on fire
or buried alive.”
Klass said Afghan people, who are
a combination of many ethnic and
linguistic groups, were beginning to
have a sense of nationhood when the
Soviet invasion began, and since the
invasion, they have become more
welded together.
She said Afghanistan used to be a
main artery of corrimerce between
Europe, the Mediterranean, China
and India before Magellan sailed
around the world, making the over
land routes in Afghanistan virtually
obsolete.
“That began its decline and its
stagnation into a backwater of the
modern world,” Klass said. “It was
only in the 2()th century or the mid-
20th century that the restoration be
gan.”
Then came the Soviet invasion,
another halt to progress.
“If Afghanistan is remote today to
us, it was not always remote,” Klass
said. “And it is not remote today ei
ther because it remains what it has
always been — the road from Cental
Asia to the Indian Ocean.”
By Carolyn Garcia
Staff Writer
Texas A&M students will find
out Wednesday if the student
service fees they pay will have to
go up to support growing de
mands by campus organizations.
Brian Banner, vice president
of the Student Senate, told the
MSC Council members that the
issue will be addressed at the next
Student Senate meeting.
“We’ll find out Wednesday if
student service fees will have to
go up,” Banner said.
Students currently pay $61 per
semester in student service fees.
Also on Wednesday, this year’s
Memorial Student Center Stu
dent Conference on National Af
fairs gets underway, but absent
from the event will be any Rus
sian speakers.
Sandra Goerking, chairman of
SCONA, told the council that in
vitations to all potential speakers
were sent out in September.
SCONA received the Russian re
last week, but all the positions
ad been filled, Goerking said.
“We’re really disappointed we
had to turn away the Soviet
Union,” she said. “It would have
been fun to have them here, espe
cially since we’re going to have
some heated debates.”
Goerking also said that the
number of schools participating is
down this year.
“We are down 10 from last
year,” she said. “It’s because of
the budget problems.”
Although SCONA had more
than enough applicants for its
speaker positions, another por
tion of the MSC — the MSC
Council itself — has 37 adminis
tration positions left to fill, and
today is the last chance to com
plete an application, Council
President Bobby Bisor said.
Among the multitude of posi
tions open are vice presidents for
recreation, cultural programs
and entertainment.
“At the first orientation (to
night) of this round, students can
fill out applications,” Bisor said.
“An applicant must be present at
both orientations.”
During Monday’s meeting, the
Council went into closed session
and filled six vice president posi
tions.
To alleviate the crowded con
ditions of the student programs
area, the Council is hoping to get
See Council, page 12
spects the laws of war, mistreats pris
oners, doesn’t guarantee due proc
ess and has put unwarranted limits
c>n freedom of the press, the group
reported.
The 166-page study was prepared
by Americas Watch, a liberal New
York-based human rights monitor
ing group, on the basis of a series of
fact-finding missions last year.
It is the 10th report by the group
on Nicaragua since 1982 and covers
February 1986 to December 1986.
Americas Watch, which often has
drawn sharp criticism from U.S. of
ficials, accused the Reagan adminis
tration of unfairly portraying the
Sandinista government in the most
negative terms while turning a blind
eye to abuses of the Contras.
“No attempt whatsoever is made
to moderate such portrayals in the
light of actual performance,” the re
port said.
State Department spokesman
Charles Redman had no comment
on the report, saying department of
ficials had not seen it. The adminis
tration’s own annual human rights
report is expected to-be released in a
few days.
Americas Watch Vice Chairman
Aryeh Neier told a news conference
the report did not specify whether
the Sandinista government or the
Contras were responsible for the
most abuses. To take such a stand,
he said, would tend to diminish the
abuses of the side deemed less guilty.
But the report leaves the impres
sion that the most serious rights
abuses were committed by the Con
tras. Last week. Assistant Secretary
of State Elliott Abrams said the
Sandinista government is carrying
out a “reign of terror” on Nicara
guan citizens.
The Americas Watch report calls
for an end to U.S. funding of the re
bels on grounds that such support
“associates the U.S. government with
a pattern of gross human rights
See Contras, page 12