P 1^1 Texas A&M m m V •
The Battalion
Vol. 82 No. 178 USPS 045360 8 pages
1
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, July 15, 1987
Non-Smoking, Please
Brayton Firemen Training Field has almost 200 men visiting from 12
Latin-American countries, including Mexico, Venezuela, Guatemala
Photo by Sarah Cowan
and Columbia. Most of them are here to learn about oil fires in case
they encounter these types of tires on drilling rigs.
Bomb blasts
rock city, kill
63 in Pakistan
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Two
car bombs and two other explosions
killed at least 63 people and
wounded more than 300 Tuesday
evening, officials reported. The
blasts in a small area of downtown
Karachi were almost simultaneous.
Witnesses and officials said the
powerful car bombs blew passers-by
to bits, spattering blood on buildings
across the wide street. Police said
about 20 vehicles were destroyed by
the explosions and subsequent fires.
“The situation is very bad,” said
Dr. Abdul Karim, head physician at
the Jinnah Post-Graduate Hospital
in Pakistan’s largest city. “We have
declared a state of emergency in the
hospitals, and we don’t know what
the death toll will be.”
Karim and Dr. Abdul Maqquim of
Civil Hospital said they had received
a total of 63 bodies and 300 injured
people, many in critical condition.
They said numerous fragments of
bodies were not included in deter
mining the death toll.
No group claimed responsibility,
but the city government issued a
statement saying: “The explosions
appeared to be the work of sab
oteurs of foreign origin.” It did not
elaborate.
Terrorist bombings have killed
dozens of people in Pakistani cities
this year but these were the first in
Karachi, a city of 7 million with a his
tory of ethnic and political unrest.
Thousands of people gathered
outside hospitals. Appeals for blood
donors were broadcast through
loudspeakers.
Pakistan’s official media reported
two car bombs. Police and other wit
nesses said there also were two
smaller explosions, and all four were
within 200 yards of each other.
Police and soldiers cordoned off
the area in the city’s fashionable Sad-
dar district.
The car bombs exploded shortly
after 6:30 p.m. in front of two build
ings with ground floor shops and
three floors of apartments, police re
ported. They said a third bomb went
off at a bus stop and the fourth on a
nearby footpath.
Authorities in Pakistan routinely
blame bombings on agents of neigh
boring Afghanistan’s communist
government, which denies the
charges.
Pakistan aids and shelters Moslem
guerrillas fighting the government
in Kabul.
About 3.5 million Afghan refu
gees have come to Pakistan since So
viet military forces entered the coun
try in December 1979. About
115,000 Soviet soldiers now are in
Afghanistan helping fight the insur
rection.
There also has been speculation
that bombings this year have been
the work of Pakistani dissidents op
posed to the government of Prime
Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo,
who rules under the protection of
Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, the
president.
cFarlane offers rebuttal to North’s testimony
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lt. Col.
Dliver North concluded six extraor-
pinary days in the congressional hot
Scat Tuesday and was followed by
his former boss, Robert McFarlane,
J jvho called North's testimony “pas
sionate in delivery” but in major
areas untrue.
I North was dismissed with a decla-
■ation by the chairman of the House
■ran-Contra committee that his ac
tivities were part of a policy “driven
by a series of lies” that catapulted
President Reagan into his most se-
gfious crisis.
I “You said these hearings caused
Berious damage to our national in
terest,” Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind.,
said. “1 wonder whether the damage
was caused by these hearings or acts
which caused these hearings.”
I Although McFarlane asked for
the encore appearance to rebut
■North’s testimony, he said, “I don’t
pthink Colonel North would ever
Hnake a deliberate misstatement or a
Hie. l hat leaves only the possibilities
r of differing interpretations between
us.”
I McFarlane testified for three
Hiours without the cloak of immunity
f|that covered North. McFarlane’s
Huccessor, Rear Adm. John Poin-
j dexter, will testify when the hearings
tesume Wednesday.
I McFarlane said that in October
■ 985, North sent him some mem-
Htranda that “raised doubts about his
Hompliance with the laws. I in
structed him, in Colonel North’s
A&M officials offer views of North's testimony
By Kirsten Dietz
Senior Staff Writer
Lt. Col. Oliver North — hero,
presidential material, “fall guy” or
liar?
Since North began testimony be
fore the congressional Iran-Contra
committee, he has been called all of
these things.
Two Texas A&M officials con
nected with military studies say
North only followed his superior’s
orders when participating in one of
the many covert operations nec
essary to protect U.S. interest.
“I think if you’re going to point
the finger, you'll have to point it
higher than Oliver North,” Lt. Col.
Donald J. Johnson, assistant Corps
commandant, says.
Dr. Joseph CL Dawson, director of
A&M's Military Studies Institute,
says, “I really question his back
ground at being assigned the tre
mendous responsibility he was
given. He was a man out of his el
ement.”
North concluded six days of testi
mony Tuesday before the commit
tee, which is investigating the chan
neling of funds from Iran arms sales
to Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
Dawson says that, while it remains
to be seen if any laws were broken,
he believes North will be indicted
but not tried.
“A real problem at the base of all
this is that North was unaware of the
various shadings or interpretations
of various federal laws,” he says.
“Not being aware of breaking the
law or believing you’re not breaking
the law is not a defense. Even if
you’re unaware of the law, you can
be in violation of it, or even if you
misunderstand the law you can be in
violation of it.”.
Johnson and Dawson agree that
covert operations are nevcssui y and
inevitable.
“As long as there’s a world, there
will be covert operations,” Johnson
says.
But while covert operations are
supposed to be run within the law,
he says, “When the law applies, you
have to stay within the law. But the
law is not going to cover every situa
tion.”
Dawson says many people have
been suprised to learn that, while the
covert activities must abide by the
law, they do not have to abide by
U.S. policy. While many national
leaders have said one thing and
done another, he says, this instance
is surprising, considering the United
States’ bitter feelings toward Iran.
“For the administration to take
any action after publicly condemn
ing Iran was probably a mistake and
probably a bitter pill for the Ameri
can people to swallow,” he says.
B) law, the House and Senate in
telligence committees are supposed
to be informed of all covert opera
tions. They say they never were told
of the arms-for-hostages deal.
Dawson says this policy is “satis
factory,” but that the administration
can get away with informing the
committees after a short-term opera
tion by saying there was not enough
time to do so before the operation.
But this operation continued for
more than two years, and the admin
istration should have expected to be
criticized for failing to inform the
committees, he says.
Johnson says the policy of inform
ing the committees should not al
ways be followed, because fewer
leaks are possible when fewer people
know about the operation.
“There are times when certain
committees under certain circum
stances should not know what’s
going on,” he says.
words, to fix it,” meaning he wanted
compliance with the law.
He said North changed two pages
and McFarlane thought the episode
was ended bul that he later learned
the document was revised again
“without my knowledge and concur
rence.”
McFarlane said it was true that
“narrow and changing restrictions”
of the Boland amendment caused
changes in conduct of covert opera
tions “but this is a far cry from say
ing I and other members of the ad-
i ministration authorized what was
clearly beyond anyone’s power to au
thorize.”
And, he said — turning a North
phrase back — no plan existed to
make North the fall guy if the opera
tions were disclosed.
McFarlane said it would be in
character for North to have thrown
himself on a grenade to protect Mc
Farlane or his commander in chief,
but “Ollie North should not be the
fall guy or scapegoat or sacrificial
lamb for anyone.”
The former national security ad
viser wss the first witness to make a
reappearance at the televised hear
ings. He was questioned only by the
senators and representatives on the
committee, not by its lawyers.
As North’s appearance neared its
end, Hamilton, then Sen. Daniel K.
Inouye, the Senate committee chair
man, denounced North for his activ
ities in selling arms to Iran secretly,
then turning over some of the prof
its for use by the Nicaraguan rebels.
“It was painful to all of us to sit
here and listen to your testimony,”
said Inouye. “It was equally painful
that you lied and misled for what
you believed to be a good cause.”
Earlier in the day, after consider
able battling among the 26 commit
tee members, North was allowed to
give a version of the pro-Gontra
pitch he testified he had given more
than 100 times during his White
House tenure.
In his last moments under the hot
television lights of the Senate Caucus
Room, North had only a short part
ing statement thanking “the Ameri
can people who have responded
with their good wishes and their sup
port and their prayers.”
The confrontation between North
and Robert McFarlane, who for
merly was Reagan’s national security
adviser, was set up when McFarlane
asked to return as a witness to rebut
some of North’s testimony that in
volved him.
itatus on immigration
for Nicaraguan aliens
uncertain after 1 week
BAYVIEW (AP) — Nicaraguan
Itliens remain uncertain about their
Bmniigration status a week after a
Bederal order that apparentlv
granted political asylum to people
prom the Marxist Central American
nation.
Last Wednesday, Attorney Gen-
ral Edwin Meese III issued the or
der barring deportation and grant-
png work permits for qualified
icaraguans who fear persecution
pack home.
But on Tuesday, 79 Nicaraguans
lemained detained at the Immigra
tion and Naturalization Service’s de
tention camp in Ba) view, isolated on
the coastal prairie about 22 miles
north of the Mexican border.
| INS officials are waiting, as well,
f or further instructions.
“Out detention poliev is still the
tame until we get some additional
uidance from above,” said David
[Fumer, INS deputy chief director
for the South Texas district based in
Harlingen.
INS policy includes a bond,
usually of S1,000 or more. The alien
pays the bond and is released after
agreeing to appear before an immi
gration officer in the district in
which he chooses to reside.
“Many of us don't have money for
the bond and we're waiting to see if
they’ll let us get out without paving a
bond or maybe a reduced amount,”
said Manuel Salvador Aguilar, 26,
from Managua.
Salvador, whose bond was set at
SI.000, said he fears arrest if he re
turns to Nicaragua, because he left
the countrv illegallv.
Amador said he thinks the attor
ney general's order presents him an
unexpected opportunity
"We think it's magnificent, be
cause we consider that Nicaragua
has a communist svstem," he said in
Spanish.
Senate approves $5 billion tax hike;
business, individuals to split burden
AUSTIN (AP) — The Senate
voted Tuesday to raise Texans’
taxes by more than S5 billion, a
plan which backers said seeks to
split the burden between busi
nesses and individuals.
Left pending was another $669
million tax increase that would be
achieved by keeping the motor
fuels tax rate at 15 cents per gal
lon instead of rolling it back to 10
cents on Sept. 1.
“Nobody here wants to go
home and say yes, 1 voted for a
tax bill,” said Sen. Bob Glasgow,
sponsor of the tax measure. “But
. . . we have have got to raise this
monev; there’s no alternative. We
have got to keep the penitentia
ries open. We’ve got to have
health care."
After nearly seven hours of de
bate. senators voted 23-7 for a
lengths list of tax and fee in
creases — topped bv a S3 billion
hike in the state sales tax which
would raise the rate from 5‘/i
cents to 6 cents on the dollar.
“We have struggled with this
tax bill as best w ; e can,” Glasgow
said, reflecting the continuing
deadlock that blocked tax and
about a $5 billion tax hike, includ
ing the motor fuels increase, but
Clements has said he would veto
any increase larger than $2.9 bil
lion.
Glasgow said senators would
“Nobody here wants to go home and say yes, I voted
for a tax bill. But . . . we have have got to raise this
money, there’s no alternative. We have got to keep the
penitentiaries open. W T e've got to have health care. ”
— Sen. Bob Glasgow, sponsor of the tax bill
spending action throughout the
Legislature’s regular session that
ended June 1.
“What we have done is try to
write a tax bill, plain and simple,
that the House would accept in
some form and the governor
would accept,” Glasgow D-Ste-
phenville. said.
Lire House earlier passed
pass a motot fuels tax increase
later, after other budget issues
are resolved. The Senate passed a
similar fuels tax increase in the
regular session.
The tax bill which won appro
val Tuesdav would raise a total of
$5.25 billion and is headed for a
conference committee with the
House, Glasgow said.
As passed by senators, the bill
also would expand the sales tax to
cover motor vehicle repairs, in
terstate long distance phone calls
and custom computer software,
and would increase a variety of
fees, including those for drivers’
licenses and many professional li
censes.
It would have businesses pre
pay part of their 1990 corporate
franchise tax; charge businesses
for sales tax permits; raise the
motor vehicle sales-rental tax; in
crease the tax on cigarettes and
tobacco products; increase the
hotel occupancy tax and place a
surtax on the insurance premium
tax companies now pay, as well
administrative insurance services.
To improve the state’s cash
flow, the bill also would double
the current $7.75 auto safety in
spection fee. but make it good for
two years instead of one.