The Battalion
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Vol. 82 No. 186 CJSPS 045360 6 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, July 29, 1987
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Get Your Knees Up!
I Texas A&M offensive lineman Jerry Fontenot, a
junior aerospace engineer major, works out in pre
paration for two-a-days which start in August.
Photo by Sam Myers
“Two-a-days” is the name given to the workouts
that take place twice a day — once in the morning
and again in the late afternoon.
Meese says Reagan
‘surprised’ by affair
Official aives details of Iran-Contra inai
inquiry
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attor
ney General Edwin Meese III testi
fied Tuesday that President Reagan
“was quite surprised” last November
when Meese told him about the di
version of Iranian arms-sales profits
for use of the rebels fighting Nicara
gua’s communist government.
“He indicated he had not known
anything about this,” Meese told the
congressional Iran-Contra commit
tees.
In recounting five crucial days in
the affair, from Nov. 20 to Nov. 25
last year, Meese told of questioning
the principals, learning the details
and finally telling the president.
Testifying in calm, even tones at
the nationally televised hearings,
Meese also defended his preliminary
inquiry, even as he described the lies
and deceit that other administration
officials threw his way.
Meese interviewed Lt. Col. Oliver
North on Sunday, Nov. 23, as part of
a fact-finding inouiry. He testified
he did not immediately turn the in
quiry into a criminal investigation at
that time because he had no reason
to believe North had lied.
“At that point, we still hadn’t fig
ured out whether there was any
criminality involved,” Meese said.
On Tuesday, Nov. 25, he said, he
received a telephone call from chief
of staff Donald Regan indicating he
would ask later that morning for the
resignation of John M. Poindexter,
the national security adviser.
The eventual decision for Poin
dexter’s leaving, and for the firing of
North, Meese said, was the presi
dent’s.
After Poindexter’s resignation
and North’s reassignment back to
the Marine Corps, a special review
board would be convened “to make
recommendations to make sure this
kind of thing could not happen
again,” Meese said.
Meese and his assistants inter
viewed North one day after Justice
Department investigators found a
document in the National Security
Council aide’s files revealing the
Iran-Contra diversion plan.
“He was basically forthright,”
Meese said of North in the interview,
held on a Sunday afternoon in
Meese’s fifth-floor office at the Jus
tice Department. “He certainly
didn’t appear to be concealing any
thing.”
Kuwaiti officials plan
to load crippled ship
for trip back into gulf
KUWAIT (AP) — Kuwaiti offi
cials said Tuesday they expect to
send the crippled supertanker Brid
geton back down the Persian Gulf by
the weekend with a U.S. Navy escort
and a partial load of crude oil.
An official of the state-owned
tanker company, speaking on condi
tion of anonymity, said the U.S.
Coast Guard had given oral permis
sion to load the Bridgeton. A Coast
Guard spokesman in New York said,
however, that no decision had been
made about the tanker, which now
Hies the American Hag.
The Bridgeton hit a mine Friday
as it steamed toward Kuwait, under
the protection of three U.S.
warships, through waters in which
many attacks on ships have occurred
in the 7-year-old war between Iran
and Iraq.
In Washington, Pentagon officials
said Saudi Arabia has told the Navy
more mines are moored near Iran’s
Farsi Island, where the Bridgeton
was hit, and that some have been re
moved.
They said it was too early to say
how many mines might have been
strewn in the area, but one source
said the Saudis had located seven.
The sources, who spoke on condi
tion of anonymity, said “Navy units”
had begun a preliminary search of
the area in the previous 24 hours.
Pentagon officials said they were
almost certain the mine was planted
by Iran, which has denounced and
threatened the American convoy ef
fort.
Pentagon spokesman Robert Sims
said the United States assumes the
mine that damaged the Bridgeton
was planted in the channel shortly
before the convoy arrived.
A well-connected shipping source
said the loading of the 401,382-ton
Bridgeton probably would start to
day. Kuwaiti officials have said they
expect the Bridgeton and the
46,730-ton Gas Prince, which is trav
eling with it, to leave on Friday for
the three-day voyage south.
The Kuwaiti official said the Coast
Guard had approved loading
1,820,000 barrels of oil on the 1,200-
foot-long tanker, more than two-
thirds of its capacity, despite a large
hole in its port side. Four of its 31
compartments were flooded after
the mine exploded.
Coast Guard approval is needed
because the ship now is registered as
a U.S. vessel. The Bridgeton nor
mally carries 2.4 million barrels of
crude.
Texas politicians analyze impact of Hobby’s retirement
I AUSTIN (AP) — Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby’s
surprise announcement that he will leave
politics left Texas politicians analyzing the
impact Tuesday.
; • Democrats said Hobby’s retirement
leaves a void in their party, while a Republi
can official said the GOP has an even better
chance to capture statewide offices in 1990.
Iff “The game of musical chairs is about to
be played,” Comptroller Bob Bullock said.
“Now, who gets to sit in them remains to be
seen.”
T Hobby, who first won the lieutenant gov
ernor’s office in 1972, earlier this year indi
cated he would run for governor. But Mon
day he said he won’t seek any office.
■ Bullock, who decided in 1982 that he
would seek the 1986 gubernatorial nomi
nation and then changed his mind, said he
isn’t planning to run for governor. And he
said ne learned five years ago that an early
announcement can pose a hazard.
“Every move that you make after that
(announcement) is characterized as politi
cal, looked upon with skepticism,” Bullock
said. “It’s almost deceiving. If a man’s going
to be political, he’s going to be political
whether he’s announced or not.”
Hobby’s decision means that for the first
time since 1972, the Democratic Party won’t
have an incumbent seeking re-election as ei
ther governor or lieutenant governor.
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Bob
Slagle said Democrats have a number of
good prospects for both jobs.
“I think it’s very healthy that the party
has multiple candidates for governor and
lieutenant governor,” Slagle said. “It’s bet
ter to have 20 good candidates for six jobs
than no qualified candidates for those jobs,
like the Republicans.”
Because running for governor is expen
sive — Bill Clements and Mark White spent
about $24 million between them last year —
Slagle said the Democratic primary may not
be a free-for-all.
“We might find only two or three (candi
dates) because of the availability of funds,”
he said.
John Weaver, executive director of the
Texas GOP, said Hobby’s decision was good
news for Republicans.
“Hobby’s leaving the scene is almost the
end of a political era in Texas that dates
back generations,” Weaver said. “The only
one left is (U.S. Sen.) Lloyd Bentsen. As the
Democratic Party becomes more liberal, the
(Jim) Hightowers, (Jim) Mattoxes and oth
ers make the Republican Party that much
more attractive.
“For us, obviously it makes the gover
nor’s race and the lieutenant governor’s
race and most likely all other down-ballot
races winable and wide open.”
One Democrat who says he’s studying the
race, Attorney General Jim Mattox, was not
available to comment Tuesday, aides said.
But Mattox issued a written statement
Monday night that said, “I was not looking
forward to a race against Bill Hobby ... I
am relieved he will not be making the race.”
Land Commissioner Garry Mauro said
Hobby’s decision “creates a real vacuum.”
“It’s obvious Texans are going to be
looking for new faces and new leadership,”
he said.
Mauro, first elected in 1982, admits he
would like to run for governor someday.
But echoing the comments of other poten
tial candidates, he said it is too early to de
cide.
San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros,
widely considered a possible gubernatorial
candidate, said the next election is more
than three years away.
“It is far too early for a definitive com
ment now on my part,” Cisneros said.
State Treasurer Ann Richards, under
speculation as a possible candidate for ei
ther the governor s or lieutenant governor’s
races, was out of town Tuesday.
Another Democrat, Agriculture Com
missioner Jim Hightower, says he is looking
at two 1990 races — governor and U.S. Sen
ate.
ts
U.S., Soviet negotiators working
toward 3rd superpower summit
a stroneM
iamonds &
Inited State
mal, whidi iWASHINGTON (AP) — The
:;t between United States and the Soviet Union
a group “ made major strides Tuesday toward
, has dismi f a third superpower summit meeting
inds. The! that would bring General Secretary
s recovered Mikhail g. Gorbachev here in the fall
t not sold for talks with President Reagan,
mrus M But they did not resolve their dis-
s taken Sut pute over equipping West German
night besd missiles with American nuclear war-
| of this " heads, a major stumbling block to
:t, chief pd the first U.S.-Soviet arms control
tied the Ttagreement in eight years.
r" The steps toward a summit were
) have forin'taken almost simultaneously here
organi^and in Geneva, where U.S. and So-
ch Explotf® negotiators have been at work
atch heifC^n nuclear weapons reductions since
November 1981.
-American negotiator Maynard
f orm ally accepted Gorba-
*:hev’s latest proposal for a world-
I ban on U.S. and Soviet me-
iium-range missiles. At the White
jdouse, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater
n.m.) a^mnounced that Secretary of State
10 p.m.) ^ eor g e P- Shultz and Soviet Foreign
P Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze
,, vould meet in September,
einent) Both moves pointed toward a pre-
, «(Thanksgiving summit hosted by
tllcSv lelpgan for Gorbachev. It would be
Mir third meeting and mark the So-
iet leader’s first visit to America.
— Shultz and Shevardnadze would
^lave the double task of trying to re
solve whatever differences might
stand in the way of an arms control
accord by September and drawing
up a superpower summit agenda.
That usually takes about six weeks.
Gorbachev, who met with Reagan
in Geneva in November 1985 and in
Reykjavik, Iceland, last October,
1981 that all such missiles be
scr
wee
apped, Reagan said that until last
:ek “the Soviet Union had insisted
on what could have been a major
stumbling block.”
But Gorbachev agreed last week
to destroy the 33 triple-warhead SS-
20 launchers with a range of 3,125
“There is still much to do in Geneva, but I am heart
ened that the climate is now receptive to an historic
proposal of this type. ”
— President Ronald Reagan
made it plain during a Shultz visit to
Moscow last April that he wanted a
summit that produced results.
“Generally, without reason, I do
not go anywhere, particularly Amer
ica,” the Soviet leader said.
Once U.S. negotiator Glitman ad
vised the Soviets their latest offer
was acceptable, the White House
moved swiftly to dramatize the pro
gress — and to claim credit for it.
Reagan revised a scheduled
speech to a group of scientists and
businessmen to declare “the climate
is now receptive” to a historic accord
banning the U.S. and Soviet inter
mediate-range missiles.
Referring to his own proposal in
miles that the Soviets intended to
store in their Asian territories; and
50 SS-12 single-warhead launchers
with a range of 565 miles that also
are targeted on China, Japan and
South Korea.
Reagan said the United States had
reiterated its insistence that both cat
egories of medium-range missiles be
reduced to zero, and “we are pleased
that the Soviets now endorse both
concepts.”
Another key provision, however,
reflected American acquiesence to
Soviet demands. None of the Per
shing 2 and cruise missiles the
United States would withdraw from
Western Europe would be modified
into other types of nuclear wapons.
Nor can the U.S. rockets be turned
over to the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization allies.
“There is still much to do in Ge
neva, but I am heartened that the cli
mate is now receptive to an historic
proposal of this type,” Reagan said.
Fitzwater said, meanwhile, that
progess toward an arms control
agreement had improved the pros
pects for Gorbachev to visit Wash
ington.
“If you view arms control as a
process, ... it is an optimistic sign for
a summit,” he said.
Chief U.S. negotiator Max M.
Kampelman, in a government-spon
sored telecast to Western Europe,
also noted the progress and said “we
hope to proceed to final drafting” of
a missile-reduction treaty, which
would be Reagan’s first after 61/2
years in office.
But Kampelman sharply criticized
the Soviets for continuing to insist
on the destruction of American war
heads that would be placed on 72
Pershing 1-A missiles that are in
West German hands. He said the So
viets were being “mischievious” and
that “it’s not for us to decide whether
the Germans needs the missiles for
their own security.”
Houston airport gets
FA/Ys new computer
for air traffic control
HOUSTON (AP) — A new
computer system in the Houston
air traffic control center should
increase controllers’ capacity by at
least 50 percent and help warn of
near-misses in advance, officials
said.
The Federal Aviation Adminis
tration activated the $20 million
system Monday at Houston Inter
continental Airport. Officials said
the system would enable control
lers to handle at least 600 planes
at any time, compared to the pre
vious maximum of 400.
The new system eventually will
expand controllers’ ability to
warn aircraft of near-collisions in
advance, officials said.
At any given time, the Houston
Air Route Traffic Control Center
handles about 165 planes flying
within 367,000 square miles of
airspace over southern Texas, Al
abama, Mississippi and the Gulf
of Mexico.
The old system suffered from
occassional blackouts, which frus
trated the 300 controllers in the
Houston center, said C.R. Melu-
gin Jr., FAA chief in the South
west region.
YV'c had a failure several
months ago that shook us up a
whole lot, Melugin said.
Although the center’s radar
operated normally, controllers
took several hours to reload in
formation on each flight into a
backup computer, Melugin said.
He said the FAA is developing
a computer program to warn con
trollers if a small plane strays into
airspace around large airports
such as Intercontinental.
The system is a tremendous ac
complishment, said Jim Burnett,
the National Transportation
Safety Board chairman who has
warned of an erosion in flight
safety.
Burnett said the new system
should boost two major short
comings of the FAA — insuffi
cient computer capacity and the
lack of a collision alert system.
The new system is part of a
$12.2 billion 10-year program to
raise the safety level of the FAA,
he said. Houston is the second
center to receive the computer
system; the first was installed in
Seattle. The FAA plans to install
systems in 20 U.S. control cen
ters.