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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 1987)
3SS OS 'e$ The Battalion Vol. 82 No. 190 CJSPS 045360 6 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, August 5, 1987 Iran: Gulf manuevers 'ler m (M ; ; r train suicide squads »nd —u[.. 'as victiuilfeMANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Iran own wild Tuesday its war games in the Hrrow Persian Gulf gateway were led on itraining su i c id e squads to attack U.S. ihort$tof;|rarships with speedboats converted e Mahlt’into bombs. Most commercial ships indGh;»teered clear. load i|]( One shipping official said “almost iito ships” were making the east-west to scon journey through the Strait of Hor- Ul MahlcHiu/ from the gulf, where Iran and with Bas Iraq have been at war since Septem- singled i; bcr 1980. id. i,’ |Traffic in the other direction, into stros'blBp southern end of the gulf, was re- [roundot: ported down by one-third to half, sixth,bm Another shipping agent said a hings e; ?jpanicky” reaction caused sharp re- h capp«; ooctions in sailings after reports, ap parently exaggerated, that Iran had blocked shipping channels in the ten a 2-t : Strait. i last-mis Hormuz is 44 miles wide, with Ira- Jim Dt nian territory on the north shore Ider si and Oman on the south, up, on i Iran’s official Islamic Republic ionjame News Agency quoted Cmdr. Mo- ‘t—andi hammad Malekzadegan as saying: Mahler:: “Iran’s naval forces are fully pre pared to take revenge on the United upsixbi! States and its criminal accomplices 1 two ami for shedding the blood of innocent lehadlo pilgrims.” of his Iasi His reference was to the deaths of hundreds of Iranian pilgrims in bat tles with Saudi Arabian riot police Friday in the Moslem holy city of Mecca. Iran says police shot them down. The Saudis say the pilgrims were trampled to death or killed in riots. At the United Nations in New York, Iran circulated a letter accus ing U.S. warplanes patrolling the gulf of violating Iranian air space July 11. It said “any unlawful pro vocative act by the United States” would have “very dangerous conse quences.” Iran began three days of naval maneuvers in the strait, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman at mid night Monday, telling all foreign ves sels and aircraft to stay out of its wa ters. The reflagged Kuwaiti tanker Gas Prince and its U.S. Navy escort passed through the strait out of the gulf a few hours before the starting time. On Tuesday, the Pentagon offi cially professed a lack of concern about the Iranian maneuvers, but several ranking officials said pri vately the next Navy convoy proba bly would not sail until next week. There had been reports that one would start north on Thursday. Iranian television showed dozens of speedboats docked at a port and others cruising in the Persian Gulf, with crews manning heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Volunteers on shore waved a huge banner that said in Farsi, the Iranian language: “Persian Gulf of Iran, Graveyard of Reagan.” Jeeps and bulldozers moved be hind earthen barriers built along the coastline. Flares and tracer bullets were fired at night. The crackle of auto matic and anti-aircraft fire could be heard. A commentary on Tehran radio said “martyrdom-seeking” volun teers “have become quite capable of approaching U.S. warships in their fast boats and dealing deadly blows.” Among Iran’s weapons are “speedboats loaded with explosives” that would ram their targets in sui cide attacks, the radio said. Malekzadegan, the naval officer, was quoted as saying Iranian missile systems were prepared to counter any American action. rfeld and ip. Smitl after put prising it e Brave s by Ke: Moslems end pilgrimage to holy city MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — More than 2 million Moslems “stoned the devil” Tuesday in the climax of their pilgrimage to this holy city, and Iran said the Satan they struck was the United States. Saudis officials claimed Iran had plotted to take over the Grand Mosque, lock hundreds of thousands of pilgrims inside and force them to swear fealty to Aya tollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s revolutionary patriarch, as leader of the world’s 850 million Mos lems. Soldiers and army helicopters shadowed 157,000 Iranians who joined pilgrims, called hajjis, from 122 other countries in ston ing the three Devil’s Pillars on th<. Plain of Arafat 16 miles from Mecca. Each pilgrim threw seven stones at each pillar. A Saudi newspaper, Okaz, quoted official sources it did not identify as saying only one-fourth of the Iranians who came for the hajj were real pilgrims. It said the rest were Revolu- onary Guards, “suicidal volun teers” or “revolutionary genera tion” fanatics. A Tehran radio broadcast said: ‘The Saudi killers and their insti gator America, the great Satan, will not escape Islamic punish ment. Today, the hajjis stone the evil. . . . the real devil to be stoned and burned is America nd its lackeys.” Moslems believe the site of the Devil’s Pillars is where Satan tempted Abraham to refuse the sacrifice of his son Ishmael as d commanded. God provided a huge ram that Abraham sacri ficed instead, according to the ightingi HCoran, Islam’s holy book. )y$ 1980s-:. r ends. ? can M develop: ve an»: n’t malti 3ne if »| ss upon a goodlti er or inali Irysaidb oach. eat chain ■y said.'O ameyei o, altooi 'ederain- Fairness Doctrine scrapped by FCC in unanimous vote WASHINGTON (AP) — The fairness doctrine requiring broad casters to present all sides of contro versial issues became history Tues- day when the Federal Communications Commission voted to abolish the 38-year-old policy. In a move that shifts the battle over the issue to Congress, the FCC voted 4-0 to scrap the doctrine on the grounds it is unconstitutional and unnecessary and hinders broad cast coverage of important issues. “Because we believe it will serve the public interest, we seek to extend to the electronic press the same First Amendment guarantees that the print media have enjoyed since our country’s inception,” said FCC Chairman Dennis R. Patrick. Reaction from consumer groups was swift and congressional support ers of the doctrine promised quick action in the House and Senate to overturn the commission’s disman- ding of the policy and enact the doc trine into law. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Com mittee, branded the FCC’s action “wrongheaded, misguided and illog ical. “The fairness doctrine protects and preserves freedom of speech of the American public at large, by pro viding the only means for many in the public to be heard,” Hollings said in a statement. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader said the action marked “both the FCC’s darkest hour and the begin ning of its greatest repudiation.” Broadcasters have long opposed the policy as an infringement of their constitutional right to free speech. They also say stations’ fear of running afoul of the doctrine has inhibited coverage of controversial issues. Supporters of the doctrine, in cluding members of public interest groups who held up “Save the Fairness Doctrine” signs during the FCC’s meeting, say the policy assures that minority viewpoints are aired by television and radio stations. Earlier this year, Congress passed a measure to make the fairness doc trine a law, but President Reagan ve toed the bill in June. Congressional supporters of the doctrine have been unaole to gather enough votes to override the veto. The FCC’s action to end enforce ment of the doctrine came on a law suit brought by the Meredith Corp., a broadcast group based in Des Moines, Iowa, after the commission found that Meredith’s Syracuse, N.Y., television station had violated the doctrine by airing a series of ad vertisements advocating construc tion of a nuclear power plant. A federal appeals court remanded the case to the FCC and directed the agency to consider Meredith’s con stitutional arguments. In its reconsideration of the case, the FCC determined the doctrine vi olates the Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees of free speech. The FCC’s action does not apply to the provisions of the law requiring broadcasters to give candidates for the same office equal access to the airwaves. Danny Fotenot, who works for Landmark Restora- bricks that will match the rest of the bricks of don, is replacing the bricked-in windows with new Hart Hall. Homosexual student urges others to By Yvonne DeGraw Staff Writer “What if. . . ?” I’ve been taught to ask lots of questions. Who? What? When? Where? Why? But the full impact of “What if. . .” hit me last week. A male student walked into the newsroom with a letter to the editor. He looked like hundreds of other _____________ Aggies, but the letter he car- ViewpOint ried was differ- ent. His eight- page letter had no signature. “John” wanted to re main anonymous. Page two of The Battalion says each letter to the editor must be signed, so we couldn’t print the let ter. But John had something impor tant to say. His letter began, “I was tested.” John is homosexual, and he had just been tested for AIDS. He is concerned that many homo sexuals are choosing not to be tested for AIDS. I talked to him for almost an hour behind the closed doors of the edi tor’s office. I never learned his full name. John said he has been homosexual for as long as he can remember. It wasn’t always an easy thing for him to deal with. He was engaged to a woman at one time, but it was frus trating to deny what he felt, he said. be tested By all rights, he should be happy now. He said he has found the man with whom he wants to spend the rest of his life. They’ve been dating for six months and plan to continue living together after they graduate this month. “It almost sounds like you are ri diculing the situation to say we are married, but that’s how I feel,” he said. But John has worried about ac- ? [uired immune deficiency syndrome or the past three to four years. “I think everyone worries about it to some degree,” he said. “I’m not sure I’m really in a high risk group. They always say homosexuals with multiple partners (have the highest risk), but that isn’t my case at all.” In fact, he said the reason he wants to remain anonymous is not that he is ashamed of being homo sexual. Instead, he doesn’t want peo ple to get the impression that he worried about AIDS because he was promiscuous. But the spectre of the disease was never far. John knows three people who have dfied of AIDS and two who are dying. Those “What ifs . . .” kept crop ping up for John. “What if I have AIDS?” he asked himself. “What if I gave it to some one I love? What if I die? What if I kill him?” At first glance, it seems easy to stop asking these questions — just for AIDS get tested for the HTLV III virus that causes AIDS. At least eight clin ics in the Bryan-College Station area either perform the test or send blood samples to another lab. But John said many homosexuals decide not to be tested for the virus. “I don’t think you ever want to know when you are going to die,” he said. “Even when you are 80, you still don’t want to know when it will happen. Of the 40 homosexual males he knows well enough to know whether they have been tested, he said only he and his partner have been tested. They, too, decided not to be tested at first. “We did not want to know that we were going to die,” he wrote in his letter. “We were going to be together anyway for what we perceived to be the rest of our lives, however long or short that was, so it didn’t matter,” he explained. “If one of us had it we figured we both had it. We were both either going to live or become sick and die, we thought.” Now John believes differently. He said no matter what the results, it is better to know than to live with the fear. Both he and his partner tested negative; they don’t have the dis ease. u It was his relief at learning this See Homosexual, page 6 not H hinkan I son said' ild be • TV executives hesitate to air condom ads icavywen' *2 By Kathryn McMinn nd spin Reporter J. Thai* Condom advertisements may weight f soon be making regular television appearances, but many health care : lcer said experts worry that the commercials toil! heighten public fear of AIDS , in the [ rather than stir up awareness of pre- Ve had cautions to take against the disease, thing ah 1 ; Local media executives hesitate to run the ads because they fear the ex- i knockf'Plicit nature of the material won’t be Tysonreadily accepted in the Bryan-Col- s won allege Station community. > ut ’ i goodry “Although our station doesn’t en- ignt haf counter many ads we don’t run, as of Hehasio Ur p resen t situation, our corporate nds ^policy of this station is not to accept . He f these advertisements,” said Todd hope ^Carroll, sales manager for KBTX- her ” TV in Bryan. ’ Tillis* * * A presentation from a condom lith are producing company was made to the ,ne the station to show what type of com- jjaercials were being proposed, but iatch is “Carroll said the station’s directors ^avywedidn’t think the it was ready to han- ile condom ads. “There are no written guidelines as to what type of commercials are accepted by the station; it’s more a subjective-type thing,” he said. “We must remember, however, that we’re helping these industries sell their products so we don’t want to asso ciate our station with anything the Reactions to TV condom ads Part two of a two-part series community might not be ready to handle. “I think the commercials defi nitely would raise some eyebrows. It’s a pretty conservative town, and I’m sure there would be objections from many community leaders. We get objections when the Contra hear ings are bumping the soaps; we would definitely hear about these ads.” Television stations don’t take re sponsibility for advertisements, but they are, nonetheless, the medium through which most of the com plaints are filed. “The individual business has the ultimate responsibility as to what these ads promise and portray, but we generally take the business at their word,” Carroll said. “For some thing like condoms, I think we’d get negative responses, but I also think there would be those pro to these commercials.” The birth control issue is what Carroll believes many of those op posed to these ads are afraid of, more so than AIDS. “By airing these ads, maybe it will force the issue of birth control to those parents who are hesitant to discuss it with their children,” Car- roll said. “Putting the moral issue aside, I can’t think of anything more horrid than unwanted pregnancies or contracting AIDS because of a lack of knowledge.” According to an article in the May 12 issue of the New York Times, the first condom commercials were funded by the New York City Health Department, which now is promot ing a fund-raising drive to raise $6 million from corporations to buy air time and advertising space. For now, condoms are being ad vertised on television with no brand names being used. But condom sales probably will become selective, even tually airing brand names. Newsweek estimated that the con dom market is worth more than $300 million a year, with about 80,000 sold daily. The Minneapolis-based Mentor Corp., which produces a line of health care products, recently added condoms to its product line. Product manager Jane O’Meara said, “Our company started devel oping the product four years ago when AIDS wasn’t that much of an issue. We had a trial market in No vember of 1985 and the condoms have been a national product for one year now.” AIDS didn’t prove a primary fac tor for Mentor’s decision to add con doms to its line, though, O’Meara said. “Medical research and the relationship between condoms and our other medical products made it seem like a logical step to follow,” O’Meara said. Mentor has targeted their product toward heterosexual women. “Our magazine ads are aimed at single, educated women between the ages of 22 and menopause, because it is estimated through our initial re search that 40 to 70 percent of the product is bought by this market.” Although Mentor has not devel oped advertisements for television for its condom line, O’Meara said the company would before the end of the year. “The problems we seem to be fac ing with commercials are the time slots offered by the television sta tions, which occur at 11 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., the limits placed on ad content, and the refusal of certain stations to take commercials,” she said. The viewer objections were the primary reasons why the stations would not air the commercials, O’Meara said. “If we do produce a commercial for our condoms, we will not use fear tactics to try and increase sales,” she said. “Fear tactics will not have a positive affect on viewers no matter what products you are promoting. By putting the issue on television and bringing it into the home, how ever, the message can be more widely spread.” Some of the main concepts O’Meara said Mentor would stress in its commercials would be product awareness and public education about birth control. The AIDS issue would not be one of the primary fac tors in its advertisements. “As far as condoms are concer ned,” she said, “I would rather see for our company a public service- type announcement with a slug on the end saying it was sponsored by our company. “I think the community would more readily accept this type of ad vertisement and benefit from it as well.”