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3J Vol. 82 No. 191 USPS 045360 8 pages
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College Station, Texas
Thursday, August 6,1987
Iran has plan
to set missiles
at gulf targets
Emergency Medical Service technicians prepare to move Jorge Al
varez, a 22-year-old senior at Texas A&M, onto a stretcher after an
accident that occurred at the corner of Church and Tauber roads in
College Station. Alvarez suffered a broken leg in the accident that
Photo by Velia Velez
involved his motorcycle and a small pickup truck Wednesday morn
ing at about 9:30. Alvarez was taken to Humana Hospital and ap
peared to be in stable condition Wednesday afternoon. He said he
was on his way to class when the accident occurred.
Reagan in favor of cutting Contra aid
Nicaragua OKs cease-fire proposal
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Iran
said it launched its first submarine
Wednesday and would practice lock
ing missiles on targets in the Strait of
Hormuz, where commercial ship
ping traffic has fallen sharply.
Three Kuwaiti tankers due to be
escorted by U.S. warships through
the strait into the Persian Gulf have
arrived in the Arabian Sea, Penta
gon sources in Washington said.
None of the three will move into
the gulf on Thursday, as originally
planned, but at least some are likely
to steam into the waterway for Ku
wait next week, the sources added.
Meanwhile, the French aircraft
carrier Clemenceau and two other
French warships passed through the
Suez Canal into the Red Sea, appar
ently bound for the Persian Gulf re
gion, where the nearly 7-year-old
Iran-Iraq war has spilled over to at
tacks on commercial vessels.
Tehran radio said Iranian naval
maneuvers in the Strait of Hormuz
entered their second day, displaying
“the power and greatness of Islam
against world arrogance, in partic
ular against the mischiefs of plotter
America.”
The broadcast, monitored in Cy-
e rus, said Iran’s first submarine,
uilt by the Iranian Revolutionary
(Guards, was launched Wednesday.
Iranian news media gave no de
tails, but a Western military analyst
in London said it appeared to be a
small craft that could be used to
plant mines on ships.
“It’s not the sort of U-boat of the
movie theaters, but a little one-man
submersible job,” the analyst, speak
ing on condition of anonymity, said.
“It’s the sort of thing you would use
to attach demolition charges.”
The submarine report was re
ceived with skepticism by gulf ship
ping sources, who said the waterway
was too shallow for such a craft, as
well as being dotted with oil rigs and
submerged pipelines.
The Persian Gulf has a maximum
depth of less than 300 feet — usually
only 150 to 20 feet — and is too
murky in places for submarines to
operate, according to the shipping
sources, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Iran’s Islamic Republic News
Agency quoted Mohsen Rezaei, a
Revolutionary Guards commander,
as saying ground-to-sea and surface-
to-air missiles would be “locked”
onto “hypothetical targets” in the 44-
mile-wide Strait of Hormuz.
The United States has said it
would retaliate against any sign of
“hostile intent” by Iran.
fi
R WASHINGTON (AP) — President Reagan, in
apian he said had been worked out with congres
sional leaders, said Wednesday he would hold off
on seeking further military aid for Contra rebels
if Nicaragua’s government agreed to a cease-fire
and democratic reforms.
See related story> Page 8
H Reagan appeared briefly before reporters at
the White House, after meeting privately with
top congressional leaders, to announce a six-
point “general agreement” with a Sept. 30 dead
line.
S House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, said he
“earnestly hoped” for the plan’s success, but he
also said congressional leaders had given no
guarantees about future Contra aid if the plan
should fail.
■ “We’ve given the president no commitment
whatsoever,” Wright told reporters. “This is sur-
ically, antiseptically removed” from the issue of
lilitary aid for the rebels.
■ On the positive side, Wright read from a letter
from the Nicaraguan ambassador to Washing
ton, Carlos Tunnermann, and called the letter
cause for hope that the plan might be acceptable
to the Sandinistas as a basis for negotiations.
The letter said there were “several very posi
tive and interesting elements” in the plan, which
Wright had sent to the Nicaraguan government.
“The document contains elements we can work
with and that can be improved,” it stated.
Contra political leaders, after meeting with the
president, indicated that while they welcomed
the proposal and were willing to negotiate a
cease-fire, they would likely have reservations on
the proposal.
Another Democratic leader who met with Rea
gan Wednesday morning, Senate Majority
Leader Robert Byrd, told reporters that Demo
crats in Congress “support the effort but not the
document” released by the White House.
Among problems, he said, is the Sept. 30 dead
line that he termed “unrealistic” for completing
negotiations on the various military and political
issues outlined.
And Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole said
that the plan had enraged some conservative sen
ators, who contend the timing would slow the
Contras’ military momentum. Dole and Sen. Mal
colm Wallop, R-Wyo., led a delegation of conser
vatives to the White House to express their reser
vations.
Dole said Reagan was steadfast in intending to
pursue further Contra aid if the plan fails. Rea
gan aides had suggested in recent weeks that the
president might seek around $150 million for an
18-month period after the current aid runs out.
Secretary of State George Shultz, who accom
panied Reagan to the White House briefing
room and answered questions from reporters,
denied the plan was a ploy to set conditions that
the Sandinistas would turn down, thereby giving
the administration a go-ahead to push for a big
ger Contra military aid package.
“It’s not just a ploy, it’s a genuine effort,”
Shultz said. “The president believes that, the
speaker believes that. . . . We are going to make a
real strong effort here.”
The plan, seen as an attempt to show that the
administration is seriously interested in diplo
matic solutions and not just a military victory for
the Contras, calls for an immediate cease-fire in
Nicaragua followed by negotiations that would
be completed by the end of next month.
During that period, the administration would
refrain from seeking a congressional vote on re
newed Contra aid.
Once the cease-fire was in place, the United
States would immediately suspend Contra aid in
return for Nicaragua’s lifting its state of emer
gency and restoring civil rights and liberties.
Gunman shot killed
by Pentagon guards
after bolting past post
WASHINGTON (AP) — A gun
man was shot and killed Wednesday
when he charged past Pentagon
guards and ran toward the heavily
secured National Military Command
Center used by the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.
The FBI identified him as Dwain
Wallace, 30, of Youngstown, Ohio.
Pentagon sources who requested
anonymity said Wallace told the
guards he “wanted to talk to some
body about missiles” before he
bolted past the security checkpoint.
In Youngstown, friends and
neighbors recalled Wallace as having
seemed friendly and happy in high
school, where he was on the student
council, but said he recently had
been under psychiatric care.
“He never gave us a minute of
trouble until he got 19 years old and
we sent him to Dayton University,”
said Wallace’s mother, Doris. “And
that’s when he started having mental
problems. That’s when we found out
he had a chemical imbalance.”
The shooting occurred one floor
below and direcdy beneath the of
fices of Defense Secretary Caspar W.
Weinberger, who was meeting with
Secretary of State George Shultz and
Lt. Gen. Colin Powell, chief deputy
to White House National Security
Adviser Frank Carlucci, said Penta
gon spokesman Col. Marvin Bra-
man.
William Caldwell, another Penta
gon spokesman, and Susanne Mur
phy, a spokeswoman for the General
Services Administration, said Wal
lace was shot and mortally wounded
about 30 feet inside the building’s
River Entrance, at the mouth of a
corridor leading to the National
Command Center.
Two shots were fired by one of
the guards after Wallace bolted past
the security checkpoint and failed to
heed orders to halt, spokesmen said.
Pressures increase stress-related diseases
Law, medicine no longer best careers
4*' T:
By Jeannette Nicholson
Reporter
Students interested in pursuing a
Gtteer in either the medicine or law
profession may wish to reconsider
their options. Stress and stress-re
lated diseases in these professions
have risen at a tremendous rate in
the past two decades.
Professional-level stress
art one of a two-part series
he growing fear of malpractice
suits and the increasing costs of in
surance to protect doctors from
^-gflU'lthese suits has many of them run-
|ning scared. Approximately 10 per
cent to 15 percent of medical profes-
tiqnals at any given time have turned
'oldrugs — especially alcohol — to
Isue their stress, according to a
[ee-year pilot study by the Ameri-
Medical Association,
rom 1970 to 1983, the number
>fpracticing obstetricians and gyne-
;ists (ob/gyn) decreased, not be-
se women are having fewer ba-
but because the doctors can’t
rd to deliver those babies,
ccording to one study, “Dental
agement,” dentists have the
icst suicide rates among occupa-
groups. The reasons range
rom the struggle to obtain and
Saiintain a practice to constantly
laving to deal with difficult patients.
Lawyers’ case loads in the United
States have increased threefold in
the past 20 years, increasing lawyers’
burnout rates. And they too are feel
ing the pressure of growing mal
practice suits.
Concerning the medical profes
sion, Dr. Peter Olsson, a Houston
psychiatrist and past president of the
Houston Psychiatric Society, says
doctors’ legal problems are only a
matter of communication.
“I think the main problem is many
doctors are poor communicators,”
Olsson says. “They need to keep
communication lines open to avoid
lawsuits — especially malpractice
suits.”
But he doesn’t feel malpractice
suits are the biggest stress factors
physicians face.
“In psychiatry in particular,
there’s a unique stress,” he says. “We
deal with an area which is compli
cated. It has to do with emotions and
how powerful human emotions can
be. Human beings are, at least, par
tially irrational. This leads to a num
ber of prejudices against us — a lot
of primitive superstition and igno
rance of what we do.”
About half of his patients now are
physicians, he says, who come to be
treated for various marital and iden
tity problems — which he says are
some of the biggest causes of stress
among physicians.
“No one would recognize them,
including the hundreds of patients
who see them each day as physi- to “cloud his judgment,” says Love,
cians,” Olsson says. “They would who plans to become a general sur-
never be able to tell that their doc- geon.
tors had psychiatric tensions and “I don’t know about stress,” he
conflict. Family problems are a ma- says. “I don’t think there’s an ex-
jor issue with doctors.” traordinary amount of stress during
“We deal with an area which is complicated. . . . Hu
man beings are, at least, partially irrational. This leads
to a number of prejudices against us — a lot of primi
tive superstition and ignorance of what we do. ”
— Dr. Peter Olsson, Houston psychiatrist and past
president of the Houston Psychiatric Society
Accordirlg to an AMA study, doc
tors have a tendency to be pompous
and narcissistic, causing superficial
family relationships. Olsson says
doctors see themselves as “special
healers” who should be treated with
the same respect at home that they
get at work.
“By being too pompous, doctors
tend to disregard situations that
could lead to a lawsuit, or they be
come so overly defensive about a
lawsuit that they do ridiculous things
to protect themselves,” Olsson says.
Kevin Love, 21, a Baylor College
of Medicine student and a 1987
Texas A&M graduate, doesn’t be
lieve doctors are affected by stress as
much as Olsson thinks. A doctor
must remain objective in order not
medical school. I think first-year res
idents experience the most stress.
Somebody comes in and you’re just
starting out; you don’t know every
thing.
“However, once a guy becomes a
cardiovascular surgeon, he’s done it
(surgery) so many times, he’s pro
grammed to do it.”
That’s the problem, Olsson says.
He believes medical school should
go beyond the “technical, biological
and scientific” and teach commu
nication and some emotional in
volvement.
But Love agrees with Olsson in
that the growing number of mal
practice suits is a major concern and
a strong cause of stress.
“Whenever you see a patient, you
see an adversary,” Love says. “And
this certainly seems to be true, at
least among ob/gyns.”
Olsson says, “If you hold a doctor
who helps you deliver a baby ac
countable for every slight imperfec
tion that can go on in the complex
process of labor in a pregnancy . . .
well, that’s really silly.
“What happens is that a lot of ob-
/gyns are now saying they won’t
practice gynecology.
“In the state of Massachusetts,
there isn’t one practicing gynecolog
ist in the entire Boston area because
they just cannot afford the insurance
premiums.”
Texas insurance premiums aver
age approximately $40,000 per year.
But they can run as high as
$120,000, especially in other states.
Love says ceilings should be put
on the amounts of damages a plain
tiff can get because eventually every
one pays — including future pa
tients.
“To pay for their insurance, doc
tors will start charging more for
their services,” he says.
Olsson and Love both say it’s up to
the lawyers who handle the cases to
solve the problem.
“I think attorneys have become
completely conscienceless,” Olsson
says. “If they had ethics and matu
rity, they would limit their cases to
the legitimate and vital ones.”
North fights
authority
of attorney
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lt.
Col. Oliver North, returning to
the public eye, went to court
Wednesday to press his attack on
independent counsel Lawrence
E. Walsh’s authority to investigate
the Iran-Contra affair.
North, who testified at length
last month at the nationally tele
vised congressional Iran-Contra
hearings, is a target of Walsh’s in
vestigation into the possibility of
criminal wrongdoing in the sales
of U.S.-made weapons to Iran
and the diversion of some pro
ceeds to Nicaraguan rebels.
Defense attorney Barry Simon
told a three-judge federal appel
late panel that Walsh was operat
ing under an unconstitutional law
and an improperly conferred
parallel appointment by the Jus
tice Department.
He argued that Walsh’s assis
tants lack legal authority as fed
eral prosecutors and therefore
the independent counsel’s grand
jury investigation is “tainted.”
North, who appeared for
Wednesday’s two-hour hearing in
his Marine uniform, is appealing
U.S. District Judge Aubrey E.
Robinson Jr.’s ruling last month
that upheld the Justice Depart
ment appointment.
That March 5 appointment
was conferred to counter an ear
lier North challenge to the inde
pendent counsel law.