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Vol. 82 No. 193 CJSPS 045360 6 pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, August 11,1987
exaco supertanker
it by mine near gulf
imem
1987 llANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — An
(Halfwjj-
erican-operated supertanker
ed with Iranian oil hit a mine
just outside the Persian
m NQhtJtQulf, and three reflagged Kuwaiti
hips were reported moving slowly
oward home under U.S. Navy es-
a.m.
■ran says the gulf will be “full of
■es” until the superpowers quit in-
wening in the region, where Iran
ind Iraq have been at war since Sep-
Bber 1980. Iran declared Monday
f ou,d turn ^e waterway into a
^’^Bling field for the aggressors.”
■rag’s warplanes bombed Iranian
)il installations for the first time in
jieirly a month. It said Iran had vio-
ated the U.N. Security Council’s
w 20 cease-fire resolution and de-
icrved “back-breaking, painful
extra
Club
vs.
[he 247,347-ton Texaco Carib-
|n loaded a full cargo of oil at
i’s Larak Island terminal, said
|yd’s Shipping Intelligence in
idon. The tanker had passed out
I the gulf through the Strait of
lormuz and was approaching an
"jhorage in the Gulf of Oman
vhjen it hit the mine.
Shipping sources and Texaco said
the supertanker was holed about a
yard below the water line and some
oil was leaking, but no one was in
jured.
Some marine executives specu
lated that the mine drifted down
from the strait, where Iran com
pleted four days of naval maneuvers
code-named “Martyrdom” on Fri
day, but a shipping official based in
Kuwait said it probably was moored
to the sea floor. He said coastal cur
rents move toward Hormuz in this
season rather than away from it.
Pentagon sources in Washington
said the three Kuwaiti tankers and
their Navy escorts were moving
north — “taking it slow and easy,” as
one put it — after anchoring over
night off Saudi Arabia, about 200
miles from Kuwait.
Brent Sadler of the British tele
vision network ITN said in a tele-
E hone report from a chartered boat,
owever, that the U.S.-Kuwaiti con
voy had not moved by dusk. He said
the tankers’ lights were visible but
the U.S. warships were blacked out.
Sources who monitor ship
movements in the gulf said they
could not confirm the convoy had
sailed.
The Texaco Caribbean struck the
mine about eight miles northeast of
Fujairah, a port in the United Arab
Emirates, and about 30 miles south
of the Hormuz entrance. It
anchored off Fujairah afterward.
It is owned by Lexington Tank-
ships Ltd., a subsidiary of Texaco
Panama Inc. At Texaco’s headquar
ters in White Plains, N.Y., spokeswo
man Anita Larsen would not con
firm that the cargo was Iranian oil.
The company said the tanker was
under a “single-voyage” charter to
the Norwegian shipping and trading
company Seateam and “under or
ders to proceed to northwestern Eu
rope with a cargo belonging to that
company.”
This was the first known mining
incident in the busy Gulf of Oman
tanker anchorage, a resupply and
staging area for ships entering and
leaving the gulf. The U.S. Navy uses
it as an assembly point for convoys of
Kuwaiti tankers sailing under the
American flag.
Sources at Fujairah said the Tex
aco Caribbean left Larak early in the
morning and was maneuvering to
anchor when the explosion oc
curred.
ormer student killed,
> officer injured in wreck
By Kirsten Dietz
Senior Staff Writer
I
ety
nllei
igating the two-car accident which killed a former
Jexas A&M student and injured a College Station po-
■ officer Sunday night, a DPS spokesman said Mon-
iay.
; Scott Alan Russ, 21, formerly enrolled in the general
Judies program at A&M, was pronounced dead after
icing taken to Humana Hospital, said Sgt. Gary Norton
)f the College Station Police Department. His body was
aken to Rockport, and funeral services were held this
norning at the Marshall-Ramey Funeral Home chapel.
College Station Officer John Gargotta, 22, was re-
itased from Humana Hospital Monday morning after
Jeing treated for abrasions and bruises, Norton said.
He said Gargotta was kept overnight to check for possi-
)le internal injuries. It h ’>elieved that Gargotta also
itressed a neck vertebrae, Norton said. He said Gar
gotta is not incapacitated, but will not be in service for a
while.
The two vehicles collided after Russ’ car left a gas sta
tion on the corner of Texas Avenue and Deacon Drive.
The patrol car driven by Gargotta was heading north
on Texas Avenue responding as backup to another offi
cer, Norton said.
Sherry Nesbitt, an administrative assistant at the De
partment of Student Affairs, said Russ was last enrolled
at A&M during the fall 1986 semester. She said A&M’s
Student Information Management System lists him as
having been enrolled in the general studies program,
but no classification was on record. Nesbitt said Russ
will not be included in September’s Silver Taps cere
mony.
Norton said the DPS is investigating the accident be
cause a College Station patrol car was involved. A DPS
spokesman said no details of the investigation can be re
leased until the investigation is complete.
Navy pilot
fires missiles
at Iranian jet
I WASHINGTON (AP) — A
Navy F-14 jet fighter fired two
ijilissiles over the weekend at a
suspected Iranian jet fighter that
appeared to be making “hostile
moves” toward a U.S. surveillance
plane, administration sources and
published reports said Monday.
I; The sources, who demanded
anonymity, said the incident oc-
- ■rred shortly after U.S. Navy
SB3P9 warships began escorting a group
_^of three Kuwaiti oil tankers
n** - ^*^ through the Strait of Hormuz
into the Persian Gulf.
B-The sources refused to be
more specific about when the in-
ddent occurred or to say where it
occurred, but it was presumed to
be in or near the volatile Persian
Gull.
■‘They sources did say, however,
that the missile fired by the Navy
jet apparendy did not strike any-
Bng.
■Navy jet fighters attached to
the aircraft carrier Constellation,
Which is believed to be in the
Northern Arabian Sea close to the
Gulf of Oman, were already in
the air when a Navy P-3 Orion
^/ifSurveillance plane reported that
(J.UT'its radar indicated it was being
approached by several airplanes,
sources said.
BThe sources said the Navy F-
14s were immediately sent to the
area and “it appeared that the
targets were threatening the P-3,”
Bd the “air crews were con-
inced that hostile moves were
being taken.”
| Both the Washington Post and
■I New York Times reported in
Bay’s editions that an F-14 fired
Sro Sparrow air-to-air missiles at
jMiYtthe suspected Iranian aircraft.
^J^BThe Times said the P-3 was ap-
’ Poached by an Iranian F-4. Ad-
Janistration officials told the
0^^Titnes the Iranian pilot was
|arned to stay away from the
ijmerican patrol plane.
Mexican official:
Brain drain feared
by low Texas tuition
or
;ell-
EL PASO (AP) — A new state pro-
gram allowing Mexicans to pay in
state tuition at universities in border
counties will accelerate a brain drain
to the United States, some Mexicans
say.
The program allows Mexicans
who demonstrate financial need to
pay Texas tuition rates at Texas-El
Paso, Sul Ross State, Laredo State
and Pan American University. It is
designed to attract students who had
to drop out when Mexico’s triple
digit inflation of the early 1980s
made out-of-state tuition too high.
Another barrier to Mexican en
rollment was the tripling of out-of-
state tuition in 1985, from $40 a se
mester hour to $120 a semester
hour. UTEP, which had and contin
ues to have the largest Mexican stu
dent enrollment, lost more than half
the Mexican students enrolled be
fore 1985.
UTEP led the drive for reduced
tuition for Mexicans, and state Sen.
Tati Santiesteban of El Paso spon
sored the bill. The campus planned
to hold an orientation session Tues
day for Mexicans considering enroll
ing as in-state students.
In a telephone interview Sunday
with the El Paso Times, a Mexican
Socialist Party spokesman in Juarez
questioned UTEP’s motives.
Sergio Velasco said, “If they were
doing it to help that would be one
thing, but their basic motives are
selfish.”
Velasco said his 18- and 21-year-
old sons are studying engineering in
Juarez, and that he would not advise
them or any other Mexican students
to transfer to a Texas university to
take advantage of lower tuition.
For a Mexican, the cost of attend
ing Monterrey Technological Insti
tute — regarded as the Mexican
equivalent of the Massachusetts In
stitute of Technology — is compet
itive with that of UTEP. In-state tu
ition at UTEP is $1,204 a year for
two 15-hour semesters; the annual
tuition at the Juarez campus of the
technological institute is $1,250,
according to Juarez press reports.
The figures do not include room,
board, books or lab fees.
An area leader of the ruling Insti
tutional Revolutionary Party, or
PRI, told a Juarez newspaper last
week that “our most outstanding stu
dents and professionals for years
have received tempting offers to re
locate to the United States.”
How Much?
Jennifer Steffan, right, her daughter, Sarah, and
nephew, Denton Ramsey, try to sell some puppies
Photo by Robert W. Rizzo
near Rudder Fountain. The puppies are 9-week-
old white German shepherds.
Exploding car bomb injures
10 on passing bus in Greece
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A car
bomb exploded Monday as a bus
carrying U.S. Air Force personnel
passed, slightly injuring the nine
Americans on the bus, the Greek
driver and an Air Force woman
walking nearby, police reported.
They said the explosives in the
car, which had diplomatic license
plates, apparently were detonated by
remote control. There was no imme
diate claim of responsibility.
Several people in the area re
ported seeing two young men speed
away on a green motorcycle seconds
after the explosion, a police official
said privately. It was the second at
tack this year on a bus carrying U.S.
military personnel.
The car blew up at 4:48 p.m. as
the unmarked bus with Greek li
cense plates approached the Apollon
Hotel in the seaside suburb of
Voula, about 6 miles from the Helle-
nikon U.S. Air Force base.
Senior Airman John Hancock said
the bus was bound for the Apollon,
which is used as a billet for U.S. mili
tary personnel temporarily assigned
in or near Athens.
The explosion blew out the wind
shield of the bus and slighdy dam
aged the front end and grill. It
ripped the car apart, strewing pieces
of the vehicle along the road 200
yards from the hotel entrance.
Government spokesman Yannis
Roubatis said the government of
Prime Minister Andreas Papan-
dreou “condemns and denounces
terrorism from wherever it comes.”
“Such actions are exclusively
aimed at harming democracy, the in
stitutions and the country’s social
and political life,” he said.
In Washington, the State Depart
ment said Greek and U.S. authori
ties had begun a joint investigation.
A terrorist group calling itself No
vember 17 claimed responsibility for
a bomb that exploded on a low road
side wall April 24 as a bus carrying
U.S. personnel drove by, injuring
seven of the 25 occupants. The bus
was taking the Americans from a
Greek base to Hellenikon, which is
next to the Athens airport.
U.S. military and diplomatic per
sonnel have been been very cautious
about their movements in an effort
to minimize the possibility of attack,
including the use of unmarked buses
like the Mercedes Benz that was
damaged Monday.
Hellenikon is one of four major
U.S. military installations in Greece.
The Navy has a communications lis
tening station at Nea Makri, 22 miles
east of the capital; the Air Force has
its own communications base near
Iraklion on the island of Crete, and
the Navy uses Suda Bay on Crete’s
western tip to refuel and maintain
the 6th Fleet.
Justice to be tested at Mayo Clinic for prostate trouble
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice William J.
Brennan, the Supreme Court’s senior mem
ber and leading lioeral, is following the advice
of two justices with prostate cancer by being
tested at the Mayo Clinic for prostate trouble,
a court spokesman said Monday.
However, the spokesman, Toni House,
said it is not believed that Brennan’s prostate
trouble, which developed last spring, is due to
cancer.
“If things go as anticipated, I expect to un
dergo a routine prostate procedure later this
week,” Brennan, who is 81, said in a
statement. “I plan and fully expect to partici
pate in the court’s October term.”
Brennan arrived at the clinic in Rochester,
Minn., on Sunday and is expected to remain
there at least through this week, said clinic
spokesman Michael O’Hara.
The justice most likely will undergo a
transurethral resection, O’Hara said.
A similar procedure was performed on
President Reagan in January.
Brennan is the third justice to have pros
tate trouble this year. Justices Harry A. Black-
mun and Lewis F. Powell Jr. both were diag-
the
prostate cancer and both
were treated at the Mayo Clinic.
Powell, 80, resigned from the court in
June, citing the potential of a recurrence of
his health problems.
Blackmun, 78, last week finished the first
half of his treatment and plans to return next
month to complete it.
Asked if Brennan had prostate cancer.
House replied: “The answer is we don’t think
so. There is no reason to believe at this time
his prostate has a malignancy.”
She said Brennan’s prostate trouble started
sometime in the spring, and he decided to
seek testing at the Mayo Clinic because Black
mun and Powell had recommended it.
Brennan said in his statement that his doc
tors had recommended for some months that
he have the prostate procedure done, but he
postponed it to finish the court term in June
and then deliver a series of lectures in Austria
in July.
The statement said additional information
on Brennan’s condition would be released af
ter the tests are completed.
“Justice Brennan doesn’t care to have a lot
of details released,” O’Hara said.