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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 1987)
inf The Battalion ite hasbtt'ol. 82 No. 194 GSPS 045360 6 pages >win? wntBI - .. will atte >t of tinifl| next sevtr, Landry si always mage n s feel he .; ® College Station, Texas Wednesday, August 12, 1987 1,000 B-CS residents participate in National Night Out festivities the fulls ) Walker- broke hisi asize the B y Y vonne DeGraw 1. T |- Staff Writer bAi first it seemed police offi- ters and members of the local -.jlnedia near Olsen Field would ] QS oiit number the participants. Kut organizers of Bryan-Col- Station’s National Night Out I Ivl activities put on a happy face and C3 Kl they weren’t disappointed jpth the 1,000 or so people who participated. HrWe raised quite a ruckus to- Bht,” said Officer Tony Taylor ’) ~ ^flme Bryan Police Department, xiatior; n e 53^ they estimated that 1250,0( 10,000 people would attend be- ic BIutluHse they wanted to “shoot high” 1st the Nt'tolhow the importance of neigh- the AsDborhood watch programs, he next Mjtill, the people who came wlpresictseemed to enjoy the festivities, meed M These included a mass balloon re- free popsicles, noisemak- xperattitWI, sirens, cannon blasts supplied have an by members of Parson’s Mounted reemer Cavalry and a visit from McGruff r perioc tht Crime Dog. fear than ; The balloons rising and drift- debts string to the northwest made an im- eagthytepressive sight, even if only a frac- l. tion of the number planned were :mnet Lfefeased. itadium 2 mfheryl Restivo, who works in is forthethe Academic Computing Center below iat^Texas A&M, said she and her This yefaniilv attended National Night • 7p.ni. Mt because their neighborhood ■ finati-wasn’t planning anything, et Bow a corpora Others seemed anxious to re- ates nucturn to their neighborhoods for xn. ffi'cream parties, barbeques and dost to block parties. lent with Jt looked like a game of pick- mthatcouup-sticks as the line of people nt 10 <k' ; moved and stretched to lay as havt e'tynanv popsicle sticks as possible it.” end-to-end. Feated Coi “Don’t be afraid of running ■’s gamt i-ouj,” someone said over the loud- r itspa^Speaker system. “We’ve got ilos ha\t 8O5OOO of those things.” theirshtt laylor estimated the corn ed to joic-pleted string was about one mile )wl Aswdong. Whether this makes it the wetnis! , “World’s Longest Popsicle Stick” accessoi-Pr*not remains to be seen. The HSA Pnsticks were collected and will be rsaid. mailed to Philadelphia. Bowl earif The home of tne Constitution ear televs is also the home of the National rial tele''Town Watch Association, the glbup that sponsors National flight Out. This group will eval- uate the activities and partici- Mition in each city and award the .lAiNational Night Out Cup, for Jlllvlfhich Brazos County was sup- l|ed to be a top contender. Rye Bfaylor said he felt there was a jfery good turnout for the area. fsr “You’re looking at about 1 per- cent of the local population,” he said. f Another local statistic was less - Houi®m|n expected. nk V St !®aylor said Bryan’s burglary pitcher declined 7 percent from last et, p July to this July. Traditionally, itart TL jjg area j ias more burglaries dur- ng summer months. W helll @ r y an has 20 qualified neigh- oss tofS jorhood watch programs, Taylor l ea ' , laid. Another 20 groups are to undersfT & r e ofmye" or breat ft meat ;aid. “I b 1 and do if be eanif - ;t about'' Photo by Sarah Cowan Katie Scott, 9, ties balloons to a fence in prepara- tracks. About 1,000 balloons were released dur- tion for Tuesday night’s festivities across the ing the National Night Out celebration. working toward that status. To qualify, 50 percent of the homes in the area must partici pate by identifying their property and attending a seminar. Officer David Luedke of the College Station Police Depart ment said there are 25 qualified programs in College Station. This number is increasing by two to three per week, he said. Taylor and Luedke both have plans to increase involvement in neighborhood watch programs by apartment dwellers. Mockingbird Run in Bryan was a major crime spot until it started a watch program, Taylor said. Luedke said College Station police contacted apartment asso ciations just before the spring se mester let out. They receive many positive responses, but he said they decided to establish the apartment watch programs when students return this fall. J.S. officials: Iranian jet ignored warnings WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy Tomcat ihter that fired two missiles at an Iranian jet jt ofthf' er weekend did so after the Iranian plane jurthes! P eate dly ignored radio messages to change 1 not »c 4Urse > Pentagon sources said Tuesday, use wht# e sources, providing more details about the ioid ’em over th e Strait of Hormuz, said the Ira- lasn’t bet®FT Phantom that was fired upon was one of -ertainl' Vera * monitored by radar on Saturday as it took ’ he said *M om l h e Iranian naval base at Bandar Abbas. A Navy Aegis-class cruiser, the Valley Forge, Jp a Navy P-3 Orion surveillance plane both :ons ^ el [ 1 ® e d the Iranian jet throughout its flight, the yan inLyrces said. The confrontation occurred when “er-tyin( ! e Iranian jet began flying directly toward the .armed P-3 aircraft, they said. r it a ;The Valley Forge was steaming through the }. “I coal y Childtf lings at d 1 ' n bring ildn’t fin ;rson aa‘ strait at the time, helping to protect a convoy of three Kuwaiti tankers and three other Navy warships. That convoy went through the strait on Saturday and arrived safely in Kuwait on Tues day, Pentagon officials said. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, in a meeting with reporters, refused to discuss the in cident on Tuesday. The Pentagon sources, commenting only on condition they not be named, said it was only af ter the Iranian pilot ignored radio warnings from the Valley Forge and from the F-14 Tom cats flying with the P-3 that two American jets moved to intercept him. According to one official, the Navy had four F- 14’s in the air near the P-3 Orion. The Iranian jet was on a course taking it di- Kuwaiti ships leave escorts, start for home KUWAIT (AP) — Three Kuwaiti ships left their U.S. escorts and en tered the emirate’s waters Tuesday. Helicopters, meanwhile, searched an anchorage south of the Persian Gulf where a mine damaged a tanker and others have been found. Britain and France ordered mine sweepers to the region but said they would not be used in combined op erations with the United States. Washington said it was seeking sup port for an international mine sweeping force in the gulf, where Iran and Iraq have been at war since September 1980. The Kuwaiti tankers, flying American flags, “are now ip Kuwait territorial waters and under escort by Kuwaiti ships,” Defense Depart ment spokesman Robert Sims said in Washington. He said they had left the four U.S. Navy warships guarding them by 4:35 p.m. and headed for Kuwait’s main Al-Ahmadi oil terminal to load cargoes for the return trip down the gulf. Arrival of the 46,723-ton Gas King, 81,283-ton Sea Isle City and 79,999-ton Ocean City ended the second Navy-escorted trip up the gulf by Kuwaiti vessels and the first without trouble. On the inaugural trip last month, the supertanker Bridgeton hit a mine near a fortified Iranian island 120 miles from Ku wait. Witnesses at the crowded anchorage off Fujairah, a United Arab Emirates port in the Gulf of Oman, said four U.S. and Omani he licopters swept back and forth at low altitude looking for mines. An American-operated super tanker, the 274,347-ton Texaco Ca ribbean, was damaged there Mon day and four more mines were found Tuesday, one of them close to a tanker. Iran has been accused of laying mines in and around the Persian Gulf. Iranian leaders have said they are planted by “invisible hands” but also that the gulf will remain “full of mines” until the superpowers leave the region. Tehran radio quoted Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaker of Iran’s parlia ment, as saying the Iranian navy would be sent to the Gulf of Oman to clear mines, but there was no elab oration. Rafsanjani said the United States may have planted the mine that damaged the Texaco Carib bean. One mine spotted by an Omani helicopter was about 100 yards from an anchored tanker and two others were in the vicinity, a shipping source reported. U.S. Navy helicopters joined the search at Oman’s request, a diplomat said privately. “There’s a little bit of panic” among tanker crews at the anchorage, said a shipping source. Another added: “It’s a bad situation. The other tankers are now afraid to move.” Both spoke on condition of anonymity. Fujairah’s anchorage is one of the main points for transferring oil from one tanker to another. Up to 50 ves sels are there on a given day. The Texaco Caribbean, which had just arrived with a load of crude from Iran’s Larak Island terminal in the Persian Gulf, was holed about a yard below the waterline. Informants said about 10,000 bar rels of oil leaked, forming a slick about eight miles off the coast. An important current use of the anchorage is as a staging point for convoys of U.S. warships and empty Kuwaiti tankers for the 550-mile trip through the Strait of Hormuz and up the gulf to the emirate. Hormuz is about 30 miles away. Eleven of Kuwait’s 21 tankers are being registered as American ships so the Navy can protect them. Loose bricks fall off top of library; cause not known rectly toward the four-engine, propeller-driven P-3, and was judged to be making “hostile moves” because it was moving within missile range, another source said. The sources said one F-14 fired two Sparrow missiles at the Iranian. Although the American and Iranian jets were at least 50 miles apart, “that is well within the Sparrow’s range and he was shooting to kill,” one official said. The sources said the Iranian jet banked hard after the missiles were fired and managed to evade both of them before quickly reversing course and flying back to Iran. “We didn’t just go off half-cocked and open fire,” one official said. “The ship and our planes broadcast warnings repeatedly and he didn’t heed them.” By Kirsten Dietz Senior Staff Writer Three loose sections of brick and concrete around the top of the Ster ling C. Evans Library were removed Tuesday by physical plant employ ees after one section unexpectedly fell Monday night and shattered on the ground. The section fell from the north east corner of the building about 7:15 p.m. and landed near the side of the library, University Police Chief Elmer Schneider said. No one was injured. Certain areas around the library will be roped off until the cause of the loose sections is determined, said Joe Estill, director of A&M’s physical plant. Workers used a crane Tuesday to check the rest of the library over hang for additional loose pieces. Two loose sections were knocked down on the south side of the library and one section was knocked from the east side of the library, Estill said. He said the three pieces measured about 4 to 5 feet by 18 inches. The piece that fell Monday measured about 6 feet by 18 inches, he said. The bricks were laid in a horizon tal direction, so the panels had to be constructed on the ground then raised and secured, he said. This places stress on the joint and suspen sion system, he said. The loose sec tions were due to a failure of this sys- Photo by Robert Rizzo tern, but Estill said he’s not sure why it failed. He said his department is trying to determine how the pieces became loose and what corrective action should be taken. The library is the only building on campus with any bricks that have been laid horizon tally, Estill said. Estill said he doubts any legal ac tion can be taken against the con struction company unless negligence is proven. The addition was built in 1979. Estill said he doesn’t know if the sections will be replaced. After the investigation is finished, a consultant will be called in and the alternatives will be discussed, he said. Veinberger cites Central American peace plan problems WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense [pary Caspar W. Weinberger limited Ldjjruesday the peace plan put for- :, he has fd by five Central American pres- .stros Wilts has “some problems,” faulting in each 1 lack of a deadline for democratic th amiMorms and the removal of Soviet- rs with ; »c advisers from Nicaragua, he has 1 ' 1 l|einberger, in an interview with a gantf tUagon correspondents, gave his when 'st detailed comments about the peace plan signed last Friday in Gua temala at a summit that included Ni caraguan President Daniel Ortega. The White House has voiced no criticism of the regional plan, citing the recent agreement with House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas to avoid rhetoric while the peace proc ess plays out. On Saturday, Presi dent Reagan issued a statement say ing he welcomed the regional plan, but sidestepped a clear-cut endorse ment of it. In the interview, Weinberger praised the peace proposal put for ward by Reagan and Wright, con tending it “made a start” towards democratic reforms. Weinberger also argued that any proposal should allow the Contras to be kept as a military force in the field, to provide “leverage ... on the Sandinistas.” Under the Reagan-Wright propo sal, the administration has delayed seeking renewed aid for the Contras from Congress, as long as the Sandi nistas accept a cease-fire and certain democratic reforms by Sept. 30. The administration had been expected to seek some $150 million to fund the rebels after the U.S. aid expired at the end of next month. Speaking of the regional plan. Weinberger said, “I think there are some problems with that plan. And I think everybody recognizes them. . . . But I wouldn’t claim that that it’s in final form or in the form . . . that we could unequivocally endorse it.” Asked what troubled him about the accord, Weinberger said, “the lack of the requirement that the So viets leave, the lack of assurance that there will be sufficient support to keep the Contra force in being as a military force.” “There was no timetable for elec tions, there is no timetable for demo cratization,” he said. “All of these things are important to get into.” The Central American pact calls for an end of aid to the U.S.-backed Contra rebels, but makes no demand for cutbacks in the Sandinista mili tary forces, their Soviet support or removal of Soviet or Cuban advisers.