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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 1987)
The Battalion Vol. 82 No. 195 GSRS 045360 8 pages College Station, Texas Thursday, August 13, 1987 ■ ns Reagan calls blame all his in Iran affair lit the res; truck the k, n for air lephone:.. If late Tu(k ^ tJ ”®ASHINGTON (AP) — Presi- touchi * enlt Rea g an sai d Wednesday he was IFR quajlHd as a hornet” about damage to m hisV^ administration f rom t * 1 e Iran- i Fliehi •" or | tTa a ft a ir but acknowledged he the bein S “ stu t , t ,orn i n my pur- n j. ^ uit of a policy that went astray.” Irk a speech from the Oval Office, 15 p.t {eagan noted that John Poindexter er he WId [testified he kept the president in n totherMrlark about the diversion of Iran , ”thecoii;inns-sale money. However, Reagan aid “no president should ever be -jrotected from the truth. No opera- ion is so secret that it must be kept rom the commander-in-chief.” dy ?llef ■86 The president said Poindexter and fired White House aide Oliver North “believed they were doing what I would have wanted done” in secretly supplying money to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Without saying whether he would have condoned or squelched the di version, Reagan said, “I believed then and I believe now in preventing the Soviets from establishing a beachhead in Central America.” He repeated his contention that he did not know about the diversion of funds, and said he had not even been aware that there were excess funds from the arms sales. Irance, Britain send minesweepers to gulf after fifth mine found - Clan ictogenar; lal supers! 's the bef ^er come it her hot: ■MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — A sleep, ia fifth floating mine has been found in ne Nechtlt jf busy anchorage just south of the s not sure p ers j an Gulf where one blew a hole ith. in an American-operated super in advert tanker two days ago, officials said as a wan Wednesday. ■Iran said the decision by Britain e of gran and France to send minesweepers to ays rend the gulf, where it has been at war my Lync. with Iraq since September 1980, ■ndy's Iiiit showed support for the United in, Ohio,c States “in the various aggressions it se com® has committed.” r to fame *A Tehran radio commentary threatened a repeat of terrorist 5, theffe bomb attacks that killed about 300 erwasacoi U.S. and French military personnel tim hai in Beirut in 1983. :d by otk The United States accused Iran of obstructing U.N. peace efforts and f?” she i said the world body should impose mnetions quickly if the “negative” at- 'dtude does not change. Iran said Tuesday it neither accepts nor re- i ■ jects the Security Council’s unani- I Qf mous call July 20 for a cease-fire. Iwl E'.'One °f th e five mines off the United Arab Eimirates port of Fujai rah was exploded by gunfire from a e helicopter and divers defused an other after retrieving it, Emirates of- firials in Abu Dhabi reported. They said the mines were found by dispo sal teams operating from coast ition, wr guard patrol boats. ^hTlf ^ an ^ ers transs hip cargo and take le, inters ay low, n>! ys high," on supplies at the anchorage, where 50 or more ships often can found at one time. It also is used for assem bling convoys of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers and U.S. warships for trips up the gulf. Mines appear to be turning up in “clusters” in an area about four miles in diameter, nine miles northeast of Fujairah, shipping sources reported. Officials in Abu Dhabi said a pa trol boat found the fifth mine in that area, near where the 274,347-ton Texaco Caribbean was damaged by a mine Monday. Sightings of the other four were reported Tuesday. Three Kuwaiti tankers were in Kuwait’s oil-loading port at the head of the gulf Wednesday to take on cargoes for the return trip with a U.S. Navy escort down the 500-mile- long waterway and through the nar row Strait of Hormuz. The 46,723-ton Gas King, 79,999- ton Ocean City and 81,283-ton Sea Isle City docked at Al-Ahmadi, Ku wait’s main terminal. Loading all the ships is expected to take about five days. No problems were reported on their trip up the gulf with four U.S. warships, the second of the convoys. On the first escorted trip to Kuwait last month, the supertanker Bridge- ton hit a mine off a fortified Iranian island 120 miles from the emirate. Reagan did not deal directly with a host of questions that have been raised by lawmakers about possible violations of U.S. laws in connection with the arms-to-Iran scheme. Nor did he say whether he would pardon North and Poindexter, who have ac knowledged being under criminal investigation. The president said the past nine months since the affair broke into the news “have been confusing and painful ones for the country.” Reagan said that over time he re alized he had not been fully in formed about what was happening in his White House and tried to find the answers. “Some of the answers I don’t like,” Reagan said. Reagan said that Poindexter was wrong when he said the buck stops with him. “It stops with me,” he said. “I am the one who is ultimately account able to the American people.” The president said someone asked the other day why he wasn’t outraged. “Well, at times I’ve been mad as a hornet,” he said. “Anyone would be — just look at the damage that’s been done and the time that’s been lost. But I’ve always found that the best therapy for outrage and anger is action.” Reagan said he has changed “both the system and the people who oper ate it.” He aknowledged anew that his top Cabinet aides were right when they said his initiative with Iran would be perceived as “an arms for hostages deal and nothing more.” But he said that the image of Ameri can captives being held in chains “burdened my thoughts. This was a mistake.” Reagan said he had pondered ihow to explain to the nation what he nad hoped to accomplish “but I re spect you too much to make excuses. “The fact of the matter is that there’s nothing I can say that will make the situation right,” he said. The speech — Reagan’s third ma jor address on the subject since last November — did not go into detail about the story of deceit, discord and possible criminal wrongdoing that was outlined in 11 weeks of con gressional testimony. Up In Lights Work is underway to change the old Campus The ater to a new night spot, the Campus, owned by Photo by Karen Moskal Don Canter, who also owns the Dixie Chicken, Sticky Chins and the Chicken Oil Company. 'ossible multiple sclerosis treatment discovered i Greensps j n inflam ■ is exptc* VolckerE ! BOSTON (AP) — A new treatment ap- jregulatif pears to slow and perhaps even reverse the onfirma ! destruction of multiple sclerosis in patients indicatedmtill in the mild early stages of the crippling willingrofdisease, new research concludes, gulatorvf;; Doctors said the experimental therapy r w ho ofcseemed to produce a four-fold reduction in nistrationidie progression of the disease when given pfer two years. But they cautioned that much larger studies will be needed before anyone knows whether the medicine will ac tually play a role in controlling multiple sclerosis, a disease for which there is no ad equate treatment. MS drugs are difficult to test, in part be cause the disease often advances sporadi cally, crippling patients temporarily and then spontaneously retreating. Doctors say victims should not become overly optimistic about the new treatment, because several others that showed early promise have proved useless. said Dr. Murray B. Bornstein, who directed the study at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. The study was re ported in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine. “Surely it is not at the level where any body can say this will significantly alter the course of the illness in a safe and effective way,” he added in an interview. The experimental medicine is a labo- de ‘It’s very encouraging at the moment,” ratory-made protein called Cop 1. It’s pro duced in Israel and available only in very small quantities for research. Experts pre dicted it will be several years before the medicine is approved for general use, even if future testing goes smoothly. In a memo to its local chapters, the Na tional Multiple Sclerosis Society said black- market supplies of Cop 1 may be available. “If so,” it warned, “it is important to recog nize that there can be no assurance of the source, quality, therapeutic effectiveness or safety with such preparations.” In limited experimentation so far, the medicine appears to benefit only people in the early, mildest stages of the disease. “Clearly it is not the cure for MS,” said Dr. Howard L. Weiner of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “It is not going to be good for people who already have significant disability, so people who are using canes or wheelchairs shouldn’t think this is going to help them.” k inside i' i again, t Monday.' 1 women** . took ovei’ te scene Senator: President wrong Animal rights often reason for vegetarianism Meatless life enjoyed by some Americans j takeda' 5 remains*^ WASHINGTON (AP) George Mitchell said Wednesday night that President Reagan Sen. day fro®- leave, )dors. S? d , made grave mistakes in the Iran- Contra affair, but once recog nized and corrected, “they should be put behind us.” Mitchell, in the Democratic re sponse to Reagan’s address on the I Iran-Contra affair, said the presi dent was right to acknowledge “that the buck stops with him.” But Mitchell said the policy of telling arms to Iran for release of U.S. hostages was “a mistake so S ave that Americans now risking eir lives in that region face the terrible possibility of attack by a nation we’ve helped to arm.” ■; And the mistake, he added, was “so grave that there are just as many Americans now held hos tage in Lebanon as there were when this effort began.” “These were serious mistakes,” Mitchell said. “But once recog nized and corrected they should be put behind us. For there’s much to be done together.” By Ed Holtgraver Reporter Picture a steer that is forced into a small pen. It is then hoisted onto a conveyer belt and hung upsjde down, often fully conscious, from one leg while waiting for the slaugh terer to put an end to its agony. Of ten the leg or the pelvic bone breaks, or the leg the steer is hanging from Vegetarian lifestyles Part one of a two-part series is torn from its socket as the animal struggles to get free. This method of ritual slaughter is quite common, occurring every day in this country. Pardy because of such methods of slaughtering animals for food, as well as the growing concern about the health risks of a diet including red meat, many people are turning to a vegetarian way of life. A Roper poll conducted in 1978 esdmated there are as many as 10 million Americans who consider themselves vegetarians. Vegetarians do not live on vegeta bles alone. “Vegetarians don’t just sit around eating bowls of gruel with alfalfa sprouts sprinkled on top,” says Car men Mason, a student at Texas A&M. “A vegetarian diet consists of a lot of legumes and grains. Some vegetarians also consume dairy products, such as milk and eggs.” Legumes consist of dried beans and peas, including split peas, soy beans and red, white and black beans. Grains — the seeds of cereal plants — include rice, wheat, corn, millet, barley and rye. According to the British Vegetar ian Society, which coined the term “vegetarian,” the word has nothing to do with vegetables. Vegetarian is based on the Latin word “vegetus,” which means active, lively or vigorous. The word veget was once used to describe a healthy, physically active person, the society states. There are many different catago- ries of vegetarian diets. According to Dudley Giehl, au thor of the book “Vegetarianism —A Way of Life,” lacto-ovo vegetarians include eggs and dairy products in their diets. Ari Rozycki, a Texas A&M stu dent, considers himself a lacto-ovo vegetarian. “I eat eggs and milk, so I am con sidered a lacto-ovo vegetarian at the current time, although I eat fish,” Rozycki said. “In the future I plan to go back to only eggs and milk and no fish products whatsoever.” Lacto vegetarians, according to Giehl, are nearly the same as lacto- ovo vegetarians except that they do not consume eggs. The vegan diet is the strictest of the three vegetarian diets, Giehl says. “Vegans, or total vegetarians, re gard cow’s milk as an unnatural food since it was intended (by Nature) to be nourishment for calves, not peo ple,” Giehl says. Vegans also object to the use of dairy products because the dairy in dustry is so closely tied to the meat industry, Mason says. “Dairy cows make up almost 20 percent of the nation’s cow herd,” Giehl says. Mason considers herself a vegan. “I do have to be careful I get enough necessary nutrients and amino acids,” she says. “But if I plan my diet carefully, it isn’t that hard at all.” There are many different vegeta bles and grains available to create a nutritious, enjoyable meal, she says. People are so used to eating a meat-dominated diet that they can not imagine eating anything else, she says. But, she says, they need to be come aware that there are plenty of other good, nourishing foods to eat instead of meat. One of the reasons vegetarians have for developing an animal-prod uct free way of life is the issue of ani mal rights. Many vegetarians object to the treatment of animals that are used as food for humans. In children’s picture books, farm animals are often portrayed as lazily roaming sunny fields or barnyards, contentedly passing the days away. Pigs say “oink-oink,” cows “moo” to each other, and fluffy yellow baby chicks walk around the farm search ing for their mothers. But picture books are not real life. In actuality, animals on large fac tory farms are treated solely as “bio- machines,” existing only to produce a product, Rozycki says. On factory farms, litde chicks never do find their mothers. Eggs are taken from the mother hen when laid and placed in an incuba tor. When the eggs hatch, the male chicks are immediately killed, since they cannot produce eggs and their meat is unsatisfactory for sale. Of no practical use, the baby male chicks are gathered up and dumped into a large plastic bag and left to suffo cate, Giehl says. The female chicks begin life by having their heads placed in a ma chine that rips off the first three- fourths of their beaks, Giehl says. This helps prevent some of the un avoidable cannibalism that results from the severe overcrowding the hens experience when they are placed in cages to begin their lives as egg-producing machines, Giehl says. “It is quite common for as many as five large hens to be placed in a 12- inch by 18-inch wire cage, in which there is not even enough room for the hens to turn around in,” Mason says. The approximate 15 percent death rate the hens suffer from such conditions is overlooked as a busi ness expense, she says, because the enourmous number of eggs pro duced by all the rest of the hens more than makes up for the loss of some of the hens.