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The Battalion
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L“kmg« toL 83 No. 17 USPS 045360 10 pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, September 23, 1987
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Photo by Sarah Cowan
lashing that Aggie spirit
iiiiiu 1 reside | e ff Bennett, a sophomore biochemistry major from El Paso, humps
, ttin a special way during Tuesday’s volleyball game against the Uni-
untenng cha* Xexas 7 at Arlington.
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Iranian vessel laying mines
was under U.S. surveillance
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.
military forces had shadowed the
Iranian ship they attacked Monday
night for days, waiting for conclusive
evidence that the vessel was laying
underwater mines, Pentagon offi
cials said Tuesday.
The officials, who requested ano
nymity, said the vessel Iran Ajr had
been tracked by radar and by air for
several days as it steamed through
the central gulf toward Bahrain “be
cause it had been seen loading sus
pect devices” before leaving an Ira
nian port.
“It was no accident” that U.S. heli
copters from the frigate USS Jarrett
were flying near the Iranian ship
Monday night, using infrared sen
sors to monitor its activities, one offi
cial added.
“When we caught them in the act,
we had the evidence we needed and
we moved in,” he said.
The Pentagon said three Iranians
were killed and two were listed as
missing in the attack, while 26 Irani
ans were rescued, four of them
wounded. It said a Navy boarding
party found 10 mines aboard the
Iran Ajr, a 1,662-ton amphibious
landing craft.
President Reagan, meantime, de
fended the U.S. attack on the ship as
clearly “authorized by law” because
the vessel was sowing mines in inter
national waters.
Reagan also insisted, however, the
United States had not entered a
shooting war with Iran, and White
House and Pentagon spokesman
said the crewmen of the Iranian ves
sel would be returned to Iran.
At the same time, Iranian leaders
dismissed the U.S. account of the in
cident and vowed revenge.
Iranian President Ah Khamenei,
appearing at the United Nations, de
scribed the American account as a
“pack of lies” and declared: “The
U.S. shall receive a proper response
for this abominable act.”
Iranian president vows
to seek 'total revenge'
on U.S. military forces
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ira
nian President Ali Khamenei fumed
at the U.S. “arch-Satan” before the
United Nations Tuesday and swore
Iran would avenge a U.S. attack on
an Iranian ship in the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. delegation stalked out in
protest after the black-robed and
turbaned Khamenei indicted the
“bullying” United States and an
nounced:
“This is a beginning for a series of
events, the bitter consequences of
which shall not be restricted to the
Persian Gulf.”
“I declare here, very unambigu
ously, that the United States shall re
ceive a proper response for this
abominable act.”
Hundreds of angry, dissident Ira
nians demonstrated against the fun
damentalist Tehran government
outside the United Nations building,
shouting “Expel Khamenei from the
U.N.! Down with the criminal, mur
dering regime!”
Deputy U.S. Ambassador Herbert
Okun told reporters,“I do not in-
tend to sit by passively when our
country is insulted, our president
pilloried and the truth trampled.”
Khamenei did not answer Presi
dent Reagan’s call in a U.N. speech
Monday that he clearly state whether
Iran accepts a U.N. Security Council
demand for a cease-fire in its 7-year-
old war with Iraq. Reagan said tnat if
Iran does not comply, the council
must enforce its resolution — refer
ring to an arms embargo.
Khamenei, who is staying at a ho
tel near the U.N., has launched a
vigorous propaganda campaign with
foreign diplomats and with U.S. tele
vision and media interviews and
meetings with influential editors. He
is the highest ranking Iranian offi
cial to visit the United States since
the 1979 revolution.
He demanded in his speech Tues
day that Iraq be punished as the ag
gressor and said the Security Coun
cil had no moral authority because
of the veto power of the United
States and four other permanent
council members.
Pentagon sources reported U.S.
military bases around the globe had
been reminded to maintain an alert
for terrorist activity, and tensions in
the gulf itself remained high.
An unidentified Iranian hover
craft closed within one mile or so of
an American frigate that was towing
the crippled Iran Ajr on Tuesday af
ternoon, the Defense Department
said, and stopped its approach only
after warning shots were fired across
its bow.
Despite the confrontation and ris
ing tensions, the Pentagon an
nounced that Defense Secretary Cas
par W. Weinberger would proceed
with a scheduled trip to the region.
Weinberger will leave Wednesday
on a five-day trip that will include
stops in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and
Egypt and visits to U.S. warships.
A U.S. military helicopter, be
lieved to be an Army MH-6 Special
Operations aircraft, attackea the
vessel while a second helicopter flew
nearby, sources said. Chief Pentagon
spokesman Fred Hoffman said the
American aircraft used 7.62mm ma
chine guns and 2.75-inch rockets to
attack the boat and caused extensive
damage.
Hoffman said U.S. personnel
boarded the Iran Ajr at 9:40 p.m.
CST Monday, about 6V2 hours after
it was attacked and briefly set ablaze.
Although Hoffman wouldn’t com
ment, sources said the boarding
party consisted of Navy SEAL com
mandos.
Hoffman said the mines found
aboard the craft were “old-style con
tact mines,” the same type that have
previously been discovered in the
gulf and attributed to Iran.
Six other mines were believed to
have been sown by the Ira Ajr before
it was attacked and Navy helicopters
were searching for them, he said.
Hoffman said the ship would be
towed to an anchorage in interna
tional waters off the coast of Bah
rain. No decision has been made on
the vessel’s disposition, he said.
White House spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater said the United States now
had plenty of evidence to lay before
the United Nations to document the
Iranian mine-laying activity.
“Our main purpose at this point is
to document the laying of the mines
. . .,” he said. “We certainly have the
evidence.”
On Capitol Hill, House Armed
Services Committee Chairman Les
Aspin, D-Wis., said the U.S. action
was “a necessary response to a verita
ble act of war by Iran.”
He said it was important for mem
bers of the United Nations “to recog
nize that Iran is thumbing its nose at
the world community.”
3 ruling legafc
ouble it is not
:come ajustice
~osta Rican leader encourages
stopjnited States to take peace risk
snts WASHINGTON (AP) — Costa
j|p President Oscar Arias ap-
rights argunr to President Reagan and
icyer’s content* ongress on Tuesday to “take a risk
>read AIDS te&fBeace” and permit the peace
ses to public htif| h e has drafted for Central
|||pca to run its course.
d testing event ‘The essence of my words is that
> will ask for ii e peace a chance — that is the
mid not impot^sage I have brought to Washing-
erse as Iowa,v« in -” Arias told reporters,
rnia, with man' Arias met with Reagan at the
life House and addressed mern-
ation opposei f* of Congress gathered infor-
lan bill, whicktfc'jPy in the House of Representa-
1. Edward Kens Ves '
h Service is ref! Arias, the principal architect of
T a nd counsellrir five-nation Central American
lie plan unveiled in Guatemala
d he estimatesii' t * t '0 lont h> told Congress his initia-
ir contracting nee ds time and assistance in or-
uals, intravenP-^o succeed.
disease. Thattn *ne plan calls for a negotiated
testing and o' ^-fire to g° * nto effect by Nov. 7.
But Arias said the peace effort
>ould not be scuttled if that date
without a definitive set-
Itnt.
me steps may be taken before
deadlines expire,” Arias told
Ortega announces truce
to initiate possible cease-fire
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) —
President Daniel Ortega said Tues
day the government would start a
partial truce and withdraw troops to
designated areas to open the way to
a total cease-fire with U.S.-sup
ported Contra rebels.
“We are working on concrete ac
tions to make known the first zones
where the cease-fire will be de
clared,” Ortega said. He said the lo
cations of the designated areas
would be announced.
A communique read by presi
dential spokesman Manuel Espinoza
said that to achieve “an effective
cease-fire” Ortega had decided to
postpone offensive military opera
tions in part of the country and con
centrate troops in designated areas.
The announcements were the lat
est in a series of actions to comply
with a Central American peace plan
Ortega and the presidents of El Sal
vador, Honduras, Costa Rica and
Guatemala signed on Aug. 7.
On Sunday, the government an
nounced that the opposition news
paper La Prensa would be allowed to
resume publication after a shutdown
of more than a year.
Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan gov
ernment announced a partial cease
fire with Contra rebels to start uni
laterally.
It also said an opposition radio
station could reopen immediately.
President Daniel Ortega did not
specify a timetable for his leftist gov
ernment’s truce plan but said:
“We are working on concrete ac
tions to make known the first zones
where the cease-fire will be de
clared.”
He said troops would be with
drawn to designated areas in a par
tial truce as a step toward a total
cease-fire with the U.S.-supported
rebels.
Arias’ 20-minute meeting with
Reagan was private, but a senior
U.S. official who was present said
the Costa Rican leader agreed that
the Contra insurgents should have a
role in cease-fire negotiations with
Nicaragua’s Sandinista-ruled gov
ernment.
The official, who spoke on condi
tion he not be identified, quoted
Arias as saying that he would sup
port a request through the Organiza
tion of American States for “drastic
sanctions” against Nicaragua “if the
world could be shown that the Sand-
inistas had refused to comply” with
the peace agreement they accepted
in Guatemala City last month.
Shortly after Arias spoke, the
House Rules Committee cleared the
way for floor action as early as
Wednesday on the request by House
Minority Leader Bob Michel, R-Ill.,
for money for food, medicine, boots
and other aid for the Contras.
&M firefighters return from California
er helping battle spread of blazes
it. 9-!
ner
By Tracy Hinton
Reporter
fighters from the Texas For-
vice returned Thursday from
'h-week assignment in California
re they helped fight forest fires
Staged in five western states since
^August.
Hie firefighting teams were sent
■h to help put out fires started
4,000 lightning strikes on Aug.
r Bruce Miles, director of the
Xas Forest Service located on the
xas A&M campus, said.
The fires are under control for
t most part,” Miles said. “Two
H are still being worked on.
lere is an anticipated dry front
filing into California that may
problems.”
Teams from Texas, requested by
the United States Forest Service in
Atlanta, were sent to the Plumas Na
tional Forest, the Mendocino Na
tional Forest and the Stanislaus Na
tional Forest.
Miles said the firefighters who
were sent had extra training in this
field of work. They were flown on a
chartered plane from Jackson, Miss,
to California.
Bobby Young, a forester from
Lufkin, said, “There (California) the
fires are a lot harder to control be
cause of the steep terrain. They were
not contained when we arrived.”
Young was a strike team leader as
signed to the Mendenhaul fire in the
Mendocino National Forest 200
miles north of San Francisco. He was
in charge of 16 men and three
pumper trucks that belong to the
Texas Forest Service.
The water expansion pumping
system used — known as “The Texas
Snow Job” because it was invented in
Texas — uses the water to produce a
foam mixture.
“We were one of the last units to
be released because of our water-
foam capabilities,” Young said.
Brad Smith, a Rusk County for
ester, was in charge of a 20-man
hand-tool crew. They used shovels
and rakes to help contain the fire.
Smith and his team were assigned to
the Clark fire in northeast California
in the Plumas National Forest.
“There was an estimated loss of
$71 million in timber,” Young said.
“There were 52 injuries, but no re
ported deaths. The fires were very
hot. It was so smoky you couldn’t
even see the top of the mountains.
Despite the shortage of personnel,
we (the TFS) did a good job and re
ceived a lot of compliments. We
spent as many as 23 hours on the fire
line at a time. It was quite an experi
ence.”
Because of the altitudes, the fires
were accessible only by foot. Smith
said it was impossible to get trucks
close to the fires in the mountainous
terrain.
“We usually spent 14 or 15 hours
a day working on the blaze,” Smith
said. “We had to fight fires a lot dif
ferent out there, like using hand
tools. You don’t see fires like that in
East Texas.”
Witnesses at hearing
offer conflicting views
about Bork’s opinions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Su
preme Court nominee Robert Bork
was described by a noted legal
scholar Tuesday as a man whose
views “could spell chaos” for the na
tion, but other witnesses at his con
firmation hearings defended him
and said his views have been dis
torted by critics.
The Senate Judiciary Committee
heard the opposition to Bork from
Harvard University Law School Pro
fessor Laurence Tribe.
And a panel of witnesses includ
ing novelist William Styron and art
ist Robert Rauschenberg suggested
confirming Bork to the Supreme
Court would be a threat to freedom
of expression.
However, Carla Hills, who was
secretary of housing and urban de
velopment in the Ford administra
tion, testified she had been “startled
and saddened” by what she said had
been distortions of Bork’s views dur
ing the hearings so far.
And Lloyd Cuder, who was White
House counsel in the Carter admin
istration, submitted testimony call
ing Bork “a conservadve jurist who is
closer to the center than to the ex
treme right.”
Meanwhile, Supreme Court Jus
tice Byron R. White was quoted as
saying “it would be all right with me”
if Bork won confirmation.
Noting that the length of ques-
doning may be unprecedented, com
mittee chairman Joseph R. Biden
Jr., D-Del., said, “It’s clear this nomi
nation is hanging in the balance.”
Bork testified for a record five days
last week and the hearings lasted un
til 11 p.m. Monday.
Cutler, who has been criticized by
some fellow liberals for supporting
Bork, said in a prepared statement
that Bork’s record “cannot be
squared with the extravagant charac
terizations of Judge Bork as a throw-
back” to the days when slavery was
legal.
And Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a
leading defender of Bork, told
Tribe, “I find his viewpoints to be
different than the way you charac
terize them.”
Navy fighter shoots down
Air Force jet in exercises
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A
U.S. Air Force reconnaissance
jet plane was accidentally shot
down Tuesday by a Navy F-14
fighter.
The jet was downed over the
Mediterranean Sea during
NATO exercises.
The two Air Force crewmen
ejected safely before the plane
crashed into the sea. Navy offi
cials said.
The Air Force RF-4C recon
naissance jet was downed by an
air-to-air missile that was fired
by the Navy fighter plane, said
Cmdr. Jolene Keefer, a spokes
man for the Naval Air Force At
lantic.
The Air Force plane was
from Tactical Reconnaissance
Wing 26 at Wiesbaden Air Base
in West Germany.
The Naw F-14. from the car-
rier USS Saratoga, carries the
long-range Phoenix missile, the
medium-range Sparrow missile
and the short-range Sidewinder
missile.
Keefer said she did not know
which kind of missile hit the Air
Force jet.
A helicopter that was
launched from the Saratoga
picked up the two Air Force of
ficers within 30 minutes after
the accident.
The officers were taken to
the Saratoga, Keefer said.
She said both of the Air
Force officers in command of
the reconnaissance plane es
caped unharmed from the acci
dent.
“Neither of the men suffered
any apparent injuries and both
are in good health,” Keefer
said.