f Texas am M +
The Battalion
'jVol.87 No. 181 6 Pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, July 26, 1988
Judder Tower bomb threat Iraq will leave
termed hoax by UPD official captured land
By Ashley A. Bailey
1^1 Staff Writer
^IWcislcd time apparently is the
thing to have come from a Rud-
■ Tower bomb threat received
lion day.
0 Synet Fox, a clerk in the student
^mllications office, received the
threat call at about 10 a.m.
ionday.
man speaking in a low, whis-
%efing voice called and said that
here was a bomb planted in Rudder
[over,” Fox said.
""■He was speaking so quietly that I
n’t really know what he had said
inti! he’d finished, and it had time
sink in. He gave a location or a
number where the bomb was,
mt I couldn’t hear it.”
'brj
a Box didn’t know whether to take
he man seriously, but she felt she
lad to notify the University Police
)ep n tment and let them decide
/hat to do about it.
^Bob Wiatt, director of University
K)lii;e, said his department received
: ojjc s call at 10:12 a.m.
“She called us and we sent officers
ivei to Rudder Tower immedi-
telv,” Wiatt said. “Our officers and
''Jne of the Rudder staff searched
“■bathrooms, elevator shafts, of-
ices and meeting rooms, but a bomb
/asn’t found. It obviously was just a
Ke 'loa\.
“Some of the department heads
.'lid decide to evacuate their people
’™.nd some of the visitors, but we did
.jl, tot insist on or advise an evacuation
rter .ithe building.”
iloov
^ijlwiatt said the incident was taken
H By seriousl Y because it was not the
B of bomb threat that the UPD
’ditstaally handles.
(i *“lfV
arti^^e usually have these hoaxes
stt luring mid-term and final exams,”
iert Ssaid; “The threat will normally be
jppiKed in on a room where an exam is
lid Wfduled to be given. It’s usually
Be by students who haven’t stud-
id enough the night before and are
Agency calls
_or attention
o civil rights
it a# ^
TeBuSTIN (AP) — The next presi-
W ent needs to pay as much attention
ecer ienforcing civil rights laws as to the
aron illegal drugs, an organization
rei fstate and local human rights agen
ts |s declared Monday.
Hist “We should expect the same level
acc ‘ support and lack of tolerance for
loii'icrimination as we do for drugs,”
id Joyce Tucker, director of the
“WBrnational Association of Official
fca uman Rights Agencies.
s J
liatsotJ“Just as there is a search and de-
y nttfoy policy with strong penalties
ieJth respect to drug enforcement,
\ ] «same policy should be enacted to
Bet out and destroy unlawful dis-
Imination,” she told a news confer-
t price during the group’s annual
3 au ee,in g-
l| s JThe group includes 151 agencies
(f( l the United States and Canada.
Criticizing the Reagan administra-
m for doing too little. Tucker said
^^ore federal funds and more fed-
1 enthusiasm for civil rights is
led.
l“We have seen the imapct that an
ensitive and in many ways hostile
tional administration has on the
Ogress of civil rights. Progress is
1 pLifled at best, with erosion the most
Mmmon end result,” said Tucker,
[Pjio is with the Illinois Department
IM Human Rights.
j She said budget cuts and lack of
|;tention at the federal level has left
pi civil rights agencies with grow-
icaseloads, a backlog of charges
piscrimination, lack of public con-
lence and thousands of cases
lifh haven’t been handled.
iTucker said the group hasn’t eval-
[tted the civil rights records of ei-
tfer Democratic presidential nomi-
JpriMichael Dukakis or Republican
ididate George Bush.
[But she urged the next president
|seek increased funding for civil
|[hts agencies, expand fair housing
l[vs| more closely scrutinize lending
iencies and protect past civil rights
’ins.
is (the group’s) position that as
luch positive attention, support
i’d|funding given to the ‘Say No to
l*ugs’ campaign should be given to
omoting and enforcing a ‘National
yjjNo to Discrimination’ effort,”
Baid.
trying to get out of taking their ex
ams.
“Because this threat did not in
volve a building on campus where an
exam was to be given, we did take it
fairly seriously.”
Fox said the caller did not give a
reason or explanation for the bomb
threat.
“He just called, whispered the in-
fomation to me, then hung up,” she
said.
Wiatt said that A&M does have
standard bomb threat procedures
that are followed when a threat is re
ported. He said the UPD works in
cooperation with the building proc
tor (a representative of the faculty
who has control over the building)
throughout the process.
The proctor decides whether to
evacuate the building. If he decides
an evacuation is unnecessary and
UPD disagrees, the UPD can over
ride the proctor’s decision, Wiatt
said.
Twelve bomb threats were re
ceived in the 1986-87 school year.
Seven bomb threats were received
last summer and one was received in
April, Wiatt said. However, he said,
only two prosectutions have resulted
from the threats.
None of the threats have actually
produced a bomb, he said.
In the event that a bomb is recov
ered, the army demolition experts at
Fort Hood would be contacted,
Wiatt said.
“The experts at Fort Hood could
get here pretty quickly by plane so
we don’t worry about the time aspect
that much,” he said. “And, the Col
lege Station Police Department now
has their own specially trained bomb
officer so we now have a local one,
too.”
Wiatt warned that bomb threats
are considered a terroristic threat
and are a class A misdemeanor, pun
ishable by up to one year in jail an
d/or a $2,000 fine.
Photo by Jay Janner
People wait to re-enter Rudder Tower Monday after being evac
uated at 1:30 p.m. because of a bomb threat.
Suspect sought in shooting death
AUSTIN (AP) — Police said Mon
day they were still looking for a man
who fled the scene after a father of
four was shot to death when he
walked to his apartment complex
parking lot to investigate gunfire
that had awakened him.
Although a man was charged with
murder, several witnesses said the
shooting may have been accidental.
The suspect hadn’t been found
Monday morning, police spokesman
C.F. Adams said.
Richard Diaz, 29, went to the
parking lot about 30 feet from his
apartment shortly after 4 a.m. Sun
day. He was shot in the abdomen by
a man who police said was showing
neighbors a .38-caliber revolver and
an electric “stunner” gun.
Diaz was taken to a hospital, were
he was pronounced dead at 5:07
a.m., Police Lt. Jerry Slatton said.
“It’s sad,” police spokesman Kel-
lye Norris said. “He was trying to
save someone else who may have
gotten shot, and his own life was en
ded.”
Lori Dyson, Diaz’s wife, said her
husband and the man named in the
warrant, a 35-year-old neighbor, al
ways had been friendly to each
other. She said she didn’t believe the
shooting was caused by animosity.
“I just don’t understand why it
happened and why he (the man be
ing sought) was playing with the
guns to begin with,” Dyson said.
“I never could understand why
people won’t get involved, and now
Richard does this to keep someone
from getting hurt and he ends up
getting killed,” she said.
One witness, who lives in the
apartment complex, said the shoot
ing happened so quickly that nobody
immediately realized that Diaz was
hit.
The witness, who asked that his
name not be used, said Diaz walked
into the parking lot and asked what
was going on. The suspect quickly
turned around, and the revolver dis
charged, the witness said.
Dyson said her husband awoke
when he heard a gunshot and asked
her if she had heard it.
IRA man murdered at home
BELFAST, Northern Ireland
(AP) — Men dressed as policemen
killed an IRA man Monday while
Cardinal John O’Connor of New
York delivered a sermon a mile away
in which he implored Americans not
to romanticize Irish violence.
Brendan Davidson, a member of
Sinn Fein, the outlawed Irish Re
publican Army’s legal political wing,
was shot in the head after answering
a knock on his door, police said.
Davidson, 33, belonged to the
Sinn Fein, the outlawed Irish Re
publican Army’s legal political wing.
An IRA statement issued in Belfast
said he was one of its members.
He was shot down 48 hours after
an IRA bomb killed a Protestant
couple and their 6-year-old son, who
had just driven across the border
from the Irish Republic.
The IRA took responsibility but
said the attack was on the wrong tar
get. Press reports suggested the in
tended victim may have been a judge
who drove past shortly afterward.
O’Connor learned of Davidson’s
death after leaving Belfast to deliver
a sermon in Armagh.
He said the killing, and Saturday’s
bombing, “poignantly brought into
focus the stupidity, the irrationality
of the cycle of the violence. . . .
Where can this conceivably end?
How this can conceivably please al
mighty God?”
Authorities said three men wear
ing police uniforms killed Davidson
and escaped in a red car.
Sinn Fein said it did not believe
policemen committed the crime.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Iraq
said Monday it will withdraw from
Iranian territory captured in the
past week, prompting hopes of quiet
on the long border warfront when
peace talks begin at the United Na
tions in New York.
Announcers interrupted regular
state television programs to say the
army would withdraw on Tuesday
from from territory captured in the
central border region.
“They will be withdrawn in line
with our declared policy that we
have no territorial ambitions in
Iran,” a military communique read
by the announcers said.
01802402In New York, members
of the U.N. Security Council began
private consultations on an Iranian
complaint that Iraq used chemical
weapons in a weekend offensive in
violation of the 1925 Geneva Con
vention.
Javier Perez de Cuellar, the U.N.
secretary-general, has scheduled
separate meetings this week with the
foreign ministers of Iran and Iraq,
Ali Akhbar Velayati and Tariq Aziz,
in an attempt to reach a truce in the
8-year-old war.
“I plan to begin to talking to each
separately and I hope this might
lead to direct talks,” the secretary-
eneral said as he entered U.N.
eadquarters Monday. Iraq has in
sisted on direct negotiations with
Iran, but the Iranians have not yet
agreed.
Iraq’s withdrawal announcement
came after Iran said its military units
attacked Iraqi forces in southern
Iran early Monday, forcing them to
retreat 25 miles and killing or
wounding 1,500 men.
Tehran’s official Islamic Republic
News Agency, monitored in Cyprus,
claimed an Iraqi jet fighter was shot
down over the border town Sar-i Pol
Zhaab. Iraq said its aircraft flew 261
sorties and all returned safely.
On Sunday, Iraq said it had with
drawn from territory seized in a
drive last week toward Ahwaz in
southern Iran. Both offensives oc
curred after Iran announced accep
tance of a year-old Security Council
truce resolution, and Iran accused
Iraq of trying to sabotage peace ef
forts.
Diplomats and officials in Bagh
dad described the attacks as an at
tempt to strengthen Iraq’s hand in
peace talks.
The Baghdad communique iden
tified towns being evacuated as
Qasr-e Shirin, Gilan Gharb, Soum-
mar and Sar-i Pol Zhaab, and said
Iraqi soldiers also would leave the
villages of Sale Abad, Mir Abad and
Golan. It indicated the Iraqis were
leaving willingly, not because of Ira
nian military pressure.
Iran claimed the Iraqis were
driven out.
Neither side’s claims could be con
firmed independently. Foreign jour
nalists and observers are allowed
into war zones only on rare guided
tours.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini re
ceived visitors on Monday who chan
ted “Please God keep Khomeini al
ive!” and “We are all your soldiers!
We will obey your orders!” and the
87-year-old revolutionary leader re
sponded by waving his hand, Teh
ran radio said.
Ambassadors of both nations, in
terviewed by ABC News, expressed
suspicion but willingness to nego
tiate.
Chemical disposal
pollutes Dallas air
DALLAS (AP) — The health
effects of millions of pounds of
legally discharged hazardous
chemicals in Dallas and Fort
Worth will be difficult to gauge,
experts say.
Local industries reported to
state and federal authorities the
disposal or discharge of many
pollutants, including some that
can damage eyes, lungs, skin and
digestive organs. Many of the pol
lutants are also harmful to the at
mosphere.
The chemicals ranged from ac
ids to toxic metals, from solvents
to suspected carcinogens. In al
most every case they are legal, au
thorized and within state and fed
eral guidelines, the Dallas
Morning News reported in a
copyright story.
The newspaper reviewed re
cords submitted by more than 60
area industries under the federal
“right-to-know” law, enacted in
1986 after the 1984 chemical leak
at a Union Carbide plant in Bho
pal, India and at a Union Carbide
plant in Institute, W. Va. about
eight months later.
Water Commission officials es
timate an additional 100 reports
on Dallas-area companies are
among reams of documents in
cardboard boxes at the commis
sion’s Austin offices. They said it
may be weeks before all the re
ports are processed.
The law “provides us a lot
more information about the dis
charge of toxic substances into
the environment — more than
we’ve ever had before,” said Ken
Kramer, Austin lobbyist for the
Lone Star chapter of the Sierra
Club.
“It’s absolutely incredible, the
amount of stuff that’s going into
the air,” said Deborah Sheiman, a
resource specialist with the Natu
ral Resources Defense Council, a
national environmentalists
group. “A lot of people don’t re
alize.”
Knowledge of the chemicals’
hazards is incomplete and the ef
fects may not manifest themselves
in disease for years or decades.
Some of the toxic chemicals are
inevitable, said Elizabeth Todd,
chief of regulated substances for
the Soutwestern Institute of Fo
rensic Sciences.
“How much these (specific
emissions from individual plants)
relate to how much I actually
breathe sitting here on the
ground is almost impossible to
answer,” said Todd, who is chair
man of a local committee formed
to help carry out provisions of the
right-to-know law.
Pollutants listed in the reports
by area industries include sol
vents such as acetone, toluene,
xylene and ketones; toxic metals,
such as lead, zinc and copper;
common industrial chemicals
such as chlorine and ammonia;
and a variety of acids such as hy
drochloric, sulfuric and others.
The records were submitted by
area chemical plants, defense
contractors, food processors,
high-tech industries, paint man
ufacturers, metal plating compa
nies and other manufacturing fa
cilities.
Total reported annual emis
sions for six of the most widely
used chemicals in the examined
companies exceeded 670 tons,
enough to fill the Goodyear
blimp 83 times.
Armenians decide to end two month strike
MOSCOW (AP) — Workers dusted off
idled machinery, shops reopened and buses
rolled Monday as Armenians in Nagorno-Ka
rabakh quit a two-month strike that failed to
persuade the Kremlin to transfer the region
to the control of a neighboring republic.
One resident said Armenians won’t give up
despite the Soviet leadership’s rejection a
week ago of their demand to take Nagorno-
Karabakh out of the republic of Azerbaijan
and annex it to Armenia.
“The decision has done little for us and we
will continue this fight to the end, but what is
the sense of continuing to strike?” said an en
gineer for the State Broadcasting Committee
in Stepanakert, the main city in the Delaware
sized disputed region.
The decision by Armenians to end the pro
test strikes marks a victory for the Kremlin in
its drive to end the region’s turmoil that
erupted in February.
The strike has devastated the local econ
omy. The Tass news agency reported Mon
day that at one Stepanakert factory, electrical
goods worth more than $7.9 million had not
been produced since the work stoppage be
gan May 23. The factory director was quoted
as saying employees will work overtime to
make up for the lost production that ocurred
during the strike.
Tass said 78.5 percent of the employees re
ported to work at Stepanakert’s 15 major fac
tories.
But the news agency said it will take time to
resume full production at the long-idled
plants.
Workers at a Stepanakert silk factory spent
two hours Monday morning cleaning a thick
layer of dust from their looms and have other
maintenance work to do before production is
back to normal, which some feel is no major
accomplishment, Tass reported.
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the
nation’s parliament, decided July 18 that Na
gorno-Karabakh, whose population of
162,000 is predominantly Armenian and
Christian, will remain part of the mostly Mos
lem Azerbaijani republic to which it has been
attached since 1923.
Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh began
sporadic strikes and rallies in February to
press for annexation with Armenia, contend
ing they suffered discrimination under the
Azerbaijanis. Strikes and rallies also erupted
in Armenia in support of the demand that the
entire country wants.
Tass said buses began running again, food
stores and other businesses reopened, and
construction workers returned to their jobs
Monday in Stepanakert.
“Today people went to work,” the broad
cast engineer said in a telephone interview.
“Transport is operating and we have ended
our strikes.”
The region’s Communist Party officials
traveled to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to
discuss with the republic’s leaders “efforts at
restoring a normal working rhythm and
strenghtening socialist legality and public or
der,” Tass said.
In the Armenian capital of Yerevan, most
workers were reported back on the job after a
strike that began July 4 and tapered off after
last week’s decision.