iker-wearing cow,|
name is Bessie.
nal Agency also!
rs for a TV
il in Georgia, “Dyiii
. Hedgecoth’s
;ot bit parts,
tesn’t have a part;
11 find it—andtrais]
dl us and say you in
that will walkom
I'll tell you,‘Youfj
’ she said.
e charged SlOOan l
nat they payforisll
ir know-how in kl
ie animals," she said |
he Battalion
jesday, November 29, 1988
College Station, Texas
)r.
JANUARY 1
/, January 18,IS!
Center RULES:!!
Men's and
tiveC -NoviceCIa
RDS: ClassA-T-s
ral Motors forspc
-shirts. SCHEDU
8 at 4 PM in 167!
layer on its rostei
Vol. 88 No. 65 USPS 045360 10 Pages
Communists
back Kremlin
in restructure
Jon Mostyn, a sophomore industrial distribution major, pounds the pavement over Welborn Road Monday.
Photo by Jay Janner
ASA starts ‘invisible’ countdown
or launch of shuttle, secret payload
APE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)
NASA set an invisible countdown-
ck in motion Monday for Thurs-
y’s launch of space shuttle Atlantis
th five military men who report-
ly will deploy the $500 million La-
Dsse satellite to spy on the Soviet
lion.
NASA and the Pentagon say the
ght and its cargo are top-secret,
it reports have circulated widely
out the satellite, and even the So
il Union has discussed the mission
rough its news agency, Tass.
The weather could be a problem
r launch day.
A preliminary forecast for Thurs-
ly called for overcast sky, brisk
nds and isolated rainshowers —
ifavorable conditions that would
event NASA from giving the go-
lead for liftoff.
iThe astronauts flew here Monday
ternoon from their training base
Houston and their commander,
avy Cmdr. Robert L. Gibson, told
porters, “We’re ready to go; the
crew is 'excited about the mission, No information has been made
and we-’re anxious to be- under way.” public-about the number 1 or-length
He said he hoped for good weather
on Thursday.
The crew members have been in
structed not to discuss their mission
publicly, and when a reporter
shouted a question about the flight,
Gibson smiled and said, “Good to see
you.”
The pilot is Air Force Lt. Col. Guy
S. Gardner, and the mission special
ists are Col. Richard M. Mullane and
Lt. Col. Jerry L. Ross of the Air
Force, and Navy Cmdr. William M.
Shepherd.
The countdown started shortly af
ter midnight, but because the mis
sion is classified, countdown displays
normally monitored by the news me
dia were blank.
NASA and the Defense Depart
ment made periodic reports that all
was well but said they wanted to
keep the precise progress of the
count secret to hide the exact time of
launch.
of planned “holds,” when the clock
would normally be stopped.
Officials have said Atlantis will lift
off sometime between 6:32 a.m. and
9:32 a.m. Thursday.
Reliable sources have said the
launch will occur about 7 a.m. if
weather and other conditions are ad
equate.
Defense Department officials con
tend the secrecy makes it more diffi
cult for Soviet satellites and spy ships
operating off Cape Canaveral to
monitor the flight and learn its pur
pose.
Critics argue that such secrecy is
unnecessary because the Soviets,
with their intelligence capabilities,
already know a great deal about the
mission.
In fact, the official Soviet news
agency Tass said Sunday, “The main
task of the secret mission is to put
into near-Earth orbit a new genera
tion reconnaissance satellite, code-
named Lacrosse. The satellite will
conduct surveillance of the territory
of the Soviet Union with the help of
updated radar.”
MOSCOW (AP) — The Commu
nist Party Central Committee on
Monday endorsed constitutional
changes that critics say give the
Kremlin too much power, setting the
stage for approval over the objection
of several restive republics.
Officials in Estonia, the tiny Baltic
republic that led the challenge to
Kremlin authority by declaring its
sovereignty in internal policy and its
right to review all new Soviet legis
lation, said they would stand firm
despite a ruling the move was un
constitutional.
The more than 300 members of
the party’s policy-making body,
meeting on the eve of an extraordi
nary meeting of the Supreme Soviet,
or national parliament, declared the
amendments “will mean a major step
along the road of democratization of
Soviet society,” the official Tass news
agency said.
It instructed President and Com
munist Party chief Mikhail S. Gorba
chev to make a report on the amend
ments to the Supreme Soviet.
The Central Committee promised
election campaigns “unlike all the
previous ones as real competitive
ness of candidates is introduced in
the political life of the country,” Tass
said.
Gorbachev proposed the amend
ments to make the system more
democratic, but the Estonians, as
well as activists in Latvia, Lithuania,
Armenia, and Georgia have crit
icized them for taking away some of
the local control that Gorbachev has
said he wants to foster.
They say the amendments take
away the right of the 15 Soviet re
publics to secede, giving a new
2,250-member Congress of People’s
Deputies the right to determine the
boundaries of the Soviet Union.
Those republics have demanded
major changes in the amendments,
or that they be rejected outright.
Some legislators from the small re
publics have said they will object in
the Supreme Soviet, but they most
likely will be far outnumbered by
deputies from much bigger repub
lics such as Russia and the Ukraine.
The amendments were approved
by the Presidium of the Supreme So
viet, the Soviet government’s highest
executive body, on Saturday with
unspecified changes resulting from
complaints and suggestions included
in more than 250,000 letters.
Gorbachev and the Presidium
flatly declared Estonia’s move un
constitutional.
In a speech made public Sunday
night, Gorbachev accused the Esto
nian leadership of undermining the
unity of the Soviet Union, and used
the word “crisis” to describe the con
frontation between Estonia and
Moscow.
“Our future is not in weakening
ties among the republics, but in
strengthening them, in broadening
cooperation,” Gorbachev said in the
speech, which was delivered Satur
day to the Presidium of the Supreme
Soviet.
Estonian Communist Party leader
Vaijno Vyalas, speaking on tele
vision in the republic late Sunday,
told Estonians, “We will not retreat,”
according to Valle Feldman of the
republic’s Foreign Ministry.
“Only the Estonian parliament
can change the decisions of the Esto
nian parliament,” Feldman said.
“We have rights, and Moscow has
rights, too.”
T he Central Committee said party
organizations must work out several
unclear points of relations between
Moscow and the republics on the ba
sis of “the course of the party for
widening the rights of union repub
lics and autonomous formations,”
but that the Soviet Constitution must
be strictly observed.
It said that questions of ethnic re
lations must be fully discussed with
local officials before a plenum is
held next year on the subject, and
expressed confidence that any prob
lem could be worked out.
In other action, the Central Com
mittee expelled one full member, In-
amzhon Usmankhodaheyev, and
two candidate members, Ismail Dz-
habbarov and Akil Salimov, named
by a leading magazine editor earlier
this year in a bribery case.
In a speech to the Communist
Party conference at the Kremlin in
June, Ogonyok magazine editor Vi
taly Korotich had accused four un
identified Uzbekistan officials of ac
cepting bribes.
UPD stakeouts during holiday
net two suspected auto burglars
:xTSEMEsi„hristmas celebrations
ancelled in Bethlehem
Mon-Thu 3RM liBBETHLEHEM, Occupied West
dent IDorTAMufr* ^. P) -T The Pale £ tinian to . wa
Where Christ was born has canceled
>allS for $1.50. v. j ts trac |i t j ona | j 0 y 0us Christmas cele-
t for $2.00. Clubfilbrations in because of the year-long
id or call 845-7Kf evo * l: a g a i nst Israeli occupation.
■ “We don’t see any reason to cele-
——...-dfate Christmas,” Deputy Mayor
■anna Nasser said Monday.
B“We have to show concern for our
■fad nnd for our detainees,” he sa id.
eld to determine a:| More than 300 Palestinians have
in 5:30 PM,Tue,Mai»en killed and 5,000 arrested since
mural Champion8S»e uprising began Dec. 8, 1987, in
'M be included inlhl^e occupied West Bank and Gaza
Ting Intramural-Reef‘P- which Israel captured from
April 17 and will R fe hat be^Wn 1967
rebellion was three weeks old, pro
vided a foretaste.
Mayor Elias Freij canceled the
Christmas Eve reception and the
Boy Scout parade was smaller, but
streamers and lights went up in the
square and the tree blazed with
blinking neon balls.
Only about 2,500 visitors came, 75
percent fewer than in 1986.
Some were kept away by the driv
ing rain but others apparently
feared the violence.
By Stephen Masters
Senior Staff Writer
University Police stakeouts over the Thanks
giving holiday netted two juveniles suspected of
breaking into at least 11 vehicles on the Texas
A&M campus.
UPD Director Bob Wiatt said officers who
staked out in Parking Area 61, better known as
the Fish Lot, heard glass break. He said they no
ticed a Camaro with its headlights turned off and
two individuals running from car to car.
Both suspects are 16, he said. One is from
Hearne and the other was listed as a missing per
son from Pasadena, Texas, he said. Authorities
have since said the youth is a runaway, Wiatt said.
He said he believes the parents of the runaway
have been contacted.
Both are being held in the Brazos County Ju
venile Detention Center for felony burglary of a
motor vehicle, punishable by up to 20 years, he
said. But even if convicted, the suspects will be
released when they turn 18.
The names of the suspects cannot be released
because they arejuveniles, Wiatt said.
Because the incidents occurred over the holi
day, so far only four of the owners of vandalized
vehicles have been contacted by UPD.
In addition to the seven vehicles broken into in
PA 61, one each in PA 24 and PA 40 behind the
Commons, one in PA 39 behind Cain Hall and
one on Clark Street west of the MSC were van
dalized, Wiatt said. Six of the 11 vehicles broken
into were Camaros, he said.
Wiatt said the suspects’ Camaro was “stuffed to
the gills” with several thousand dollars worth of
stolen items, including equalizers, CB radios,
checkbooks and a garage door opener.
“They took everything that wasn’t nailed down
and even some stuff that was,” he said.
Wiatt estimated the damage at near $7,000
and the value of the property recovered at about
$2,000.
In another incident Thursday, a Texas A&M
student and a Sam Houston State University stu
dent were arrested for misdemeanor criminal
mischief for flattening tires on four vehicles in
PA 61, Wiatt said. The type of misdemeanor can
not be determined until the value of the tires is
determined. The valve stems on the tires were
completely removed, he said.
Both were released pending charges. The
names of the two students will not be released
unless charges are filed, Wiatt said.
Wiatt said two vehicles were hit by both the
valve stem removers and the thieves, but said the
two crimes were not related.
Wiatt said the stakeouts were initiated to pre
vent people from taking advantage of the de
creased number of students on campus during
the holiday. The stakeouts began on the night of
Nov. 23 and continued through Sunday.
Delta crash blamed on mechanical failure
IALS
m o]
r d
Bavi
I'w
Six Palestinians from Bethlehem
fcd surrounding refugee camps
lave been killed and hundreds are
ong the total of more than 7,000
lounded.
■ A spokesman for the Israeli mili-
■ry government said he was un-
ople interest t ware of the decision and declined
.. Comment.
meting Mono® Cancellation would be a blow to
matinn rall™ rae ^ at a t * me w h en much of the
IMculUM, UdlllpfQj-iti f ocuses it s attention on Beth-
Ifthem.
Nasser told the Associated Press
e town government called off all
ficial celebrations, such as the
hristmas Eve reception for Israeli
fcd Palestinian dignitaries and the
finnual Boy Scout parade.
■ Manger Square, usually decorated
ilding so comeo#? bri S ht srr ! n S s of colored lights,
• * k ■'ll remain dark and its 40-foot
le is to be annOU(lBj lr istin aS tree wall be left bare, he
RSVP by DecemlX T , ,
I East year s Christmas, when the
GRAPEVINE (AP) — On the eve
of a hearing by the National Trans
portation Safety Board, the Air Line
Pilots Association announced Mon
day that mechanical failure, not hu
man error, caused the crash that
killed 14 people.
An airline pilots’ union says fed
eral investigators are focusing on
“premature findings of pilot error”
in the August crash of Delta Flight
1141.
Evidence the NTSB gathered
from wreckage revealed that the
plane’s flaps were not in takeoff po
sition, and NTSB investigators
found the flap lever set wrong.
But pilot union representatives
said it is likely that the three-person
flight crew of the Boeing 727 prop
erly set the plane’s wing flaps. They
said a mechanical problem set in mo
tion a sequence of events that led to
the crash.
“It would seem to us that there
has been a premature and automatic
finding of pilot error,” Capt. Jim
Gray, Delta spokesman for the Air
Line Pilot’s Association, said. “A
finding of pilot error was probably
made on the first day — the very
first day.”
NTSB spokesman Mike Benson
said the agency has reached no con
clusions.
“The hearings start tomorrow and
they’re going to be full and comple
te,” Benson said Monday. “Nobody’s
prejudged anything.”
The union argues the airplane
may have had a malfunction called
“split-flap configuration.”
ALPA spokesman John Mazor
said the wing flaps may have stuck in
opposing positions — one up, one
down — robbing the plane of power
and lift.
Mazor said the union’s theory an
swers many questions surrounding
the Aug. 31 accident at Dallas-Fort
Worth International Airport, in
Grapevine.
It explains the airplane’s unusu
ally long roll before taking off near
the end of the runway, the aircraft’s
pitch to the right, the stall of the five
engine compressors and the snap
the crew heard before takeoff, he
said.
It also shifts blame from the pi
lots.
The cockpit voice recorder picked
up the second officer acknowledging
the proper flap setting, but NTSB
officials have said the plane’s out
moded flight data recorder pro
vided little help.
Transcripts of conversations
amoncr Fliorhf 1 141’s rrew members
included an 18-minute social visit to
the cockpit by a flight attendant
while the plane was waiting for take
off.
Gray said a “quick and dirty inves
tigation” by federal officials might
result in a finding of pilot error. He
also said it appears, based on indica
tions such as the list of witnesses for
this week’s hearing, that NTSB offi
cials are targeting Delta and the Fed
eral Aviation Administration for the
agency’s relationship with the air
line.
NTSB investigators have stressed
that no conclusions will be released
during the hearing. The board’s fi
nal report isn’t expected for six
months.
Benson also said the witness list
was agreed on several weeks ago by
all the parties involved, including
the pilots union.
Investigators already have
charted the plane’s wreckage and in
terviewed those aboard the plane
and other witnesses. The plane’s
three engines also were analyzed.
Thirteen people died as the plane
split open and the fuselage exploded
in flames just off a south runway at
the airport. Another man later died
of injuries suffered as he tried to
make his way back onto the burning
plane to save his trapped wife.
But 94 others aboard the Salt
Lake City-bound plane survived.
That’s another reason federal offi
cials are taking such a careful look at
Flight 1141.
Scrutiny of another Delta crash at
D-FW Airport also resumes Tuesday
in Texas. A trial to assess liability in
the 1985 crash of Delta Flight 191
was to resume in Fort Worth.