Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1988)
“Horse racing is a positive, but have no specific plans to open any gambling is not really positive in my new fire stations in the near future. nnininn ” Moccarra canc “1 rli-M-v’t coo PnrrontUi tho Pihj Rman ha<? Texas A&M The Battalion Friday, December 2, 1988 College Station, Texas Aggies display spirit despite losing game Running back Darren Lewis plows the ball through two of Ala bama’s defense Thursday night in the Hurricane Bowl. The Texas A&M Aggies lost the game 30-10. Jackie Sherrill sings the Texas A&M Alma Mater during the football game. Despite allegations of NCAA violations, Sherrill remained sup portive of the football team throughout the entire game. Photos by Dean Saito Vol. 88 No. 68 USPS 045360 10 Pages 200 charged in U.S., Italy for drug trade WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 200 people were charged in a multimillion-dollar heroin importa tion and cocaine distribution opera tion involving Sicilian Mafia figures and the Gambino crime family in New York, the FBI and Italian au thorities announced Thursday. A total of 68 people were charged in the United States and 133 in Italy, stemming from a three-year FBI un dercover operation in which agents traveled to Italy and posed as inter ested buyers who discussed making major drug purchases, the FBI said. As of midday Thursday, 59 peo ple had been arrested in the United States and 20 in Italy. Substantial amounts of imported heroin were sold to the Gambino Mafia family in New York, which al legedly arranged for nationwide dis tribution, according to a complaint filed in the case in Philadelphia. Some of the heroin was passed to buyers in pizza parlors. Arrests were made in Baltimore; Buffalo, N.Y.; Miami; Newark, N.J.; New York; Philadelphia; San Fran cisco; and Rockford, Ill. In Italy, ar rests were being made in Palermo, Bologna and Florence. One of those arrested in the police roundup was Giuseppe Gambino, a nephew of Carlo Gambino, the late reputed head of the Gambino crime family. A complaint filed in Manhattan against 28 people alleged that the or ganization “obtained cocaine in the U.S., transported the cocaine over to Italy, exchanged the cocaine for her oin, so the cocaine was sold in Italy, and the heroin was sold in the U.S.,” U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani said. “They found the best market for their product,” the U.S. attorney added. Giuliani and James Fox, assistant director of the FBI’s New York of fice, said 14 of the 28 charged in New York were arrested. If con victed, they could face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and up to $4 million in fines. Ten people were arrested when the FBI crashed an early-morning party at the Cafe Giardino, a Brook lyn social club. Fox said a popular Italian singer had just finished per forming when FBI agents broke in. “One (agent) walked up to the mi crophone and said ‘This is the last dance. We’re the FBI. You’re under arrest,”’ Fox said, noting that the ar restees submitted peacefully. Officials said the heroin was brought from Italy by female cou riers who strapped the drugs to their bodies, or was shipped as liquified heroin in wine bottles from Italy. At least 37 people named in arrest warrants issued by Italian magistrate Giovanne Falcone are members of the Spatola, Gambino and Inzerillo crime families in Italy and the United States, the news agency ANSA said. The state-run RAI-TV said Italian authorities, with the help of U.S. investigators, arrested seve ral top Mafia figures. The FBI said the operation devel oped from what originally were in dependent criminal investigations in Buffalo, New York and Philadel phia. They grew into a coordinated effort when agents found links be tween many of the targets of the sep arate investigations. Atlantis set after winds to try again delay launch CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Weather permitting, NASA will try again Friday to send Atlantis on a secret military mission after scrub bing Thursday’s attempt because of violently shifting 104 mph winds in the shuttle’s flight path. Officials said they would look at the forecast late Thursday before giving a go-ahead to fuel the space craft again for a launch Friday in a three-hour period beginning at 6:32 a.m. EST. If the weather looked bad, NASA would wait until Saturday. “We’re going to take a hard look at the weather again,” launch direc tor Bob Sieck said. “If it is clearly a no-go tomorrow, we don’t want to exercise the launch team, the crew and the systems.” Navy Cmdr. Robert L. Gibson and his four-man military crew, dressed in uncomfortable, bulky flight suits, had been lying on their backs in cabin seats for nearly five hours Local woman’s alleged killer may be ready for trial soon IT J A'A' BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A 27- year-old transient accused in the death of a young newspaper re porter from College Station could be mentally fit to stand trial within six months, mental health officials say. A three-page report was issued Wednesday on the mental fitness of Rodney Woidtke, 27, a drifter from California accused of killing 24-year- old Audrey Cardenas, an intern at the Belleville News-Democrat. It was the second time in three months Woidtke was judged unfit to stand trial. After Wednesday’s report from mental health workers treating Woidtke, St. Clair County Chief Judge Stephen Kernan ordered the Moslem president chooses first woman prime minister ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Benazir Bhutto became the first woman to lead a Moslem nation when the president chose her Thursday to be prime minister, the post her father held when he was de posed and hanged a decade ago. President Ghulam Ishaq Khan said in a televised address that Ms. Bhutto had the best qualities of lead ership and foresight as a statesman. Thousands of supporters cele brated in streets of the nation’s cities after the long-awaited announce ment. They danced, beat drums and chanted “Long live Benazir!” Bhutto’s party gained 12 more seats in the National Assembly when it voted Wednesday on candidates to fill 20 seats reserved for women. With those her populist Pakistan People’s Party won in the Nov. 16 election, it holds 105 of the cham hope that the recently conducted elections will usher in an era of dem ocratic rule in Pakistan,” a close ally of the United States, said presi dential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. “This is so the new prime minister of our country can take up her responsibility in an environment of complete democracy. ” — Guhlam Ishaq Khan ber’s 237 seats, and she is said to have enough support among minor parties and independents for a ma jority coalition. President Reagan sent a letter of congratulations expressing “his Zulfikar Ali Bhutto founded the Pakistan People’s Party. In 1977, af ter a landslide victory in the last pre vious free election, Gen. Moham med Zia ul-Haq ousted him in a coup. Bhutto was convicted of complic ity in a political murder conspiracy and hanged in 1979. Zia was killed in plane crash Aug. 17 after the election date had been set. An eight-party grouping called the Islamic Democratic Alliance, which included Zia loyalists, won only 60 seats in the election and Wednesday’s assembly vote. Ishaq Khan, the 73-year-old Sen ate chairman who replaced Zia as president, said Thursday he was convinced Bhutto could command a majority in the National Assembly. He also declared the end of a state of emergency imposed after Zia’s death. suspect back to the Chester Mental Health Center. Woidtke has been at the center since September. In its report, his treatment team said he is not fit to stand trial yet, but is making pro gress and could be ready to return to court within six months. Woidtke stood quietly as Kernan read portions of the report into the court record. At the end of the hear ing, after being told he would go back to Chester, he said, “All right.” Woidtke, diagnosed as a par anoid-schizophrenic, is accused of killing Cardenas only 11 days after she had arrived in Belleville from her home in College Station. She was reported missing June 20 when she failed to show up for work. Her body was found about a week later in a dry creek bed on the Belle ville Township High School East campus. Woidtke was arrested the same day, June 26, and charged with ob structing justice for crossing the po lice barricade set up at the high school. He was charged Aug. 16 with murder. The defendant appeared in court Wednesday without the beard and long, shaggy hair he had worn pre viously. He was clad in a beige shirt and tan pants instead of the orange jail-issued jumpsuit he had appeared in at an earlier hearing. Woidtke also is charged with a misdemeanor for attempting an es cape from the St. Clair County Jail three days after his arrest. Thursday when the decision was made to scrub. “They took it in stride, so did the rest of the team,” Sieck said. “We’ve been talking about the threat of this . . . so it came as no surprise.” The astronauts themselves were not heard from publicly because NASA, operating under strict Air Force secrecy requirements, did not carry the usual shuttle-to-launch control conversations over its radio circuit. Using all the resources at its com mand — high-altitude weather bal loons, radar, and a shuttle pilot fly ing through the clouds — NASA continuously sampled the weather before finally calling it quits. “We were watching the weather all the way and finally scrubbed due to the winds aloft,” Sieck said. “There was no hope we were going to get out of the situation.” Rain had left the area and skies had begun clearing, but eight miles above the Atlantic Ocean winds ex ceeded hurricane force. Lawrence B. Williams, a NASA engineer, said the blasts were so powerful and erratic that the shut tle’s computer could not be pro grammed to safely adjust its flight path. Such winds could cause serious damage to the shuttle’s wings. Col. John Madura, an Air Force weatherman, said the storm front that caused the problems would be offshore Friday but could be fol lowed by strong ground winds that might affect a launch. Sources said the countdown, blacked out publicly for security rea sons, had been held twice for one- hour periods. It was allowed to pro ceed to the nine-minute-to-launch mark so that quick advantage could be taken of a break in the weather. None came. After the scrub, technicians im mediately started draining the half million gallons of supercold fuel that feed the shuttle’s three main en gines. NASA’s practice is to go through the loading and unloading cycle only twice in a 48-hour period, then call ing a two-day break to give techni cians a rest. So if weather interfered again with a fueled shuttle on Fri day, the liftoff would be delayed at least until Sunday. The scrub extended Gibson’s un enviable shuttle record for suiting up and getting ready to fly-