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The Battalion
ifol. 88 No. 128 USPS 045360 14 pages College Station, Texas
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Friday, April 7,1989
North takes stand; defends role in Contra case
WASHINGTON (AP) — Oliver North
firmly defended his Iran-Contra role
Thursday from the witness stand at his
criminal trial, declaring he was merely a
Marine following White House orders. “I
was not stepping in, I was brought in,” he
said.
North was stopped before he could re
spond to his lawyer’s suggestion that then-
President Reagan had designated him for
the role. Asked directly who told him to se
cretly help the Nicaraguan rebels, North
named former National Security Adviser
Robert McFarlane, McFarlane’s then-dep
uty,John Poindexter, and the late CIA Di
rector William Casey.
North’s testimony came shortly after his
lawyers read the jury a lengthy statement —
agreed to by prosecutors — that said
George Bush had played a role as interme
diary in Reagan’s secret effort to aid the Ni
caraguan rebels after Congress banned of
ficial U.S. help.
As rapid-fire developments replaced the
sometimes-languid pace of the trial, now in
its seventh week, the jury heard that Bush
personally told the president of Honduras
in 1985 that extra aid was being funneled to
his country. In earlier testimony, McFar
lane had said that the aid was part of a se
cret agreement calling for Honduras to
help the Contras.
At the White House, press secretary Mar
lin Fitzwater said, “We can’t say anything. It
would become a part of the case.”
North, who faces 12 felony charges in
cluding lying or misleading Congress and
then-Attorney General Edwin Meese III
about his efforts to help the Contras, testi
fied that he had been ordered by his superi
ors to keep silent about his role in keeping
the rebels going after the cutoff of official
aid.
“1 was told not to tell anybody,” North
said. “I was particularly admonished” to
keep secret “that another country was pro
viding millions of dollars to help the Con
tras.”
That was an apparent reference to Saudi
Arabia, which supplied some $32 million in
aid to the Contras, beginning in mid-1984.
North described himself as an orders-
obeying Marine who had planned to return
to Camp Lejeune to command a battalion
when top officials in the Reagan adminis
tration enlisted him to run the secret Con
tra opera! ion in 1984.
“Was there a time when you were step
ping in” to help the Contras? North lawyer
Brendan Sullivan asked.
“I was not stepping in; I was brought in,”
North replied.
Sullivan asked whether North “under
stood” that Reagan had designated him as
the Contras’ new provider. Prosecutor John
Keker objected; U.S. District Judge Ger
hard A. Gesell sustained the objection and
North didn’t answer.
On point after point, North said he had
permission of superiors. For Project De
mocracy, as the help to the Contras was
known, he said he had the approval of Mc
Farlane, Poindexter and Casey. The orders
to keep secret the contributions from other
countries came from the president, Casey
and McFarlane, he said.
“I never made a single trip down there or
a single contact,” North said of his frequent
visits to Central America, “without the per
mission, the express permission, of Admiral
Poindexter or McFarlane or usually without
the concurrence of Director Casey.”
McFarlane had testified that he told his
staff members the congressional ban on
helping the Contras did apply to them, but
North said “I never heard” that.
As for raising money, he said, referring
to himself and potential contributors, “I
knew Colonel North could not ask them for
money.”
After the congressional ban cut off offi
cial U.S. aid, North said he told Casey that
“all the money in the world” wouldn’t re
place the former CIA assistance.
Faculty association
will lobby for rights
of minorities, women
By Mia B. Moody
REPORTER
Texas A&M’s recently formed
chapter of the Texas Faculty Asso
ciation will work to improve wom-
en’sand minority rights, tenure allo
cation and faculty representation in
the state Legislature.
Claudine Hunting, president of
A&M’s TEA chapter and professor
in the modern and classical language
department said that in recent years
concerns about inequality have fo
cused on conditions facing racial mi
norities.
"Right now equal rights for His-
panics and blacks is a hot issue,” she
said. “People are forgetting women
are having problems. TFA will ad
dress this issue because women are
not receiving the same salaries, re
search support or equal opportuni
ties for professional growth as men.”
Hunting believes this problem
might be linked to the University ad
ministration.
“From the standpoint of many
faculty members whom we have spo
ken to, the administration is per
ceived as insensitive to the faculty
cause, especially when dealing with
women,” she said. “TFA will try to
make changes in this area.”
Hunting said administrative prob
lems also are encountered concern
ing faculty freedom.
She said administrators are given
a free hand in dealing with faculty
members. They have nobody to an
swer to. The faculty, on the other
hand, has to answer to students and
administrators.
“We believe that faculty members
should be given more equity,” Hunt
ing said. “TFA hopes to bring equity
and academic freedom to faculty
members and give faculty members
a voice in University governance like
faculty members at other universi
ties are given.”
TFA will address the use of token
ism in the hiring process at A&M.
Hunting said that although many
people don’t realize it, tokenism is a
problem at A&M. She said that
many times minorities are hired so
administrators can say they have a
black or a woman in their depart
ment.
Hunting said TFA is concerned
with clearing up tenure rules be-
See Faculty/Page 7
a
Practical geometry
Phil Mott, a senior mechanical engineering major from Waco,
stands on top of a staircase outside the Engineering Physics
Photo by Kathy Have man
Building Thursday. By the way, the ball is a light-post globe, and
the oval-looking object is a shadow-obstructed support column.
Class of ’89 picks
three class agents
at induction dinner
By Anthony Wilson
CITY EDITOR
Jay Kregel, Cindy Milton and
Jim Simon were elected class
agents for the Class of ’89 at the
senior induction banquets Tues
day and Wednesday nights.
Katy Bradberry, class pro
grams coordinator for the Asso-
ciation of Former Students, said
1,633 seniors voted at the dinners
but declined to comment on the
margin of victory, saying only
that “it was close.”
Class agents are the link be
tween the association and the
dass they represent.
They are responsible for the
class newsletter, which is printed
three to five times a year, and for
keeping the association updated
on class marriages, births,
changes of address and other vi
tal information.
Class agents, which serve a
five-year term, the longest of any
volunteer on the association
Council, also are responsible for
promoting the association to the
class and providing information
on association activities.
Kregel, a civil engineering ma
jor from Houston, is the deputy
Corps commander, the Ross Vol
unteers’ historian and the Corps’
public relations officer.
He also has been active in Stu
dent Government and Chi Epsi
lon, the civil-engineering honor
society.
Kregel said he perceives the
class agents’ role as being respon
sible for “keeping former stu
dents in touch with A&M and
their fellow classmates.”
"The main purpose of the asso
ciation is to help the University
complete its mission,” he said.
“The mission of the association is
to support the University. It’s
A&M’s mission to service the state
and nation in research and edu
cation.”
Milton, a senior journalism ma
jor, has held staff and editorial
positions on The Battalion and
The Aggieland. She is 1988-89
editor of the yearbook.
Milton was a delegate to the
Fall Leadership Retreat and
serves on the senior class gift
committee.
“I feel loyalty to A&M, and
with my communication skills I
thought I’d be good at it,” she
said. “From what I’ve seen of the
newsletters, I know I can make
mine more interesting. With Jim
and Jay being members of the
Corps, they will help uphold the
traditions.”
One of Milton’s goals for the
dass agents is to raise funds
through the Class of ’89 to aid fi
nancially strapped students.
“We can raise enough money
from our class to start more fi
nancial programs for students,”
she said. “That’s important to the
future of A&M.”
Simon, a Spanish major from
Houston, is a member of the Ag
gie Band, the MBA/Law Society
and the Corps’ public relations
committee.
He also was chairman of this
year’s Military Weekend commit
tee.
Simon said he hopes to add
good planning and organizatio
nal skills to the position.
“It’s important that the friends
we develop here keep in touch
with each other,” Simon said.
Like Milton, Simon said he has
established some goals.
“I’d like to do anything I can to
help the library and students fi
nancially,” he said. “I don’t know
the practicality of doing that with
this organization, but those are
two of my concerns.”
Ueberroth agrees to buy out Eastern
NEW YORK (AP) — A group led
by former baseball commissioner
Peter V. Ueberroth agreed Thurs
day to buy strike-crippled Eastern
Airlines for about $464 million, and
union officials said they were cau
tiously optimistic the deal could end
the month-old walkout, at the na
tion’s seventh-biggest airline.
The deal, announced at a hastily-
called news conference by Ueber
roth and Texas Air Corp. Chairman
Frank Lorenzo, still must be ap
proved by Eastern’s major creditors
and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Furthermore, the deal requires
Eastern to reach new work
agreements with its three unions —
which would get 30 percent own
ership of the airline in return for
contract concessions — by midnight
Tuesday.
Ueberroth flew to Washington
immediately after the news confer
ence Thursday afternoon to meet
with representatives of Eastern’s
unions. The talks broke up at
around 8 p.m. CDT and were sched
uled to resume Friday morning.
“Under this agreement Eastern
can be back flying in very short or
der,” Lorenzo said. “Eastern is pre
pared to be back flying within 24
hours . . . after agreement is reached
with the unions.”
The Miami-based carrier has been
virtually grounded since March 4 by
a Machinists union strike that was
supported by pilots and flight atten
dants and drove Eastern to file for
bankruptcy protection and reorgani
zation on March 9.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The su
per collider cleared its first budget
hurdle of the year when a House
committee voted Thursday to autho
rize construction of the $4.6 billion
particle accelerator in Texas.
Although the subcommittee on
energy and research development
agreed to spend $250 million on the
super collider in next year’s budget,
panel chairman Marilyn Lloyd, D-
Tenn., said the full Committee on
Science, Space and Technology must
still approve the project.
“To sum it up, it’s a mammoth
challenge,” said Ueberroth, who will
meet with Eastern unions this week
end in Washington.
“I’m convinced that there is a
spirit among the people in the com
pany that I can help bring together
to help this airline.”
Although Texas Air has endorsed
the Ueberroth plan, other suitors
still might submit competing propo-
“The will of the committee will be
expressed at that time,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd’s subcommittee approved
the Energy Department’s energy re
search and development budget
with no debate on the collider,
agreeing with President Bush’s re
quest for $160 million for initial con
struction of the project and $90 mil
lion for research and development.
Financing the super collider at the
$250 million level, however, means
deep cuts will have to be made in
other energy research projects, said
sals to the bankruptcy court.
Nevertheless, the Ueberroth deal
was greeted with cheers by union
members, who consider Lorenzo as a
union buster.
“It looks like mighty Casey has
struck out,” laughed 26-year veteran
Sal Fallavollita, a Miami-based East-
See Eastern/Page 7
Rep. Harris W. Fawell, R-I1L, and
the shape of those reductions will in
fluence his support of the supercon
ducting super collider.
Rep. Joe Barton, an Ennis Repub
lican whose district includes the SSC
site, said Thursday’s vote “gives us
good momentum for the next stage”
and predicted approval by the full
committee next week.
“I feel . . . vindicated,” Barton
said. “I have said every time asked
that I felt we were in good shape in
the authorization process.
Committee approves collider funding
Botha announces plan to step down
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — President
P.W. Botha, South Africa’s strong-willed leader since
1978, on Thursday announced his intention to retire
after elections to be held by September.
His party made it clear it wanted a new president.
Botha, whose grip on power began to loosen after a
stroke in January, told Parliament that an early general
election will be held on an unspecified date within the
next five months.
Botha, 73, did not state explicitly that he would re
tire, but he said the outgoing president would hand
over the official seal to a new president following the
elections.
The new president is expected to be Education Min
ister F.W. de Klerk, who succeeded Botha as leader of
the National Party on Feb. 2. Many Nationalists view de
Klerk as more flexible than Botha and more capable of
breaking the country’s black-white political stalemate.
The state-controlled South African Broadcasting
Corp., in a commentary to be broadcast Friday, said
Botha “made it dear he did not intend to stand for an
other term.”
Botha “now enters the last months of a political ca
reer that has spanned more than a half-century,” the
commeuidi y said.
He has presided over the country’s worst racial un
rest and deepest international isolation but also its most
ambitious race reforms and foreign policy initiatives,
including plans for the independence of Namibia.
Botha said he would dissolve Parliament in May and
then set a date for the election. The voting is expected
to take place between July 24 and Sept. 6.
After the election, an electoral college dominated by
the majority party in the white chamber of South Afri
ca’s racially separate Parliament — virtually certain to
be Botha’s National Party — will choose the new presi
dent.
Botha returned to work in March after spending
eight weeks recuperating from his stroke while his offi
cial duties were carried out by an acting president. Con
stitutional Development Minister Chris Heunis.
During Botha’s convalescence, National Party news
papers and politicians began suggesting the president
make way for a new generation of leaders. Botha de
clared he planned to stay in office until 1990, and the
party’s parliamentary caucus then adopted a resolution
saying it wanted de Klerk to be president.
The party lacked the constitutional power to force
the president from office.
P.W. Botha
Battalion file photo