I
TheBattalion
Ul I
ightinp Vol. 88 No. 183 USPS 045360 6 Pages College Station, Texas
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WEATHER
TOMORROW S FORECAST:
Partly cloudy with slight chance
of rain in the afternoon.
HIGH: 90s LOW: 70s
Friday, August 4,1989
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George Meeks, a senior construction science major seems to be
scoping out the scenery instead of the topography as graduate
student Alesya Paschal walks to her class in the Zachry Engi-
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
neering Center Thursday afternoon. Writing down the mea
surements for his Civil Engineering 202 surveying class is Kelly
Harris.
Clements signs bill
outlawing burning
of U.S., Texas flags
AUSTIN (AP) — Gov. Bill Clem
ents on Thursday signed into law a
bill making it a crime to desecrate
the United States or Texas flags, a
response to the U.S. Supreme Court
ruling in a Dallas case that held flag
burning as a constitutionally pro
tected expression.
The new law makes it a misde
meanor, punishable by up to a year
in jail, to burn, mutilate, destroy or
deface the state or U.S. flag.
The dispute over protecting flags
resulted in a filibuster attempt dur
ing the special legislative session that
ended last month.
Sen. Craig Washington, D-Hous-
ton, talked for 12 hours and 20 min
utes, against a resolution calling on
Congress to exempt desecration of
the U.S. and Texas flags from the
constitutional protection of freedom
of speech.
Washington finally relented, say
ing he had made his point with the
public against tampering with the
constitution, and the Senate passed
both the resolution and the legis
lation.
Lawmakers rallied to protect the
flag after the Supreme Court ruled
in favor of Gregory Johnson, who
burned a flag in protest at the 1984
Republican National Convention in
Dallas.
After the decision, President Bush
urged passage of a constitutional
amendment to ban flag burning.
State Sen. Hugh Parmer, D-Fort
Worth, introduced the bill outlawing
flag burning in Texas, saying there
was no need to wait for Congress to
enact a constitutional amendment.
“If we wait on a constitutional
amendment, the United States flag
will remain unprotected in Texas for
at least the next two years,” Parmer
said. Speaker Gib Lewis, D-Fort
Worth, sponsored the legislation in
the House.
In addition to the flag bill, Clem
ents signed 28 other measures
Thursday, including so-called “hate
crimes” legislation and a tax break
for producers generating oil
through enhanced recovery pro
jects.
The hate-crimes bill will increase
from a misdemeanor to a felony the
penalty for damaging or destroying
a place of worship, or a community
center that offers medical, social or
educational programs.
The bill was a response to the
damaging of synagogues by white
supremacists called “skinheads,”
backers said.
The oil tax bill will reduce the oil
production tax reduced from 4.6
percent to 2.3 percent for 10 years
on oil produced from certain en
hanced recovery techniques. The oil
industry sees the measure as an in
centive to increase drilling activity.
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9 p.m.
Group gives Israel
new terms to save
American hostage
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) —
The pro-Iranian group holding
Joseph Cicippio hostage said
Thursday it would spare his life
temporarily but indicated the
American still could be killed
“within days” unless Israel met
new, tougher terms.
When the original threat to kill
Cicippio was made Monday, his
captors demanded the release of
a Shiite Moslem cleric Israeli
commandos kidnapped July 28.
The new terms include release of
unspecified “Palestinian and Leb
anese” guerrillas.
Israel has offered to swap
Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid and
other Lebanese Shiites it holds
for Western hostages and three
Israeli soldiers held prisoner in
Lebanon.
The latest announcement came
in a handwritten statement from
the Revolutionatary Justice Orga
nization delivered to a Western
news agency 45 minutes before
the 10 p.m. (3 p.m. EDT) dead
line it had set for Cicippio’s
death.
It was the third time since
Tuesday the group held off on its
threat to kill Cicippio.
The statement in Arabic was
accompanied by a photograph of
Cicippio from the waist up with
the trace of a smile on his face.
“Out of respect for the inter
vention by the parties and states
with whom America pleaded to
mediate and stop the execution,
we declare the freezing of the
death sentence and its subsitution
with an initiative,” the captors’
statement said.
The group demanded free
dom for Obeid, a Hezbollah spiri
tual leader. It also demanded Is
rael release Palestinian and
Lebanese guerrillas held in Israel,
and it said it would provide their
names to the Red Cross at a later
date.
“Acceptance (of the demands)
should be announced within
days, otherwise the initiative will
be considered canceled,” it said,
implying that the death sentence
for Cicippio would be reimposed.
The group earlier had given
Cicippio a four-hour reprieve
from death, and it released a vi
deotape in which he read a
statement asking Israel to free
Obeid.
President Bush said he was
pursuing every diplomatic means
of resolving the hostage crisis,
while “prudently planning” for
possible military action if Cicipio
was murdered. White House
spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said
no decision had been made on
whether to use force.
A leader of Hezbollah, the pro-
Iranian Shiite movement thought
to be behind kidnappings of
Westerners in Lebanon, said mili
tary action would bring “ruthless
reprisal.”
Well-informed Shiites in Bei
rut said they believed Iran and
Syria were playing a role in keep
ing Cicippio alive.
On Monday, the captors of Lt.
Col. William R. Higgins said they
had hanged him in retaliation for
the abduction of Obeid.
e
Japanese firm sets up
scholarships for A&M
Texas A&M joins Harvard as two
U.S. universities selected by Mitsui
and Company for major scholarship
support for students preparing for
careers in international business.
The Japanese firm, now the world
leader in revenue, is providing sup
port for 10 international business
scholarships at A&M.
President William Mobley will
host a luncheon Tuesday in Houston
to commemorate the establishment
of the scholarships. He has invited
Houston business and civic leaders
to join in thanking Mitsui and Com-
B ’s top Texas representatives,
ed by Yoshi Kawashima, senior
vice president in charge of the Hous
ton regional office. Kawashima
serves on the advisory board for
A&M’s new Institute for Pacific Asia.
The institute’s activities include
coordination of the planning for an
A&M branch in Koriyama, Japan.
Plans call for the campus to be built
with funds furnished by the city of
Koriyama and its business commu
nity. A&M began offering English
language courses in Koriyama this
summer.
The international business schol
arship program established by Mit
sui and Company will be adminis-
tered by the Center for
International Business Studies in the
College of Business Administration.
Mobley established the center when
he was dean of business administra
tion.
Bush administration says reprieve
doesn’t fill U.S. hostage demands
Colonel pushes for U.S
AUSTIN (AP) — The ground force commander in
the ill-fated 1980 Iran hostage rescue attempt said
Thursday the United States should work to get infor
mation needed to rescue Americans being held in Leb
anon.
“I’d like to see the United States be able to go in there
and eliminate all of those terrorists and bring those
beautiful hostages home,” retired Army Col. Charlie
Beckwith said.
“I’d like to see us do it in such a vigorous way that we
tell the rest of the world, ‘Never fool with the United
States again,’ ” he said.
But based on comments by President Bush, Beckwith
said he doubts that a rescue mission will be possible un
less the United States gets more information. Bush
should pressure the Central Intelligence Agency to
come up with the necessary facts, he said.
“In order to put a scheme together, you need the
hostage rescue attempt
linchpins. The linchpins are intelligence informa
tion ... to tell you where the hostages are and where the
terrorists are,” Beckwith said.
“I don’t think we have that kind of information right
now. I’m very frustrated over that,” he said.
Beckwith was critical of the CIA, saying the agency
has not been active enough since the death of William
Casey, a former director.
“They’re not doing anything — we don’t want to
make any ripples,” he said.
The CIA relies too heavily on electronic wizardry
and has forgotten about the need for “a pair of good
solid eyeballs, and a good human being on the ground,”
Beckwith charged. “It’s just a shame.”
It is important for the United States to take a stand in
the current hostage crisis, he said. Terrorists claimed
they killed one American hostage in Lebanon and
threatened to kill another.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Bush administration called Thurs
day’s reprieve in the threatened exe
cution of hostage Joseph Cicippio
“an encouraging and hopeful devel
opment” but said it did not fulfill
U.S. demands for the release of all
the hostages.
The announcement by Cicippio’s
captors lowered tensions at the
White House and elsewhere. But it
appeared unlikely to lead to an im
mediate recall of U.S. naval power
converging on the eastern Mediter
ranean, a precaution taken in the
event Cicippio were killed and Presi
dent Bush ordered a military strike.
“I urge everyone to keep in mind,
especially in regard to the ships, that
we still have a serious problem in the
Middle East,” Bush’s spokesman,
Marlin Fitzwater, said. Hostages are
still being held, he said, adding that
he did not expect “any quick
changes” in the military deployment.
Earlier, Fitzwater said Bush had
made preliminary decisions “of ev
ery kind” about how the United
States would respond if terrorists
killed Cicippio, following the re
ported Monday execution of Marine
Lt. Col. William R. Higgins.
Thursday was the threatened exe
cution date of Cicippio by the Revo
lutionary Justice Organization.
However, 45 minutes before the
deadline, the radical group said it
would spare his life temporarily.
The captors indicated Cicippio
still could be killed “within days” un
less Israel met new, tougher terms,
including release of unspecified Pal
estinian and Lebanese guerrillas.
Originally, they had demanded only
the release of a Shiite Moslem cleric
kidnapped by Israel, Abdul Karim
Obeid.
Fitzwater, asked whether the
United States was considering seek
ing extradition of Obeid from Israel
for trial in connection with possible
involvement in the kidnapping of
Higgins, said, “The Justice Depart
ment, I am told, is looking into the
case.”
A federal law enforcement source
said the FBI was reviewing statutes
to determine if the murder of Hig
gins was a violation of a 1986 anti
terrorist act.
There was an obvious sense of re
lief in Washington that Cicippio had
been spared.
At the White House, Fitzwater
said, “We regard this as an encour
aging and hopeful development.”
“But it still does not answer our
continuing concern for release of all
hostages,” Fitzwater said in a written
statement.
Judge gives Mosbacher deadline
to begin protection of sea turtles
WASHINGTON (AP) — Shrimpers could be forced
to use turtle excluder devices if Commerce Secretary
Robert Mosbacher fails to take immediate steps to pro
tect endangered sea turtles from drowning in fisher
men’s nets, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
Under U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan’s
ruling, Mosbacher has until Monday to draft alternative
guidelines to the TEDs regulations to protect the en
dangered turtles, especially the Kemp’s Ridley.
If Mosbacher misses the deadline, Hogan said he
would go along with the National Wildlife Federation’s
request that the Commerce Department be compelled
to enforce the TEDs regulations.
“We intend to submit regulations for publication (in
the federal register) by next Monday which would per
mit shrimpers to either limit their trawl times or use
TEDs,” Commerce Department officials said in a
statement.
Commerce spokesman Brian Gorman said the
agency, however, had not yet determined how often
shrimpers would be required to pull their nets to check
for entangled turtles.
“Mosbacher’s decision Monday is a true litmus test
for the Bush administration’s commitment to this na
tion’s environmental agenda and the Endangered Spe
cies Act,” Tom Miller, a spokesman for the Center for
Marine Conservation, said after Thursday’s hearing.
Mosbacher suspended enforcement of the TEDs reg
ulations July 24, after shrimpers, who contend the de
vices reduce their catch by up to one-third, blockaded
shipping channels along the Texas Gulf Coast in pro
test and threatened violence against lawmen who at
tempted to board their trawlers.
At the time, Mosbacher also said that after 45 days,
shrimpers would be required to pull their nets every 90
minutes, the length of time some officials say a turtle
can survive submerged.
Mosbacher has since proposed regulations requiring
shrimpers to pull their nets every 105 minutes, but Ho
gan said that in the interim, endangered sea turtles
have been left “totally unprotected.”
“They have been totally abandoned by the secretary,”
said Hogan, who ruled from the bench that Mosbach
er’s decision appears to “fly in the face” of a congressio
nal mandate that the TEDs be used effective May 1.
Protecting sea turtles from shrimpers has been at is
sue for nearly two decades and Congress passed the
TEDs law, Hogan said, “after years and years of study
and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of
hours to determine the best method to preserve these
species.”
And while Atlantic Coast shrimper fishermen have
successfully used the TEDs, Hogan said it is regrettable
Texas and Louisiana shrimpers “cannot find it possi
ble” to use the devices even for a season.
Wildlife federation attorney Jan Goldman-Carter
told the court the shrimping season is at its peak in
Texas and Louisiana, putting the endangered sea tur
tles at their greatest risk of death.
A&M receives
$10,000 grant
for symposium
Texas A&M University’s
Mosher Institute for Defense
Studies has received a $10,000
grant from the Fort Worth divi
sion of General Dynamics.
The grant money will be used
to underwrite expenses incurred
during a Mosher Institute disar
mament symposium in Houston
earlier this year titled “Toward a
More Stable Military Balance in
Europe.”
Some 175 participants rep
resenting 12 foreign nations and
the United States along with me
dia representatives from Great
Britain, France, Switzerland,
Sweden and American-based
publications and news services at
tended the two-day conference,
which planners and participants
called an unqualified success.
“General Dynamics was priv
ileged to be a major underwriter
of this prestigious event,” said
Charles A. Anderson, vice presi
dent and general manager of
General Dynamics’ Fort Worth
Division.