The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, September 18, 1990, Image 1
he Battalion oO ° Tiny bubbles Scuba adventure, more fun than Jell-O See Page 9 presents “y [o, the Vol. 90 No. 12 USPS 045360 10 Pages branch j " ' College Station, Texas Tuesday, September 18,1990 l P Pealing' has re. °' >ndivid. ■Pension is ^ et b'iesdav ‘ r ^ n ce ati 1 al ‘ as - Ay 1 made ° nieet in Recrea- or the trip oors trips, s of kayak- i A&M) f® ‘quipmeni, iy and lasts I Junior David Cabrara walks through the fountain in front of the Chemistry Building on his way to class Monday morning. Deter gent had been put in the fountain, causing it to overflow with bub- Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack bles, and Physical Plant workers spent the rest of the day clean ing it. Joseph Sugg, Physical Plant director, said a de-foaming agent must be used to clean the fountain. ach divinp non-A&M ;r soon, fa ul, whichis ido. TheSt 5 stove a' $405 ($43! , all equip ; schedule! -rnber 1, Solidarity leader seeks Polish presidency WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said Monday he will run for presi dent of Poland, a job now held by the general ivho once imprisoned him and sought to crush lislabor union under martial law. Walesa said he hoped to speed the nation’s transition from communism to democracy. “Today I made up my mind. I am putting for ward for society’s approval my readiness to be a candidate for the post of president of the Polish Republic in popular elections,” Walesa said in a statement delivered from his desk at Solidarity headquarters in Gdansk. "For me, it is a fulfillment of the pledge I made in August 1980,” he said, when he cat apulted to worldwide fame by leading strikes that helped create the East bloc’s first independent trade union. Post-Communist Poland’s first fully demo cratic presidential and parliament elections are expected as early as this fall and no later than spring. Walesa has hinted at his presidential intentions for nearly a year, saying he needs to take the post to spur political and economic reforms. In June “Today I made up my mind. I am putting forward for society’s approval my readiness to be a candidate for the post of president of the Polish Republic in popular elections.” — Lech Walesa, Solidarity leader he said: “I do not want to be president. I will have to be president.” Walesa, a 46-year-old shipyard electrician who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, has split with Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the former close adviser he picked to be the East bloc’s first non-Communist government leader. Walesa charges that too many supporters of the old regime remain in key government and state industry posts and that the Mazowiecki govern ment is losing touch with Poles’ problems. Two camps —- the beginning of a multiparty system after four decades of Communist control — have developed from the political feud. One, the Center Alliance, supports Walesa for presi dent and is identified with workers and the Soli darity union in Gdansk. The other, known by the acronym ROAD, backs Mazowiecki and is asso ciated with intellectuals and the government in Warsaw. Mazowiecki, who points to the initial successes of his shock economic reform plan and a host of other changes, has not announced whether he will run for president. Walesa has overwhelming recognition in Po land as the leader of the battle that toppled the Communist regime and sparked Eastern Eu rope’s democratic revolution. Recent opinion polls have put his approval rating slightly below Mazowiecki’s, but his influence remains un matched. The current president, former Communist Party leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, has said he will resign early from his six-year term. 'ED y 400 StU' nural coiv nust com- culmmai ey get 0^ nal Sports ; through' ;ted i" r 24 at 6:1 5, call 845' t Doubles ry Fee 'd: Sept- n ybflh is: jingles ry Fee 3 ted: Od Regents to make journey to Aggieland in Far East Members of the Texas A&M Uni versity System Board of Regents will inspect A&M’s campus in Japan this week and meet with business leaders there. Board members will explore ways for strengthening institutional and international ties during meetings with business leaders from Ko- riyama, Japan. Regents Chairman William McK enzie of Dallas will head the 12- member group. A&M opened a branch campus in May at the request of city and busi ness leaders in Koriyama. Construc tion of facilities and operational ex- E enses for the Japanese campus are eing paid by the city of Koriyama. Koriyama is a metropolitan area about 140 miles north of Tokyo and has a population of about 300,000. Cost of the trip to Japan is being covered by support from the private sector, McKenzie says. In addition to inspecting the new campus and being briefed on opera tions there, the delegation will meet with the mayor and other Koriyama officials. They also will meet with key busi ness leaders in Tokyo and receive a briefing by U.S. Ambassador Mi chael Armacost and his staff at the U.S. embassy. The group departs from Dallas- Fort Worth International Airport Tuesday and returns next Monday. CORRECTION Ajunior yell leader pictured in Monday’s Battalion was incor rectly identified. His name is Drew Davis. Also in Monday’s issue, the fol lowing details were incorrect in a story about the Residence Hall Association and Off Campus Ag gies. The Battalion incorrectly re ported the number of half presi dents. There are 30 presidents and 74 total members of the RH A general assembly. The story also incorrectly stated RHA and OCA members work with the Department of Parking, Transit and Traffic Services to distribute parking spaces. In actuality, two members each from RHA, OCA and Stu dent Government serve on the Parking Oversight Committee, which recommends parking changes to the DPTTS, RHA President Kyle Jacobson said. Jacobson also said a statement about the 24-hour visitation pol icy recently implemented in two halls was misleading. The RHA general assembly passed the pol icy for Epright and Wells resi dence halls, whose hall councils drafted the policy. RHA then rec ommended it to Student Affairs, which implemented the policy for the two Southside co-ed halls. Iraqi troops seize fleeing refugees; mothers, wives given no explanation KHAFJI, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Iraqi troops Monday randomly seized young men among the thousands of refugees fleeing Kuwait but let their sobbing wives, mothers and other women go, refugees said. “My boy! My boy!” one woman shrieked, beating her hands on her chest as she described watching her 17- year-old son disappear. “We were just sitting in the car and they put a gun to his face,” said the 45-year-old woman named Fatima, tears streaming down her face. “The soldier said if he didn’t come now we will shoot him.” Aziza Abdullah, 18, cried for her 23-year-old hus band, also grabbed at gunpoint from their car. “I’ve only been married a month,” she sobbed. Refugees said busloads of men between the ages of 17 and 40 were seen being shipped north, toward Iraq. No explanation was given. Other young men were al lowed to pass through. Many refugees feared the detained would be killed, and they mentioned the names of cousins or friends who were shot on suspicion of resisting the Iraqi occu pation. “Every five minutes there is a new rule. First the women and children can leave, but no men,” said a member of the Kuwaiti government committee helping screen the refugees. “Five minutes later, everyone can leave.” The soldiers manning Iraqi border posts confiscated passports and other documents, forcing some people to wait outside the border crossing for more than 24 hours as their identification was checked for entry into Saudi Arabia. iepartment deputy spokesman Richard Boucher said the confiscation of identity papers “is an ominous sign that these citizens of Kuwait may not be allowed to return to their homes.” The refugees were barred from immediately leaving the city of Khafji. Parking lots, beaches and all public buildings spilled over with the Kuwaitis. Since Iraq on Saturday unexpectedly opened the bor der for the first time in more than a month, about 6,000 refugees have entered Saudi Arabia, said the vice gov ernor of the Eastern Province, Prince Fahd bin Salman. “It’s just a slow process for security reasons,” Prince Fahd said during an inspection tour of the border post. Many arrived only with IDs issued by Iraq, he said. “We are trying to make sure that nothing is smuggled into the country,” he said. “They could use this oppor tunity for anything.” To get the refugees out of the 114-degree heat and swirling dust of a major sandstorm, they were trans ported to air-conditioned schools where they will be fed and housed until they have all been processed, the prince said. Many refugees came up to the prince to kiss his nose or cloak as a show of respect. Some begged him to inter cede to get them into the country more rapidly. “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid,” he assured them. Refugees said the Iraqis turned back all non-Kuwaitis except for a few Western women married to Kuwaiti citizens. In Kuwait, the refugees said, manhunts targeted po lice and military officers, as well as any Westerners still left in Kuwait. Air F orce chief fired by Cheney WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Dick Cheney fired Gen. Mike Dugan as Air Force chief of staff Monday after Dugan’s public comments about contingency plans to unleash massive air raids on Irqq and to target Saddam Hussein per sonally. Dugan, in the top Air Force job only three months, violated Penta gon rules by publicly discussing likely military targets inside Iraq and disclosing classified information about the size of U.S. forces in the gulf area, Cheney said. “There are certain things we never talk about,” Cheney said in ex plaining his decision to fire Dugan. He cited “operational matters” such as the selection of specific targets for potential air strikes and the target ing of foreign leaders. “Gen. Dugan’s statements as re- E orted in the press and as confirmed y him to me — failed all of those tests,” Cheney said. Dugan was away from the Penta gon on Monday and not available for comment, his office said. The Air Force chief took the job in July and quickly gained a reputa tion for openness with the news me dia and the Congress. One gesture that illustrated this departure from past Air Force practice was Dugan’s decision to give defense reporters laminated cards listing his office hone number and the numbers of is chief aides. Dugan, 53, retains his four-star rank, but he is expected to retire. “Protocol demands that he retire,” a Pentagon source said. “There’s no job in the Air Force he could really hold now.” A senior Defense Department of ficial said Cheney fired the general not simply because Dugan spoke openly to the news media but be cause he said things for which he had no authority. “It’s saying things that aren’t true; it’s saying things that weren’t his de cision to make,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonym ity. “He’s not in the operational chain of command, and the idea whether Saddam Hussein is person ally targeted — those are decisions that are up to the president to make.” Cheney fired Dugan after confer ring with President Bush. Before becoming Air Force chief of staff, Dugan was commander in chief of U.S. Air Forces in Europe. He was a combat pilot in the Viet nam War, flying 300 missions. Dugan’s controversial comments, reported Sunday by the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, were made during the Air Force chiefs trip to and from Saudi Ara bia, where he visited Air Force units deployed as part of Operation De sert Shield. Dugan told the newspapers that if the United States and Iraq went to war, the Pentagon planned to un leash an air campaign designed to “decapitate” the Iraqi leadership by- targeting President Saddam Hus sein, his family and even his mis tress. Worn-out photocopiers replaced by new models By JAMES M. LOVE Of The Battalion Staff After more than three years of almost constant use, the weary hotocopiers in Texas A&M’s terling C. Evans Library recently were replaced with 22 new mod els. A! Posey, Copy Center man ager, says the life of a library pho tocopier is not more than three years. “They are used almost 24 hours a day and sooner or later have to be replaced,” he says. Posey says he is pleased with the University’s new three-year contract with New Superior Images. The University pre viously was under a four-year contract with Texas Copy. “We were happy we were able to keep the same 5-cent copy pri ce,” he says. “Many companies considered were asking for 10- cent copies. “These new machines are not fancier or anything, but they are simpler to operate and less intim idating to the user.” He says most students making copies are copying material from books and are not interested in features such as enlarging. The machines copy letter- and legal- size documents. “Most* of all, they just work bet ter,” he says. “This is the first time in a long time all the ma chines in the library have worked at the same time.” Posey also says a trained tech nician is in the library during the day and is on call at night in case any copiers malfunction. “Students are too busy to have to wait and look for a copier that is working,” he says. “Last year was the worst because the copiers were old and frequently breaking down and A&M had a big in crease in students.” Express copiers have been la beled for those making only from one to 10 copies, he says. “This was done to help those students in a hurry and only mak ing a few copies,” Posey says. Another advantage of the new copiers is that all library copiers are adapted for the vendi-card system. Vendi-cards have magnetically recorded amounts and can be purchased in the library. The card is inserted into the copiers as a method of payment. Posey said the system is popu lar on campus. Supreme Court nominee Souter ‘virtually assured’ confirmation WASHINGTON (AP) — Su preme Court nominee David H. Souter said Monday at his confirma tion hearings that letting states out law abortion might cast doubts on other privacy rights. Senators told Souter, testifying on his 51st birth day, that his confirmation was vir tually assured. During a third day of Senate Judi ciary Committee questioning on con troversial issues he would face as a justice, Souter said he opposes a ju dicial ban on the death penalty. He continued to dodge questions concerning his views on abortion but did address the privacy-rights issue and said his personal feelings on abortion would not keep him from taking part in Supreme Court deci sions on the subject. “A lot of people have the feeling that your confirmation process is over,” Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., told Souter at one point. Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., told the New Hampshire judge, “I believe you will be confirmed.” Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, also voiced confidence about Souter’s success. But committee chairman Jo seph Biden, D-Del., said some sen ators, including himself, remain un decided. The 14-member committee will send its recommendation to the full Senate for a confirmation vote Bi den indicated might come “in two or three weeks.” Asked whether he believes the death penalty violates the Constitu tion’s ban on cruel and unusual pun ishment, Souter said, “I think that would be an insupportable constitu tional conclusion. That is an opinion I could not join.” Retired Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, whom Souter was picked by President Bush to re lace, held such a view. The only igh court justice remaining who op poses capital punishment under all circumstances is Thurgood Mar shall. But the court now is far more clo sely divided on its 1973 abortion-le galizing decision, Roe vs. Wade, and Souter again Monday turned aside questions about his personal views on that topic. Pressed by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D- Vt., Souter did say his personal be liefs would not keep him from par ticipating in abortion decisions on the high court.