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See Page 7
Vol. 90 No. 82 CISPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, January 29,1991
Attack apparently halts oil dumping
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia
(AP) — The U.S. military said to
day an attack by American war-
F lanes apparently has halted
raq’s dumping of oil into the
Persian Gulf. Iraq maintained
that the spill was caused by an al
lied attack.
Army Brig. Gen. Pat Stevens
IV tola reporters the extent of
the giant on spill — estimated by
the Saudi government at 460
million gallons —remains un
clear. But, he said, “It appears
we have stopped the flow of oil.”
At a separate briefing, a Saudi
military spokesman, Col. Ahmed
al Robayan, said the oil spill fire
was “getting smaller and
smaller. He said that may mean
the U.S. air raid knocked out the
pumps feeding the oil spill.
Sixty-nine Iraqi aircraft have
flown to Iran, including 39 fight
ers and bombers, Stevens said.
He added: “I’m not disap-
^ ^ We would be absolutely not worth our salt as
military people if we ignored the fact that those
planes coulafly out of Iran after us. 9 9
Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf
Commander, U.N. Allied Forces
f >ointed to see them flee into
ran because once there they are
no longer a threat to us.”
A British government source
said later in the day in London
that about 100 Iraqi warplanes
have gone to Iran.
There were no Iraqi Scud at
tacks Sunday night or early to
day, but at night Patriot missile
firings and warning sirens sig
naled yet another missile attack
on Riyadh. Witnesses said the
Patriots intercepted one Scud
missile.
Since the war began, Iran has
hurled 52 Scud missiles — 27 at
Saudi Arabia and 25 at Israel.
Iraq has an estimated 700
combat aircraft, and Saddam
Hussein has largely kept them
out of the air since the allied as
sault began. The allies say Iraq
has lost 49 aircraft during the
war, including 22 that have oeen
shot down.
Although Iran has said it
would confiscate the planes for
the duration of the war, U.S. of
ficials have said they have to con
sider the possibility the planes
were going to Iran to shield
them from attack.
“We would be absolutely not
worth our salt as military people
if we ignored the fact that those
planes could fly back out of Iran
after us,” Gen. H. Norman
Schwarzkopf said on Sunday.
The Baghdad government
claimed today a U.S.-led attack
on Kuwait on Sunday started a
fire and spilled oil into the gulf.
The United States said its war
planes attacked a Kuwaiti oil fa
cility Saturday in an attempt to
halt the flow of crude that was
creating the world’s worst oil
slick.
Stevens said nothing about a
second U.S. attack on the oil fa
cilities.
The Baghdad radio broadcast
did not mention the giant oil
slick, which U.S. officials main
tain was begun by Iraqi forces in ‘
Kuwait.
The Saudi News Agency re
ported Saudi Oil Minister Hi-
sham Nazer told the Saudi Cab
inet today that Iraq has pumped
460 million gallons of oil into the
gulf. He also was quoted as say
ing the flow apparently has been
halted.
Police continue search
JAY JANNER/The Battalion
Investigators search Monday for Dr. Peter John H. Sharpe in the oengineering professor has been missing since Thursday. His
Brazos River under the Highway 21 bridge. The Texas A&M bi- van was found Thursday night near the bridge.
Conference attendance tops last year’s numbers
By KATHERINE COFFEY
Of The Battalion Staff
Attendance at last weekend’s
Southwestern Black Student Lead
ership Conference was almost dou
ble last year’s figures, which bodes
well for the future of the event, the
SBSLC chairwoman said.
Vivian Warmly, a Texas A&M se
nior marketing and management
major from Houston, said 700 stu
dents attended the conference,
about 300 more than last year. She
said she expects the number to in
crease to more than 800 next year.
Warmly, involved with the confer
ence since 1988, said the variety of
conference speakers — ranging
from politicians to historians and en
trepreneurs — added to the annual
A&M event.
Lorinda Beckmann of the Depart
ment of Multicultural Services said
Tony Brown was among the most in
teresting speakers because his mes
sage was for all races.
“He (Brown) had emphasis about
America, and not just the black com
munity,” Beckmann said. “I’ve been
to all three conferences and he was
the best in addressing the whole au
dience.”
Warmly said students came from
See SBSLC/Page 10
List of illegal voters
under investigation
by district attorney
By MIKE LUMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
The Brazos County Voter Registrar’s Office has turned over a list of
200 to 300 potentially illegal voters in November’s elections to the district
attorney’s office for investigation.
District Attorney Bill Turner said a large portion of the people are
Texas A&M students who were hot registered to vote in Brazos County,
but mistakenly signed voting affidavits.
By signing an affidavit, a person swears he or she is a resident of and
registered to vote in Brazos County.
More than 1,800 A&M students mistakenly registered to vote in other
counties last semester by putting their parents’ addresses in the “perma
nent mailing address” portions of voter registration cards.
Turner said students who thought they were registered in this county
and voted in Brazos County because of last semester’s voter registration
mix-up should not worry about legal action.
“We’re not going to prosecute people who acted from a state of confu
sion,” Turner said. “My intent is to detect deliberate fraud that took place
in the election.”
Last semester’s mix-up started Nov. 1 when Brazos County Republican
Chairman Rodger Lewis accused Voter Registrar Gerald “Buddy” Winn of
fraud.
Lewis claimed that Winn, a Democrat, tried to reduce the local Repub
lican vote by mailing student voter applications with permanent addresses
to the locations listed.
Winn made no attempt, to determine if students really meant to regis
ter in Brazos County, Lewis said.
Turner said he also received allegations of “impropriety” committed
by some voter registration deputies.
He said the deputies, who gave instructions on how to register and how
to fill out registration cards, are being investigated by the Brazos County
Attorney’s Office.
No allegations center on Winn, Turner said. He added that Winn’s of
fice supplied the list of deputies and potentially illegal voters to the district
attorney’s office.
Turner said he would begin his investigation by speaking to voters on
the list.
“There are two sides to every story,” he said. “It would be premature at
this point to say anyone violated the law. We’ll ask students, listen to their
response and decide what to do.”
Turner said this sort of investigation occurs after every election, and
other possible violations on the list deal with people who registered late or
registered and changed residences.
“Our job is to listen to their explanation,” Turner said.
He added that the district attorney’s office was working with the Texas
Secretary of State’s Office and A&M’s Student Government to “clean up
this problem, so we won’t have this confusion again.”
Club uses ‘ham’ radio
to try contacting families
By JULIE MYERS
Of The Battalion Staff
Texas A&M’s Amateur Radio
Club can attempt to contact people
in the Middle East, but transmission
from the area has been sparse since
Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, a club
member says.
Brian Maves, a meteorology grad
uate student, says the all-volunteer
organization received messages for
about two days after Iraq invaded
Kuwait Aug. 2, but radio operators
have not heard anything since then.
Maves says the club would be glad
to try to contact families, but there
are only a few “ham” radio contacts
in the area, with the exception of Is
rael.
“It’s a matter of chance,” Maves
says. “Someone would have to be us
ing their radio at the same time of
day in the same region we are trying
See Radio/Page 10
Sociologist: Allies must
make surrender safe
By MACK HARRISON
Of The Battalion Staff
Air attacks against ground forces
in Iraq and Kuwait might induce
Iraqi troops to surrender, but only if
they believe they will be safe doing
so, a Texas A&M sociologist says.
Dr. James Burk, an associate pro
fessor of sociology, says the allies
must meet two conditions to con
vince Iraqi troops to surrender.
Coalition forces must disrupt the
Iraqi military’s ability to provide for
troops’ survival needs and also make
the surrender process both physi
cally and culturally safe for Iraqi sol
diers, he says.
“If these two factors are met, I
think it is possible they will surren
der,” Burk says.
If the allies can disrupt the Iraqi
military’s ability to meet survival
needs at the platoon or squad level,
then the U.N. forces will have estab
lished a precondition for surrender,
he says.
See Surrender/Page 10
Service offers free ‘Desert Fax’
By KAREN PRASLICKA
Of The Battalion Staff
While sending a letter to the
Middle East might take weeks,
“Desert Fax”, a free fax service
available until Wednesday, can
get messages of support to U.S.
troops within two days.
Post Oak Mall, a local radio sta
tion and a local long-distance
phone company have joined to
gether to provide the service to
show support for U.S. personnel
participating in Operation Desert
Storm.
Dan O’Neil, program director
for KAGG-FM, says he decided to
start “Desert Fax” after hearing
about a similar AT&T program.
Since October, AT&T has been
sending free faxes from more
than 400 AT&T phone centers
across the United States to U.S.
forces in the Middle East. The
closest AT&T phone center to
Bryan-College Station is in Hous
ton.
“There’s a lot starting to hit
close to home,” he says.
O’Neil says he knows from per
sonal experience how frustrating
it is to sit day after day and not
hear from family and friends.
O’Neil served in the Vietnam and
Korean wars.
Bill Stephenson, president of
Star Tel Long Distance Co., says
he believes U.S military person-
MIKE C. MULVEY/The Battalion
Junior A&M student Jennifer Coffelt watches Brent Sanders write
a note to his former commanding officer, who is stationed in the
Middle East. The free fax service was provided by Star Tel, Aggie
96 and Post Oak Mall and will be provided through Wednesday.
nel need to know they have sup
port at home.
“We would love for everybody
to know we’re here doing this,”
he says.
Susan Douglass, a Star Tel em
ployee working on the project,
says more than 500 people al
ready have used the service.
Faxes are sent to Houston,
where they then are sent into a
network. The network sends
transmissions to the main army
command post in the Persian
Gulf area. Command posts pass
out the messages to soldiers.
Douglass says fax transmissions
take between 24 and 48 hours to
reach the Middle East.
John Hornar, a Texas A&M
student, sent a fax to a soldier
even though he does not have
family or friends stationed in
Saudi Arabia.
“I support the troops and ev
erything they’re doing over the
re,” Hornar says. “It got to the
point where I thought I ought to
get involved somehow.”
Post Oak Mall donated space
for project “Desert Fax,” and Star
Tel has a table set up in the mall.
People are encouraged to go and
send a fax.
A list of 50 to 75 names of U.S
personnel is available for people
with no relatives or friends in the
gulf. “Desert Fax” will continue
through 9 p.m. Wednesday.