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The Battalion
Vol. 90 No. 87 USPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, February 5, 1991
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United
States reacted skeptically Monday to Iran’s of
fer to mediate the Persian Gulf War, and
President Bush declared, “We have to go for
ward and prosecute this to a successful con
clusion.”
“It’s going according to plan,” Bush confi-
dendy assured the nation’s governors, sum
moned to the White House for briefings on
the $1.45 trillion federal budget he submitted
to Congress.
The Budget earmarks $15 billion as a “pla
ceholder” for increased military spending for
the war.
Iran’s President Hashemi Rafsanjani of
fered to meet Saddam Hussein for talks on
ending the 19-day-old war. Rafsanjani also
said he was willing to resume official contact
with Washington in the interests of peace.
“What’s to mediate?” State Department
spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said. “The
only mediation ... that would be appropriate
would be for the people who communicate
with Saddam Hussein to convince him to
comply with the 12 United Nations resolu
tions” demanding Iraq’s withdrawal from Ku
wait.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said, “If
someone can come up with a diplomatic reso
lution that achieves that objective, that would
be fine, but I frankly don’t expect it.”
White House press secretary Marlin Fitz-
water said Iran “is not directly involved in this
conflict and our interest is in getting Iraq out
of Kuwait.”
The United States and Iran severed rela
tions after the 1979 seizure of American hos
tages at the American Embassy in Tehran.
Tutwiler renewed Bush’s offer two years ago
for direct talks with authorized representa
tives of the Iranian government.
“We are going to set the timetable for what
lies ahead,” Bush said.
“I have confidence that we’re doing the
right thing, and I have confidence that it is
going the way we planned,” the president
said.
“And there have been no surprises, and
there will not be any quick changes, nor will I
try to tie the hands of the military because I
just feel we have to go forward and prosecute
this to a successful conclusion,” Bush said.
“I would not underestimate the amount of
work that remains to be done,” Cheney said.
The secretary refused to speculate about
when a ground war might begin. “We have
not established any sort of artificial timeta
ble,” he said at a news conference. “There is
no drop-dead date ... out there by which we
feel we have to act.”
Bush said he would send Congress a sup
plemental request to cover costs of the fight
ing. Budget Director Richard Darman said
the administration hopes U.S. costs will not
go much higher than the $15 billion figure.
“They feel a substantial portion of the war
costs are being paid by the coalition” of na
tions aligned against Iraq, Democratic Gov.
Booth Gardner of Washington said as he left
the White House. “But there are some costs
for this country.”
The administration defended allied bomb
ing raids that Jordan says have injured and
killed Jordanian truck drivers on Iraq’s high
way from Baghdad to Amman. U.N. Secre
tary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar con
demned the attacks,
The State Department’s Tutwiler said the
trucks were traveling through a war zone
“and specifically through an area that has
been the source of Scud attacks against neigh
boring states.”
“Moreover, we have credible information
that war material, including some related to
Scud missiles, has been transported in convoy
with civilian oil trucks,” she said. “Such
material contributes to Iraq’s occupation of
Kuwait and is a legitimate military target.”
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MIKE C. MULVEY/The Battalion
Coors Distributing account representative Bobby Reneau cleans
up some of the beer remaining on Briarcrest Road in Bryan after
50 cases spilled out of the open door of a Coors trailer. The door
had come ajar following a delivery by the driver. The TABC also
made an appearance at the cleanup site.
Researcher designs pump
o improve artificial heart
$
The Battalion Staff
A Texas A&M bioengineering re-
earcher is bringing life to a new ar-
ificial heart designed to overcome
pgOplij^proMems in present models.
^ Dr. Gerald Miller, director of the
A&M Human Systems Engineering
Laboratory, is developing an artifi-
ial heart that uses a centrifugal
)ump more efficient than previous
Jumps.
The new pump — called the Tesla
urbine — relies on centrifugal force
ind friction to move fluids and has
)een used to propel rocket fuel. The
urbine can produce tremendous
low rates. Miller says.
Blood flow rates are a major con-
:ern for artificial heart designers, he
lays. The concept of the artificial
leart is limited by how much flow
he device can produce. Miller says.
“The normal human heart can
produce five times the (usual)
ount of flow during exercise,”
iller says.
Presently available designs are not
seful for certain types of people, he
-dsol
A limited blood flow might be suf-
icient to meet the needs of a 70-
5- rob' 1 year-old patient, but it might not be
iequate for a 35-year-old, he says.
Older artificial hearts use pneu-
latic-powered sac-and-valve sys-
ftms or “pusher plate” pumps to
—etc
Senate approves Regent appointees
By iv
Of The
Mike Luman
Battalion Staff
The Texas Senate unanimously
approved Gov. Ann Richards’ two
appointees to the Texas A&M Uni
versity System Board of Regents and
confirmed Regent Royce E. Wisen-
baker to a third six-year term.
Alison Leland, an investment
banker from Houston, and Mary
Nan West of the A&M College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences Devel
opment Council became full-fledged
regents after Monday’s Senate vote.
Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Aus-
tin, and chairman of the Senate
Committee on Nominations, said
Monday the new regents will work
for increased access to higher educa
tion for minorities.
Last week Barrientos told Leland
and West he was not satisfied with
A&M’s progress in work concerning
accessibility of Texas universities to
Hispanics and blacks.
“I think they (Leland and West)
are outstanding individuals who will
work for the schools and the benefits
of all Texans,” Barrientos said.
The new regents also fielded ques
tions about hazing during the confir
mation process, he said.
“We were assured they would do
everthing possible to see students
aren’t hurt in anything as crude as
hazing,” Barrientos said.
Leland, the first black woman on
the Board, graduated in 1980 from
Spelman College in Atlanta and re
ceived a law degree from George
town University in 1985.
She is a member of Spelman Col
lege’s Advisory Council Interna
tional Affairs Center and of the
Texas Opera Theatre.
Leland’s husband, U.S. Rep.
Mickey Leland, was killed in a plane
crash in August 1989 while trying to
organize famine relief in Ethiopia.
A Richards supporter, Leland, 32,
replaces Regent L. Lowry Mays of
San Antonio.
West, chairwoman of the San An
tonio Livestock Exposition Board,
replaces Regent John A. Mobley of
Austin.
A native of Batesville, West grad
uated from St. Mary’s Hall and then
attended the universities of Arizona
and Colorado.
West owns 10,000 acres in Val
Verde County and runs her grand
father’s 36,000-acre ranch near Ba-
See Regents/Page 9
Iranian mediation effort fails
Silver Taps
ceremony
to honor 1
The solemn sound of buglers
playing “Taps” and the sharp
ring of gunfire will be heard on
campus tonight as one Texas
A&M student who died during
January is honored in a Sil
ver Taps ceremony at
10:30 in
s front of the
Academic Build
ing.
The deceased
student being honored
is:
• John C. Lusk, 24, a
senior recreation, parks
and tourism science ma
jor from Springtown,
who died Jan. 7.
Dating back almost a
century, the stately tra
dition of Silver Taps is
practiced on the first
Tuesday of each month
from September
through April, when
necessary. The names of de
ceased students are posted at the
base of the flag pole in front of
the Academic Building, and the
flag is flown at half-staff the day
of the ceremony.
Lights will be extinguished and
the campus hushed as Aggies pay
final tribute to fellow Aggies.
The Ross Volunteer Firing
Squad begins the ceremony,
marching in slow cadence to
wards the statue of Lawrence Sul
livan Ross. Shortly after, three
volleys are fired in a 21-gun sa
lute, and six buglers play a special
arrangement of “Taps” three
times — to the north, south and
west.
Student lectures on apartheid
By Julie Hedderman
Of The Battalion Staff
A definite feeling of resignation
and acceptance exists among upper-
class, educated white South Africans
that things have to change, but there
is also a reluctance for those changes
to occur, said a South African stu
dent.
Roger Horrocks, a Texas A&M
junior philosophy major, spoke and
answered questions Monday night
during the Student Coalition
Against Apartheid and Racism
meeting.
“Let’s face it,” he said. “Our way
of life is very good.”
Horrocks, a member of SCAR,
said he was uneasy about embracing
a particular perspective and was a
spectator most of the time while liv
ing in South Africa, although he did
participate in some anti-apartheid
protests.
“Apartheid itself was developed in
attempt to solve the kind of cultural
mix that evolved in the country,” he
said. “It has to go, it has to change.”
However, he does not
see an immediate
change occurring.
The period of transition
the country is now going
through is difficult on
people his age. They
nave little faith in the fu
ture and are uncertain
about their roles in it,
Horrocks said.
He also said young
people do not have a
strong identity as South
Africans and tend to em
brace an American way
of life.
Horrocks said his
knowledge of South Af
rican history is question
able because the text
books he studied in
school were written by
white educators for white students.
Horrocks asked how many of the
people at the SCAR meeting had a
working knowledge of South Afri
can history. Of the 18 people there,
only one raised her hand.
Roger Horrocks
Horrocks then asked the audi
ence, “How can you be so concerned
about South Africa when you know
nothing about it?”
Horrocks said economic sanctions
on South Africa have affected every-
HUY THANH NGUYEN/The Battalion
one in the country, but they have
had the most economically damag
ing effects on the blacks, despite the
positive political results.
See Africa/Page 9
drive blood through the circulatory
system, Miller says.
This is a cumbersome way of op
erating an artificial heart because
older pumps use an inefficient elas
tic bag to collect air built up in the
bloodstream, he says.
Miller continues to work on the
device because of limits of available
artificial hearts. He says he wants to
become more responsive to the an
ticipated need for the devices.
In January of last year, the Food
and Drug Administration decerti
fied the most well-known artificial
heart, the Jarvik-7, for use as a total
replacement.
Miller says the Jarvik-7 model had
many problems associated with it, in
cluding difficulties with the pump
and its bulky power supply.
Other models still are certified by
the FDA and researchers are consid
ering some for implantation in peo
ple.
However, Miller says these devices
are used mainly on a temporary ba
sis to assist patients recovering from
open-heart surgery.
“It’s been quiet in terms of total
heart replacement,” he says.
The new heart will be simpler and
more responsive and able to regulate
flow and pressure electronically, he
says. The improved design avoids
flow and valve problems and also re-
See Heart/Page 9
Inside
2 Mail Call
’the itch’
Cartoons
4
7
What’s
Up
Wilson
column
Weather Outlook
■si
Wed Thurs
Partly Cloudy
Cloudy
Fri
Rain
Focus
Hall of Shame
Directors vote
to permanent
ly exclude
Pete Rose
from Coopers-
town ballot.
page?
Spill dredges up problems
Oil harms marine life
a?
By Elizabeth Tisch
The Battalion Staff
Destruction of tiny organisms
called phytoplankton is one of the
most devastating results of the Jan.
25 oil spill in the Persian Gulf, says
Texas A&M graduate student
Khaled Al-Abdulkader.
lankton are the main pro-
‘Phytopl
cers of
says. “They utilize light in the water
to produce organic materials.”
Al-Abdulkader, who received his
undergraduate degree in aquatic sci
ences, has studied ecology of phyto
plankton since 1987.
The native of Saudi Arabia has
conducted research on these orga
nisms in the Persian Gulf as a re
search assistant at King Fahd Uni
versity of Petroleum and Minerals in
Dhahran.
He presendy is pursuing his mas
ter’s degree in oceanography at
A&M.
Al-Abdulkader says he only can
speculate about the damage of last
week’s oil spill, which U.S. officials
call Iraq’s attempt to halt U.S. mili
tary forces in the gulf.
He says, however, his speculations
are based on past research of oil
spills in the Persian Gulf.
“This is not the first in the Persian
Gulf,” he says. “There have been
several during the Iran-Iraq war.”
In 1970, a storm damaged an off
shore oil pipeline, spilling 100,000
gallons of oil into the gulf. In 1983,
Iraq hit an Iranian oil pipeline dur
ing the eight-year war.
Al-Abdulkader says he is not sure
of the amount spilled in 1983 but
this latest dumping is far worse and
possibly more damaging than the
1989 Alaskan Exxon Valdez oil spill.
“It was stated in a Saudia Arabian
newspaper Saturday that 1.5 million
tons of oil were released into the
gulf,” he says. “The largest batch of
oil is 80 by 25 kilometers but spread
ing southward slower than what was
reported earlier in the week.”
Earlier statements reported the
batch moving at a rate of 20 kilome
ters a day.
The oil patch prevents sunlight —
m eded to sustain phytoplankton —
from penetrating the water.
“Phytoplankton is the base of the
pyramid of the food chain for ma
rine animals,” he says.
Oil also will damage coral reefs
which are the main breeding
grounds and shelter for phytoplank
ton and other marine life, Al-Abdul-
kader says.
The lack of these organisms will
cause a deficiency of food for fish,
birds, dolphins and whales.
Al-Abdulkader says nature will
play a much bigger part in cleaning
up the oil than efforts made by
cleanup crews from the Environ
mental Protection Agency and Arab-
American oil companies.
The amount of time necessary for
surface water to be mixed and re
placed by water from the ocean floor
in the Gulf — or residence time —
can be two and a half to seven years,
he says.
The gulfs counterclockwise circu
lation also will exchange water with
the Arabian Sea through the Strait
of Hermuz.
Al-Abdulkader says the Persian
Gulfs residence time most likely will
be two and a half years, but the cir
culation rate is difficult to determine
during winter months.
“It is hard to predict the circula
tion rate at this time because the win
ter winds are slowing down the
flow,” he says. “Also, the gulf has
only one relatively small opening,
which is the Strait of Hermuz.”
One reason the Persian Gulf re
covered from past oil spills is be
cause the gulfs marine life repro
duces quicluy, he says.
“Although the Persian Gulf has
See Ocean/Page 9