I
■ TexasA&M Q ■ B I •
tie Battalion
Only in New Orleans
A look at the sights,
sounds and smells of
Mardi Gras
See Life Style
/ol. 90 No. 94 CJSPS 045360 16 Pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, February 14, 1991
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eaths threaten solidarity
es.
ngc
II of innocent civilians in Iraq threatens the soli-
rity of the international alliance against Sad-
m Hussein and could intensify pressure on
esident Bush to move swiftly toward a decisive
hound war.
Bush’s predicament was worsened Wednesday
by news that perhaps 500 people were killed in
li allied air strike on an underground structure
1 Baghdad. The administration called the struc-
Ire a military command center and said it was
uncertain why civilians were there.
| The grisly news f ootage of charred bodies and
■ailing survivors suddenly gave a hard reality to
what the administration had been trying to dis-
jmiss as merely an Iraqi “propaganda and P.R.
battle.”
For days, the White House had been arguing
bt civilian casualties were far lower than
Haimed by Saddam Hussein and that Iraq was
trying to exploit the unfortunate but inevitable
civilian losses.
With confirmation of many civilian deaths, the
administration quickly shifted tactics to put the
blame on Saddam rather than continue to debate
who was winning the public relations contest.
The White House reminded Americans that
Saddam used hostages last year as “human
shields” at strategic sites and now claims to have
placed prisoners of war at military facilities that
might be bombed by the allies. The administra
tion said, two MiG-21s were “parked near the
front door of a treasured archeological site” in
the ancient city of Ur.
Iraq’s Scud missile attacks have been aimed at
civilian centers in Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“He kills civilians intentionally and with pur
pose,” White House press secretary Marlin Fitz-
water said of Saddam. “Indeed, he time and
again has shown a willingness to sacrifice civilian
lives and property that further his war aims.”
The graphic pictures of slain civilians are sure
to fuel antiwar sentiments around the world and
put strains on the coalition of forces against Sad
dam. In turn, that could push Bush to resort to a
ground war sooner to bring the war to an end.
The Soviet Union already had been com
plaining about the extent of casualties and dam
age from the U.S.-led bombing attacks.
“I don’t doubt that this will be used to the hilt
as a propaganda vehicle,” said Retired Adm.
Thomas Moorer, former chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff.
However,. Moorer and others predicted Bush
would resist pressures to begin a ground war pre
maturely. Bush’s objective is to wage war in a way
that keeps allied casualties as low as possible,
Moorer noted.
“I don’t care how much pressure they put on
the president but I’m confident he will not
change his plan,” the admiral said.
Drug raid
Sting operation leads
to arrest of 12 people
J.S. relations
>vith Soviets
vill improve,
irofessor says
By Troy D. Hall
The Battalion
Relations between the United
tales and the Soviet Union only can
mprove in the future, says professor
inatoly Fedoseyev from Leningrad
niversity in the Soviet Union.
“It’s impossible in my mind to
urn our thinking to the past and live
n the atmosphere of the Cold War,”
Fedoseyev says.
While participating in a professor
:xchange program, Fedoseyev led a
liscussion group during last week’s
Student Conference on National Af
fairs. He also spoke to several classes
during his three-week visit to Texas
A&M.
While at A&M, Fedoseyev says he
discovered similarities between stu
dents attending A&M and Lenin
grad University.
“I have been acquainted with the
direction of students in the U.S. in
the past,” he said. “They are active
and open-minded and interested in
different regions of the world.”
Fedoseyev said both universities’
students seem concerned with the
changes in Europe and the Baltic re
publics. He also answered questions
about the present situation in the So
viet Union.
Fedoseyev says the role of the So
viet government has not changed,
but top officials now are under at
tack from opposing forces. As a re
sult, he says these pressures have in
fluenced domestic policy.
“The instability in the Baltic re
publics is a natural process,” he says.
“These people in the republics want
to achieve independence; they want
natural self-expressibn.”
He says he believes domestic pol
icy problems might be a result of so
cial, economic and political policies
in the Soviet Union.
“It is not correct to use these mili
tary forces against the people,” Fe
doseyev says. “It has only been re
cently our top officials have
recognized the great mistake from
previous military conflicts.”
Fedoseyev also says the Soviet
government just recently has made
information open to the public.
Fedoseyev served in the Red
Army during several military con
flicts, including the invasion of Af
ghanistan.
He says he is convinced U.S.-So
viet relations are headed for better
times.
“With the exchange of peoples,
educators and policy, the result can
only be more stable contact,” he says.
HUY THANH NGUYEN/The Battalion
Roses are red
Roses are by far the most popular flowers on Val- land Flowers, says. She says she ordered more
entine’s Day, Jimmie Walston, owner of Aggie- flowers and hired extra help to meet demand.
By Mike Luman
The Battalion
Brazos County narcotics officers
arrested 12 “college age” people
Wednesday on charges of drug traf
ficking during the culmination of a
months-long sting operation.
Lt. Gene Knowles with Brazos
County Narcotics said 15 people
were placed under warrant on
Wednesday, most of them college
students from Texas A&M or Blinn
College.
Knowles said undercover Brazos
County and Brazos Valley officers
f iurchased drugs from the 15 de-
endants during the past few
months.
“The operation began in Septem
ber and is just now coming to a
head,” Knowles said.
No undercover drug buys took
place on the A&M or Blinn cam
puses, he said.
Knowles said the 15 defendants
are charged with 32 indictments in
volving possession and sale of LSD,
Ecstasy, marijuana, cocaine, meth-
amphetamines and amphetamines.
Officers began arresting de
fendants in their homes in Bryan
and College Station at 5 p.m.
Those arrested were booked and
jailed at the Brazos County Court
house. Knowles said a judge will set
bail for the defendants this morning.
The following people were ar
rested Wednesday and charged with
delivery of a controlled substance:
James Brando Barrett, 21; Joseph
Bush, 17; Robert James Callson Jr.,
24; Joan Scott Eddy, 27; Michael
Green, 22; Dean Andrew Quinn, 24.
Terry Radke, 27; Todd Allen
Radke, 26; Daniel B. Roberts, 30;
George Rubio, 20; Greggory Sarkas-
sian, 19; and Jason Tiemann, 20.
Space reporter stresses
caution in news reporting
Gas fire creates underground inferno
CARMICHAEL, Calif. (AP) —
Gasoline from a wrecked tanker
truck turned the storm drains of an
affluent suburb into rivers of flame
Wednesday, burning four homes,
injuring three people and forcing
the evacuation of 300 residents.
An eyewitness said the driver of
the truck was speeding and lost con
trol on a sharp curve on a major ar
tery through the Sacramento suburb
about 3 a.m., California Highway
Patrol spokesman Bob Carlson said.
Fuel from the 8,400-gallon tanker
poured into open ditches and from
there into the storm drain system’s
underground pipes. Officials said
they didn’t know what ignited the
gasoline.
“The creek behind us caught fire,
and we grabbed the kids and ran,”
resident Lisa Daum said. “Manholes
down the street were exploding and
flying off. You could feel the rumble
follow us up the street. It was
strange.”
Flames roared back to the truck,
which exploded in a fireball in front
of firefignters, police and the driver,
who had climbed out of the wreck
age. Hundred-foot tall ribbons of
flame rose from the open ditches, ig
niting houses, fences and parked ve
hicles.
Secondary explosions in the pipes
created an underground inferno,
blowing manhole covers off and
spewing fire skyward for blocks
around.
Two homes were destroyed and
two others were damaged as more
than 100 firefighters used water and
foam to keep dozens of spot fires
away from other homes. The aver
age house in the neighborhood is va
lued at about $250,000. Officials es
timated the total fire damage at
more than $1 million.
By Mack Harrison
The Battalion
The news media must be cautious
in reporting ‘Big Science’ programs,
such as the Hubble Space Telescope
to the public, a science reporter said
Wednesday in a lecture sponsored
by the Department of Journalism.
Mark Carreau, space reporter for
the Houston Chronicle, said the
news media must be wary of pres
sure to oversell programs that fun
nel resources toward goals ex
pressed as part of the national
agenda.
This overemphasis by the media
can have far-reaching consequences
if the program encounters setbacks
or failures, he said.
“One of my special concerns is
what we as a culture right now have
come to expect science and technol
ogy to cure so many ills,” Carreau
said. “I think those expectations are
really terribly unrealistic.”
Carreau expressed his concern
that mounting expectations are be
ing translated into increasing pres
sure to channel national scientific re
sources into large programs sold to
the public on the basis of exagger
ated payoffs.
Complex and expensive programs
like the Hubble Space Telescope,
Space Station Freedom and the
Strategic Defense Initiative are often
part of a specific agenda and are in
volved in the politics neccesary to
keep the large amounts of federal
funding they receive, he said.
“This phenomenon has gained a
popular new name,” Carreau said,
“It’s called ‘Big Science.’”
The Hubble Space Telescope is
one example of press overkill, he
said.
Mark Carreau
“By April (1990) all of us writing
about the space program were tout
ing the value of the Hubble,” Car
reau said.
In June 1990 scientists found a
flaw in the telescope’s optics that was
not detected before launch. Al
though the flaw only affects the most
distant observations and can be re
paired, the media became disen
chanted when the telescope failed to
live up to expectations, he said,
“By then the overselling process
had gone awry,” Carreau said.
The media passed its disappoint
ment on to the public, which mistak
enly believes the telescope does not
function at all, he said.
This misimpression makes it diffi
cult for the public to support future
science projects such as the space sta-
See Carreau/Page 15
Experts believe chemical warfare highly unlikely
By Mike Luman
The Battalion
Texas A&M military and medical experts
say any chemical or biological weapons Sad
dam Hussein launches against coalition
troops would be “relatively ineffective, a nui
sance and a terror tactic.”
Dr, Richard Thomas, director of A&M’s
Center for Strategic Technology, says chemi
cal and biological compounds available to
Hussein are outdated.
Such compounds make poor weapons
against well-prepared coalition, troops, he
says.
“You can’t lay down a curtain of this stuff
with enough intensity to have effects for a
long time,” Thomas says. “They’re not very
good weapons.”
Dr. E. Murl Bailey, an Army reservist and
A&M professor of toxicology, says Hussein’s
chemical arsenal probably includes nerve
agents, blood agents and blister agents.
Hussein is known to have mustard gas, a
blister agent. Blood agents, like cyanide, pre
vent the body from utilizing oxygen.
Bailey says coalition troops are prepared to
handle chemical attacks. Civilian casualties
from chemical attacks would be higher, he
says.
“Saddam Hussein has no regard for hu
man life, and I think he will use it (a chemical
weapon) even if it causes destruction in his
own country,” Bailey says.
Chemical weapons are compounds that
have an immediate, predictable effect on the
human body. A biological attack is the delib
erate spreading of disease organisms.
Dr. Kenneth Dirks, a retired Army general
and director of A&M’s A.P. Beutel Health
Center, says Iraq could have anthrax in its bi
ological arsenal.
Dirks says he doubts Hussein’s ability to at
tack coalition troops or civilian targets with bi
ological weapons.
The threat of a biological attack acts as a
psychological weapon, he says.
“Human beings have a built-in fear of the
unknown anH tV««ngs v.e don’t know about
have a strong impact,” Dirks says. “In terms
of a destructive weapon, it might, be practical
only to cause some mischief.”
He says troops received vaccinations and
are prepared to “go about their business” in
the unlikely event of a biological attack.
Thomas says a chemical or biological attack
would slow troop movements, but the coali
tion forces are well-equipped to handle the
situation should it arise.
See Weapons/Page 15
Audience decides against equal combat roles
By Karen Praslicka
The Battalion
After a debate hosted by the A&M
Debate Society on whether the U.S.
government should be allowed to
draft women into equal duty combat
roles, the audience in Rudder Tower
voted 82 to 55 against the issue
Wednesday night.
Rich Garza, a junior political sci
ence major, spoke for equal combat
roles for women.
Garza said the concept of “women
and war” is offensive to some people
because America has the mentality
that “it’s the man’s job to go and
fight and die and the woman’s job to
worry and cry.”
Garza encouraged the audience to
question this mentality. If the free
doms of future American genera
tions were threatened, he is sure that
anyone would be willing to fight.
“I’m sure that you all will agree that
we all share in this freedom, this lib
erty and this pursuit of happiness!
And I ask you, why are we not all
protecting these rights?”
Garza said that under the current
draft system it seems a man’s life is
worth less than a woman’s because
only men are drafted for combat.
“That Constitution is what we all
stand for, and what we all believe in,
and what we should all be willing to
fight for,” he said.
Garza said women have been serv
ing in the U.S. Armed Forces since
the American Revolution and have
proven themselves capable of serv
ing in the military during wartime.
“It upsets me to know there are
women who are equally capable of
serving their country in the military,
yet believe it is solely the man’s duty
to fight and risk possible disability or
even death.”
Garza said during army tests such
as firing heavy artillery and simu
lated combat, women performed as
well or better than men.
“A soldier will be a soldier regard
less of sex,” said Garza. “A soldier is
trained to fight aggressively, regard
less of sex,”
Karen Phillips, a junior speech
communications major, spoke
against equal roles for women in
combat.
“Risks must be taken to preserve
the ideals of our nation,” she said,
“but it is heart-wrenching enough to
watch our nation’s most talented mil
itary men maimed and murdered in
service of our country. But should
we unnecessarily subject our nation’s
women to such terrors?
“The trend of recent history and
court decisions is to forsake all in the
pursuit of social equality. But when
applied to military affairs it is wrong
and it is dangerous.
“The military purpose is victory,
not equity,” she said.
Phillips said that average female
body strength is 42 percent less than
men’s. Marines do not allow women
to throw live grenades because wom
en’s average throwing distance is not
far enough to avoid injuring them
selves.
“Society itself upholds natural in
stincts by giving toy guns to boys and
dolls to girls,” she said.
“The differences are part of our
lifestyle. There’s nothing wrong with
that.”
Phillips quoted a brigadeer gen
eral stationed in Saudi Arabia as say
ing, “Men simply cannot treat
women like other men.”
“Ask your friends who played
high-school football if they would
have approved the entrance of a fe
male quarterback,” she said.
“Can we risk throwing away all the
work we have done to build up inner
personal trust between our male sol
diers by disrupting their tightly knit
groups with women?”
One female officer in Saudi Ara
bia was quoted as saying, “If you
sleep too close to the men, they think
you’re having an affair. If you hang
around with the women, they think
you’re a lesbian. I don’t have many
friends in the military.”
Phillips said that as the rate of
women in the military has grown, so
has the rate of sexual harrassment.
She said that contact and aggression
become a part of everyday experi
ence.
Perhaps the most unnerving ef
fect of women working side by side
in combat with men is the effect it
has on the mission, Phillips said.
“Israeli officials have noted seve
ral instances of patronization in
which the military goals are altered
because men were hesitant to leave
the side of a fellow female wounded
soldier.”
Phillips said she salutes women
who feel confident enough to handle
a combat position despite these
obstacles. However, surveys have
shown that few of the 192,000 en
listed American women in February
1990 were “yearning for combat.”