The Battalion Vol.90 No. 108 GSPS 045360 10 Pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, March 6,1991 Iraq liberates remaining allied POWs WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush ad ministration said Tuesday it would steer clear of the civil strife that has hit Iraq fol lowing the Gulf War and warned Iraq’s neighbors to do the same. The Pentagon made plans to welcome home up to 15,000 veterans of the war during the next week. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwa- ter said the administration welcomed the release of 35 American and allied POWs to Red Cross officials in Baghdad. Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said the POWs, of which 15 are Americans, will be flown out of Baghdad on Wednesday af ter an allied transport carries 294 Iraqi POWs back home. He said poor weather had delayed the exchange, which had been scheduled for Tuesday. Maj. Gen. Martin Brandtner, the deputy director of operations for the Joint Staff, said interviews with the first six U.S. POWs to be released indicated “they were treated well.” ' The general said there was no reason to doubt Iraqi claims that they held no more allied prisoners. At the State Department, spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler cautioned Iran and other outsiders to stay out of the civil strife that has afflicted a dozen Iraqi cities. “The United States respects and believes in the territorial integrity of Iraq, and we do not believe that other states should involve themselves in the internal matters of Iraq, and that other states should refrain from interfering in Iraq’s internal affairs,” she said. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said “sig nificant unrest” directed against President Saddam Hussein has occurred inside Iraq, but that the United States and its coalition partners won’t get involved. “I’m not sure whose side you’d want to be on,” Cheney said. President Bush hailed the troops as “American heroes” and said “home towns all across America” will welcome them home soon. “Their magnificent victory in the gulf has brought a renewed sense in pride and confidence here at home,” Bush said. “It’s contagious, it’s all over our country. You can feel it every single minute.” Pentagon military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 4,400 mem bers of the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, including members of the 82nd Airborne Division, would be among the first group returning on Thursday. The sources said Bush was expected to welcome them at Andrews Air Force base outside Washington, but White House dep uty spokesman Roman Popadiuk said he was not aware of plans for a presidential welcome. Within a week of the initial return cere mony, up to 15,000 members of all service branches are expected to be back in the United States from the gulf area, said a se nior Pentagon official. The official said the redeployment of Operation Desert Storm’s 540,000 troops “will begin this week,” and that Bush was expected to address the issue of the timing of the massive return Wednesday night in his speech before a joint House-Senate ses sion. Cheney and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Colin Powell, are working on details of the redeployment and welcoming ceremonies in conjunction with Desert Storm commander Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the official said. Cheney has said it would take at least six months to take the full contingent of U.S. forces in the gulf out of the region for reas signment. On Capitol Hill, the House Appropria tions Committee approved a compromise $650 million package of war aid for Israel and moved toward an approval vote on $42.6 billion to finance the U.S. effort in the Persian Gulf War. Corps march raises funds for charity By Jayme Blaschke The Battalion Members of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets are asking students and community members to “whip out” their wallets for the March of, Dimes. In preparation for the annual March to the Brazos, cadets are rais ing money all month for the charita ble organization. “We feel this is a way that the Corps is able to give something back tothe community,” says Conrado Al varado, chairman of the March to the Brazos committee. “Part of our creed is that we are soldiers, states men and knightly gentlemen. This project allows us to fulfill that obliga tion." Among the fundraisers planned is Quarter Day today in the MSC. The Corps will have a table in the MSC where people are encouraged to do nate any loose change they have. "This is an opportunity for the rest of the University to get involved with a worthy cause,” says Alvarado, a senior political science major. “Right now, most of the money comes from individual outfits.” Last year, the Corps donated more than $45,000 to the March of Dimes. This year’s goal is $60,000. “We have figured that to reach our goal, we must raise $28 per ca det,” he says. “As of last week, over {7,000 has been turned in.” Different outfits have sponsored fundraisers, spch as car washes, and have gone door to door to solicit contributions. “The band claims to have raised {10,000 already, which is incredible for just two outfits,” he says. Alvarado says the enthusiasm ex pressed by individual cadets has been tremendous as they look for ward to the March to the Brazos. “Last year we were informed by the March of Dimes we were the sin gle largest fund-raising activity in Texas,” he says. “We are helping to prevent birth defects in the leaders of tomorrow.” Besides combating birth defects, the march serves a second purpose, Alvarado says. “It symbolizes a changing of the guard,” he says. “The seniors lead the seven-mile march, but leave early, so the juniors lead the march back to campus.” Alvarado says anyone wishing to make a donation should contact the Office of the Commandant. Catching artificial rays Deanne Cook, a senior marketing major from Baytown, prepares for a 30-minute tanning session. Cook, who is going to Cancun on JAY JANNER/The Battalion Spring Break, prefers the tanning salon over laying out because she said it is more convenient. Officials find another tampered Sudafed capsule SF.ATTLE (AP) — A sixth suspect Sudafed 12 Hour capsule was found Tuesday during examination of tens of thousands of capsules during the investigation of three cyanide poi soning cases, an official said. “You can visually see that it was different from the other capsules,” Food and Drug Administration spokesman Jeff Nesbit said from his Washington, D.C., office. “Its con tents were yellowish, or cream-col ored.” The capsule was one of 20 in a plastic-and-foil “blister pack” of the cold remedy that had been removed from a drugstore shelf at the Ta coma Mall in Washington. Nesbit said the tape seal on the box had been reglued, and the alu minum part of the blister pack was broken and then pushed back into place. The capsule appeared differ ent from the others in the pack and probably was not a regular Sudafed 12 Hour capsule, he said. Two people died and a third fell critically ill last month in the Puget Sound area after taking Sudafed 12 Hour capsules that authorities say were laced with cyanide. The poi sonings led the maker of the medi cine, Burroughs Wellcome Co., to recall the over-the-counter medica tion nationwide. Officials advised consumers who have the capsules to return them to the stores where they were bought, and to alert authorities if anything looks suspicious. The discovery Tuesday rep resented the sixth apparent tam pering. All have been in the Ta- coma-Olympia area, about 50 miles south of Seattle. Investigators have not publicly offered a motive. No ar rests have been made. Investigators awaited test results on two other capsules sent to the FBI lab in Washington, D.C. Nesbit said he expected the capsule found Tues day also would be sent to the FBI lab. He said the third capsule ap peared similar to the other two, ex cept the most recent pill was found in a 20-capsule pack, while the oth ers were in 10-packs. The lot num ber on the blister pack also differed from the number for the earlier con taminated capsules. More than 20,000 capsules had been inspected by Tuesday morn ing, and Nesbit said a total of 30,000 would be inspected by day’s end. Nesbit said the third capsule turned up after a regional seizure of the pills. He said each of the suspect capsules came from the closest stores selling drugs to exits off Interstate 5 in the Tacoma-Olympia area. In other developments Tuesday: • State toxicology lab director Dr. Barry Logan said his lab performed tests for cyanide Monday on 35 tis sue and blood samples taken from people who died recently in western Washington. He said all results were negative. • State Health Department Sec retary Kristine M. Gebbie began a review of regulations on all over-the- counter capsule medications in the state. • FBI agent John Eyer said there were no indications that charges could be filed soon in the tampering cases. The first victim was Jennifer Mel- ing, 28, of Tumwater, who fell ill Feb. 2 but recovered. Cyanide poi soning linked to Sudafed has been blamed for the Feb. 11 death of Kathleen Daneker, 40, of Tacoma and the Feb. 18 death of Stan McW horter, 44, of Lacey. Students help family handle costs By Twila Waddy The Battalion Friends of a Texas A&M student who suffered a cardiac arrest while playing intramurals last month have established a fund to help his family with the hospital costs. The Association of Baptist Stu dents created the fund for Danny Orr, a senior civil engineering major who had a cardiac arrest during a basketball game Feb. 14. Orr, 22, is now recovering at the Medical Center in Tyler. He is ex- “He is doing well, much better than expected. Sunday, he came awake and began talking to us..” — Marie Darst, Orr’s grandmother pected to undergo extensive rehabil itation today. “He is doing well, much better than expected,” says Marie Darst, Orr’s grandmother. “Sunday, he came awake and began talking to us.” Darst says Orr’s friends and fam ily have helped during the crisis. “The friends and family have been marvelous,” she says. “All the support that we have, I think it is wonderful, and we appreciate it.” A former president of the Baptist student group at A&M, Orr is still a member and participates on the na tional level as well. Larry Griffith, executor of the fund, says the Orr family has insur ance, but it only covers 80 percent of hospital expenses. The family could face $20,000 in hospital expenses, which is the goal his friends seek. The fund has just been started and has collected $300. “We have just started, the prob lem is trying to get publicity,” Grif fith says. Orr’s cardiac arrest was caused by Wolf Parkinson’s White Syndrome. The syndrome causes a person to be born with two nerves instead of one to regulate the heart beat, he says. “No one knew about it until after he suffered the cardiac arrest,” Grif fith says. Orr, a native of Jacksonyille, is the son of Gerold and Marilyn Orr. For any information about the fund, write the Association of Bap tist Students-Danny Orr, in care of 1508 Gunsmith, College Station, 77840. All checks should be made out to the above title. rearm Mideast countries U.S. plans to WASHINGTON (AP) — Even before the smoke of the Persian Gulf War has cleared, there are signs the Middle East is moving to rearm — with help from the United States. There are U.S. plans to sell F-16s, “smart” bombs, cluster bombs and missiles to Egypt, and to provide new military aid to Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and others in the region, according to Pentagon docu ments and congressional sources. “I don’t think the administration has got a policy yet” for dealing with postwar Middle East arms con trol, said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis. “It would be nice if they didn’t start shoveling dollars until they have one.” Secretary of State James A. Baker III is leaving for a nine-day trip to the Middle East that will include discussions with leaders about arms control. President Bush is expected to make the topic a pri mary subject of his speech Wednesday night to a joint session of Congress. But the administration apparently has no intention of imposing the kind of across-the-board moratorium on weapons sales called for by some congressional leaders. “I don’t think there will be any arms embargo” by the United States, Bush said last week. Developments that worry some on Capitol Hill and elsewhere include: • A notification that the United States intends to sell $1.6 billion in new weapons to Egypt, a leading ally in the Gulf War. The list includes 46 F-16 fighter planes, 80 air-to-ground Maverick missiles and 240 cluster bombs. It also includes 48 guided glide bombs of the type the United States used to hit targets in Baghdad. • A recent classified report to Congress listing $33 billion in proposed weapons sales this year to Ameri can allies around the world, with more than two- thirds of it destined for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. • The administration’s apparent intention to re imburse Israel and Turkey for hundreds of millions of dollars in military costs associated with the Gulf War, and indications that some U.S. weapons may be left behind when troops withdraw from Saudi Arabia. • A new $ 1 billion credit program through the Ex port-Import Bank in President Bush’s 1992 budget request, aimed at facilitating U.S. weapons sales abroad. “I am fearful that we are going back to business as usual in the arms trade,” said Michael T. Klare, a pro fessor of peace and world security studies at Hamp shire College in Amherst, Mass. “There seems to be a policy that we won the war, so we can do whatever we want,” he said in a telephone interview. That includes U.S. defense contractors profiting from selling new weaponry in what has for the past decade been the world’s most lucrative arms market, he said. But Klare said such an approach ignores a primary lesson of the conflict: That the United States helped build Iraq into a regional military power based on a misguided hope that the two could share common in terests. “All of these surrogates have their own agendas,” he said. “We could find ourselves once again in a ter rible mess.” For Iraq’s neighbors in the Middle East, the lesson will be that Saddam Hussein’s mistake was not in building up his military, but in buying the wrong weapons, he added. “A lot of countries are going to try to rebuild their arsenals along these high-tech lines.” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Bush’s speech on Wednesday will include “some di rections we’ll need to be considering in the aftermath of the gulf — particularly congressional directions. By that I mean arms proliferation, missile prolifera tion, chemical and nuclear and biological prolifera tion.” Ceremony will mark cornerstone setting of Sanders Center The cornerstone of Texas A&M’s Sam Houston Sanders Corps of Cadets Center will be leveled at 4 p.m. Thursday at the building site. The $3 million center, under construction at the south end of Spence Park, will house a visitors’ cen ter, library, conference rooms, Corps offices and a museum for exhibits and a hall of honor. Corps Commandant Maj. Gen. Thomas Darling, who will preside during the ceremony, says he ex pects the 19,300-square-foot building to be com pleted this fall. The Masonic Grand Lodge of Texas will conduct the ceremony. A reception at Duncan Dining Hall will follow. To prepare for the ceremony, Coke Street will be closed at Lewis Street from noon to the end of the ceremony. Motorists can avoid the area by using Lewis and Bizzell streets. University buses normally using.the intersection will be rerouted. In case of rain, the ceremony will be in Duncan.