Partly
cloudy with
a 30 percent
chance of
rain. High in
the 90s.
Page 9
"Certainly, live target shooting is less
of a social problem than drug abuse.
But why should we be asked to trade
one social ill for another."
— Ellen Hobbs on the abuse of animals
by some anti-drug organizations
The Battalion
Vol. 91 No. 11 CISPS 045360
College Station, Texas
"Serving Texsis A&M since 1893"
10 Pages Monday, September 16, 1991
Government expects ranchers, farmers to burn 5,000 square miles of rain forest in Brazil
SAG SEBASTIAO DE TOCANTINS,
Brazil (AP) — It's burning season in the
Amazon and a thick haze of smoke and
ash shrouds the rain forest.
Fires by ranchers and farmers this
year are expected to destroy 5,000 square
miles of forest, an area slightly larger than
Connecticut, according to government es
timates. That would be about 40 percent
of the amount burned last year.
Already, three children have died
from respiratory ailments related to
smoke inhalation in northern Para state,
and airports can open only sporadically
because of poor visibility. Forest fires
have damaged electric lines, causing peri
odic blackouts.
A smoke cloud stretched almost 4,000
miles in early September, from the north
eastern state of Maranhao to remote Acre
on Brazil's western border with Peru.
In this small village in the southeast
ern Amazon the sun rises an eerie red,
trapped behind a gray shroud, and sets
the same color at day's end. Even on
cloudless nights not a single star can be
seen.
"Ten years ago this entire region was
covered by virgin rain forest," the Rev.
Miguel Elousa Rojo said as he squinted
through smoke rolling across the wind
shield of his pickup truck. "Now it is total
desolation."
Rojo drove past mile after mile of
blackened land, with only an occassional
palm tree still standing. A few skinny
cows walked amid the ruins, picking at
the little green that remained.
The lovely Tocantins River passes just
a few hundred yards in front of the vil
lage's Roman Catholic church. But during
the burning season, Rojo says, he almost
forgets it exists.
"The river isn't even visible until you
are at the water's edge," he said.
Though it is illegal to burn the jungle
for farming or ranching, the practice is
routine. Fires are set as soon as the dry
season begins, normally in August.
More than 250,000 square miles of rain
forest — about the size of Texas — have
been burned in the Amazon, whose 2 mil
lion square miles contain 30 percent of the
world's remaining rain forest.
The burning destroys lush vegitation
that produces huge amounts of oxygen.
Meanwhile, the smoke is believed to con
tribute to the "greenhouse effect," which
many scientists say is causing a gradual
warming of the planet.
Many rare plant species also have
been killed off before they could be stud
ied.
Most of the damage is done by cattle
ranchers, who torch vast tracts to create
grazing land without using expensive
equipment and labor. When the rains re
turn in October grass quickly shoots up.
See Rain forest/Page 5
KARL A. STOLLEIS/The Battalion
I hoe, I hoe...
Erwin Verlage, a junior horticulture major, works in a field behind the of a Horticulture 335 lab. The sun began to shine as clouds that
medical school, located on West campus, Sunday afternoon as part brought brief showers broke.
Hostage
crisis
nears
Shiite leader calls for
of Arab prisoners for
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -
Lebanon's highest-ranking Shiite
Muslim cleric said in an interview
broadcast Sunday that a Western
hostage would be released in
weeks, not days as has been pre
dicted.
Sheik Mohammed Mehdi
Shamseddine also called for a
comprehensive swap —rather
than gradual releases — of Arab
prisoners held by Israel in return
for the 11 Western hostages miss
ing in Lebanon.
His comments to the British
Broadcasting Corp. came amid in
tense speculation that freedom for
one or two of the Western
hostages was imminent.
A day earlier. Sheik Ahmed
Taleb, a Shiite Muslim cleric with
ties to the kidnappers, said a
hostage, probably a Briton, would
be released in hours or days.
Also, a Tehran newspaper
close to Iran's president predicted
end
comprehensive swap
11 Western captives
that a Western hostage could be
freed soon. Iran has helped secure
the release of hostages before, and
has links to the kidnappers.
But when asked about a possi
ble release, Shamseddine said:
"I can't say in a matter of days,
but I can say in a matter of weeks
— provided that American and
Western pressure continues to be
put on Israel to release further
Arab prisoners from Israeli pris
ons," he told the BBC.
Israel released 51 Arab prison
ers and the bodies of nine guerril
las last week, but still holds an es
timated 300 Arab prisoners.
U.N. Secretary-General Javier
Perez de Cuellar has been trying
to arrange to swap them for seven
missing Israeli servicemen and the
Western hostages.
Shamseddine also said that he
couldn't predict the nationality of
the next hostage freed.
Student survives accident,
remains in stable condition
A Texas A&M student is in stable condition after being hit by a
car early Saturday morning while attempting to cross FM 2818 on
foot.
Daniel J. Villarreal, 22, a junior history major, was struck while
trying to cross FM 2818 near the Parson's Mounted Cavalry Build
ing at 1:45 a.m. Saturday.
Villarreal was struck by a late-model, white Oldsmobile driven
by Peter S. Craig, 23, of Houston.
Villarreal was transported to Humana Hospital where he is be
ing treated for multiple fractures, contusions and lacerations. He
was listed in stable condition as of 6 p.m. Sunday.
No charges have been filed in relation to the accident, but Col
lege Station police are continuing the investigation .
Vet school breaks ground on facility
College hopes to regain full accreditation with addition
By K. Lee Davis
The Battalion
The College of Veterinary Medicine broke
ground Friday on the largest and most expen
sive academic project in Texas A&M's history.
Two mules plowed up a short furrow of
land in front of the new site to symbolically
launch the construction of the $38 million,
245,000 square-foot project that will add more
laboratory, clinical and teaching space to the
Texas Veterinary Medical Center.
"This is a key and exciting day in the histo
ry of the College of Veterinary Medicine," said
Dr. John Shadduck, dean of the college, as he
welcomed all those in attendance at the cere
mony.
The ground breaking of the new facility
serves as a highlight of the college's year-long
observance of the 75th anniversary of its
founding in 1916.
The addition to the college includes a
100,000 square-foot, four story research build
ing adjacent to existing veterinary facilities
and a new 95,000 square-foot large animal
medicine and surgery complex. Almost 20,000
square feet of space in existing facilities will be
renovated as part of the new project.
The most expensive building project in
University history before the new vet
medicine construction was the $34 million
spent for the University Center Complex al
most 15 years ago.
The record for total cost of a new facility
may be held for only short time by the new
complex, however, because the cost for the
new coliseum project is expected to approach
or exceed the $40 million mark, said Gen.
Wesley Peel, vice chancellor for facilities plan
ning and construction.
The college of veterinary medicine was
placed on limited accreditation in the fall of
See VetMed/Page 5
Gcitos faces
WASHINGTON (AP) - Robert M. Gates
began his intelligence career 25 years ago in a
quintessentially Cold War role: as an intelli
gence officer minding Min-
uteman nuclear missiles at
Whiteman Air Force Base,
Missouri.
Today, he will try to
persuade the Senate Intelli
gence Committee that he is
the man to become the new
leader of the Central Intelli
gence Agency, to lead
America's spy institutions
beyond the Cold War.
But before he can look
to the future. Gates must defend his past. It is a
long record that includes prominent roles in a
CIA that has experienced notable intelligence
failures and engaged in questionable activities.
President Bush said Sunday he feels "very
strongly" about Gates' nomination and pre-
confirmation hearings
dieted, "He'll pass.”
Committee Chairman David Boren, D-
Okla., said the nominee's changes "will de
pend on how he conducts himself in the hear
ings."
It may not be smooth sailing, however.
There are new indications that Gates
played an important role in the U.S. tilt toward
Iraq during its 1980s war with Iran — a tilt that
left Saddam Hussein's military stronger going
into the Persian Gulf War with the United
States and its allies.
And not the least of Gates' problems is the
Iran-Contra affair, which led him to give up his
1987 nomination for CIA director.
One member of the Senate committee. Bill
Bradley, D-N.J., has suggested that Gates may
have been involved in activities in support of
Iraq that were "not fully or properly autho
rized" at the time.
The United States supplied intelligence to
Baghdad during the 1980s to help ensure it
would not be overrun by Iran. There have been
published reports, as well, of U.S. arms ship
ments to Iraq through third countries and of
the direct sale of so-called "dual-use" items
which can have civilian and military purposes.
It has been four months since Bush nomi
nated Gates, now deputy national security ad
viser at the White House, for the CIA post. At
the time, the specter of Iran-Contra, the Reagan
administration's worst scandal, had largely
faded from public consciousness.
But a lot has changed. Lawrence Walsh, the
special prosecutor pursuing criminal investiga
tions in the case, has obtained a guilty plea
from one former CIA official, Alan Fiers, and
an indictment against another, Clair George.
The guilty plea by Fiers brought out new
evidence that four top CIA officials besides
then-director William Casey knew about the
diversion of Iran arms sale proceeds to
Nicaragua's Contra rebels, but did nothing to
stop it.
Iowa senator joins race
for Democratic bid
WINTERSET, Iowa (AP) -
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a fiery
populist proclaiming "a new vi
sion of Ameri
ca," was for
mally joining
the Democratic
presidential
field Sunday
with a call for
the party to re
turn to its roots.
Harkin
spelled out a
campaign
aimed at "the
people who pull the load and pay
the taxes" who, he said, have
been betrayed by "the greed and
selfishness of George Herbert
Walker Bush and J. Danforth
Quayle."
He dismissed his long-shot
odds against President Bush,
even as he touted his bid to "start
investing here in America."
"There are those who say that
we're a longshot, that we can't
win," Harkin said in remarks
prepared for delivery. "I'm here
to tell you that George Herbert
Walker Bush has feet of clay and
I intend to take a hammer to
them."
His announcement was a
sharply liberal call for a return to
See Harkin/Page 5