The Battalion
(6 pages) “Serving Texas Af>M Since 1893” Thursday, December 10, 1992
Marines arrival opens air traffic to Somalia
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOGADISHU, Somalia — U.S.
Marines freed the capital from the
ip of warring gunmen Wednes-
ay, and opened the way for
ighty air convoys of soldiers
d supplies to revive Somalia's
arving interior.
The first mercy flight to Mo-
bdishu hours after troops
ormed ashore brought in pow-
red formula for famished chil-
en and adults.
The Marines' next goal was to
Seize inland airstrips from bandits
i that big U.S. transports can fly
tons of life-giving grain where
is needed most. The first of
ousands of Army troops for the
mission were to arrive Thursday,
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney
said in Washington.
Somalis crowded hillsides and
jammed into the airport to wel
come the 1,800 Marines who
brought Mogadishu one of its
most peaceful days since civil war
broke out two years ago.
Reporters saw youths riding in
one pickup truck dismount two
machine guns and stow them on
the floor as the pickup ap
proached a Marine checkpoint.
Mogadishu was in a festive
mood for Marine Landing Day.
Youths perched on stacks of red,
white and blue grain sacks to
watch Marines dig foxholes.
After seizing the seaside air
port and the harbor in uncontest
ed landings at dawn, the Marines
took up positions at three check
points leading into the city.
Three Marines entered the
dented iron gates of the deserted
U.S. Embassy and hoisted the flag
on a wobbly pole amid a litter of
rusting typewriters. The $50 mil
lion embassy was looted down to
the rope on its flagpole after being
evacuated last year.
Officials also raised U.S. flags
on both sides of the Green Line
separating the two warring clans
in the capital. Old Glory went up
over a liaison office in south Mo
gadishu and over the former U.S.
ambassador's residence in the
north.
For the first time in weeks, a
World Food Program-chartered
O' Christmas Tree
City of Bryan electrical distribution workers,
ANGELA MCAULEY/Special to The Battalion
right, Rick Tobiaz, top left, and Dave Bransh, top
Jack Lemmon, bottom left, Otis Turner, bottom right, decorate utility poles in downtown Bryan.
Committee rejects university plan
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beverage o
AUSTIN — The Select Commit-
? on Higher Education rejected a
oposed recommendation
dnesday for a moratorium on
versity expansions and new
fessional schools.
"I think it sends a bad state-
nt... when we're just going
izy building prisons with no re-
laints," said Sen. John Montford,
[Lubbock, of the proposed rec-
mendation to the Legislature,
as deleted from the committee
report. Sen. Carlos Truan, D-Cor-
pus Christi, argued against the
moratorium as detrimental to
South Texas, which he said has
been "historically neglected"
when it comes to higher education
programs.
The Texas Supreme Court is
considering whether the state's
higher education system discrimi
nates against Hispanics along the
border.
But Montford, who is head of
the Senate Finance Committee,
also cautioned that money will be
tight during th& next legislative
session.
"I think this is going to be the
toughest session since I've been
here," said Montford, who has
been in the Senate since 1983.
Several committee members
expressed concern about deleting
the recommendation.
The proposal said the Legisla
ture should not approve new pro
fessional schools or new higher
education institutions — or eleva
tion of schools to four-year status
— until there is money to ade
quately fund existing institutions
and support new ones.
Advance
Free tickets to hear Bush available Friday
Free tickets for President Bush's foreign poli-
V address on Tuesday at Texas A&M University
rill be available on a first-come, first-served basis
eginning Friday, Dec. 11 at 8 a.m.
Individuals may obtain up to four tickets at
ither the MSG Box Office in the Rudder Tower lob-
V or at the Bryan-College Station Convention and
Visitors' Bureau at 715 University Drive East
icross from the Hilton Hotel.)
The box office will be open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Fri
day; 9 a.m.-noon Saturday; 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mon
day; and from 9 a.m. to presentation time on Tues
day.
The Convention and Visitors' Bureau will be
open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday.
Both locations will distribute tickets as long
as they are available.
Everyone must have a ticket to be admitted.
plane flew in 17 tons of a powdery
mixture of sugar, beans, flour and
vitamins given to babies and mal
nourished people. It was quickly
unloaded and taken to warehous
es.
Before the Marines' arrival,
such food convoys were guarded
by militiamen. Often there were
clashes with other clans, or the
food was stolen.
"I've been waiting for this day
for so long," said Victor Tanner, a
UNICEF worker. "This airport
usually is a pretty nasty place, but
the town today is like after a Sun
day football game."
About 300,000 Somalis have
died of starvation, disease and
warfare in the past year, and 2
million are threatened with
famine.
A last-minute orgy of looting
and shooting early Wednesday
forced the United Nations to evac
uate 15 foreign aid workers from
the closed port of Kismayo, 270
miles to the south.
In the capital, a civilian em
ployee was shot in the arm Out
side U.N. headquarters in Mo
gadishu. There was no word on
who was responsible.
Marines fired some warning
shots, detained several Somalis
and seized a few machine guns or
rifles, but American officials had
no reports of troops firing at any
one or being fired upon.
One of the main warlords, Ali
Mahdi Mohamed, urged his fol
lowers "to cooperate with our
guests from the outside world to
save our people."
"To cooperate," he said, "We
need not hold guns in the streets."
The Marines' immediate goal
was to secure the airstrip at
Baidoa, 200 miles northwest of the
capital.
About 70 people died in fight
ing in Baidoa earlier in the week,
but the fighting died down and 19
flights have gone into the city in
the past two days, according to
Pentagon spokesman Pete
Williams.
At the seaside Mogadishu air
port, Air Force troops installed
runway lights for a round-the-
clock stream of cargo and troop
transport flights that was expect
ed to start soon.
Congress rejects Yeltsin's
pick for prime minister
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW — President Boris Yeltsin suffered a
bruising defeat Wednesday when Congress rejected
his reform-minded nominee for prime minister,
clearing the way for new hard
line attacks that could slow re
forms.
The vote does not immediately
force Yegor Gaidar out of office.
Gaidar said he would remain as
"acting" prime minister, the posi
tion he has held for six months.
The Congress of People's
Deputies, dominated by ex-Com-
munists elected before the Soviet
collapse, rejected Gaidar's nomi
nation on a secret-ballot vote of
486-467.
The result was 54 votes short of
the majority needed for approval by the 1,041-mem
ber Congress.
Twenty-two ballots were invalid and the remain
ing 26 lawmakers did not vote.
Lawmakers reacted almost nonchalantly to the
pivotal vote after nine days of sometimes violent de
bate in the Grand Kremlin Palace.
Although Yeltsin can reappoint Gaidar as acting
prime minister, the rejection amounted to a resound
ing vote of no confidence in the president's reforms,
which hard-liners say are impoverishing the nation.
As the architect of Russia's reforms, Gaidar has
become the symbol of Yeltsin's determination to dis
mantle seven decades of Communist central plan
ning and state ownership.
The 36-year-old economist also has become the
No. 1 target for Yeltsin's opposition, which has
grown in strength in recent months along with the
free-market scourges of inflation and unemploy
ment.
"We will continue to work calmly until the presi
dent decides differently," Gaidar told reporters out
side the hall. "The Russian people (do not) treat the
results of the Congress with deep approval."
The Cabinet was clearly concerned about the re
sults. Ministers planned to meet after the session
Wednesday, and the main parliamentary opposition
bloc. Civic Union, also was huddling after the Con
gress adjourned.
Yeltsin's aides insist the president is empowered
to keep Gaidar in the job for three months under cur
rent Russian law, extending the title he has held since
June without parliamentary approval.
"We're going to do everything we can to make
sure Gaidar is not the prime minister.
He has become completely bankrupt in the posi
tion," declared Mikhail Aksyuchits, a leader of the
Russian Christian Democratic Party.
By rejecting Gaidar, the hard-liners also burned
Yeltsin on a compromise he offered Tuesday under
which the Congress would confirm Gaidar and the
president would give up his right to appoint the
ministers of defense, foreign affairs, security and in
terior without legislative approval.
The conservative majority likely will push for
changes in those ministries and others. Hard-liner
Sergei Baburin said lawmakers,
in a last-ditch move, may try to saddle Yeltsin
himself with the politically risky job of prime minis
ter.
"If the president has trouble accepting alternate
candidates; the Congress can order him to fulfill the
duties," Baburin said.
Gaidar conceded to reporters that he would make
"certain" changes in the Cabinet, but gave no details.
In addition to Gaidar, the hard-liners have targeted
Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, Minister of For
eign Economic Relations Pyotr Aven and Deputy
Prime Minister Valery Makharadze.
Even if Gaidar's Cabinet survives, it may have
trouble enforcing its decisions as a lame-duck admin
istration.
And it will have little time to show better econom
ic results before the next Congress in April.
The political landscape could shift by then. Re
formers in the Democratic Russia movement have
started collecting signatures to hold a referendum in
March to disband the Congress.
"The opposition at least hasn't succeeded in halt
ing reforms," Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly
Chubais said.
"The president has chosen trench warfare tactics
at this Congress, and one can hardly deny that it has
brought real results. This is not the end, but the be
ginning."
Yeltsin
Jury finds
ex-CIA chief
guilty; knew
of Iran affair
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Former CIA
spy chief Clair E. George was con
victed by a federal jury today of
lying to Congress about his
knowledge of the Iran-Contra af
fair, but was cleared of charges
that he lied to a grand jury that in
vestigated the scandal.
George was convicted on two of
five counts in a trial that peeked
into the CIA's operations as Oliver
North's secret arms program for
the Nicaraguan Contras unrav
eled in late 1986. It was the second
trial on George's role in the Iran-
Contra affair; the first ended in a
mistrial. The jury found George
guilty of two counts of lying to
congressional committees that in
vestigated the Iran-Contra affair
in 1986.
But they acquitted him of three
other charges that he lied to con
gressional committees that year, as
well as two other counts that he
lied to a grand jury that ques
tioned him in 1991.
The verdict came on the 11 ih
day of deliberations. George was
found guilty of lying to the House
Intelligence Committee about his
knowledge of the secret network.
As the end of the semester
draws to a close, junior
environmental design major
ELIZABETH D. CASTRO/Special to The Battalion
David Marshall finds himself
working diligently putting
finishes touches on a model.