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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 1993)
The Battalion Vol. 92 No. 133 (10 pages) 1893 - A Century of Service to Texas A&M - 1993 Monday, April 19,1993 U.S. bombs destroy Iraqi radar tracking site THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - A U.S. warplane destroyed an Iraqi radar tracking site south of the no-fly zone over northern Iraq on Sunday after the aircraft was threatened, a Defense Department spokesman said. The plane, one of two on a routine monitoring patrol in the zone, was not fired on but “the crew felt threatened," said DOD spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Brian Cullin. White House spokeswoman Lorraine Voles said the action "is consistent with our policy that when our forces feel threatened, we're going to respond." Both aircraft safely returned to their operating base at Incirlik, Turkey. Iraq's official news agency reported three Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the incident. The Iraqi News Agency, moni tored by the British Broadcasting Corp. in Cyprus, quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the attack was provocative, hostile behavior. The spokesman, who was not named, said the attack occurred 33 miles south of the oil city of Mosul, apparently placing it outside the allied-enforced no-fly zone. The two U.S. Air Force F-4G Wild Weasel fighters were in the no-fly zone throughout the incident but were illumi nated by the radar operating south of the 36th parallel, Cullin said. "They operated under the guidelines that when you're illuminated it is consid ered to be a threat," he said. The 36th parallel marks the border of the no-fly zone over northern Iraq set up to protect Kurds from Iraqi attack after the Persian Gulf War. "One of the two F-4s in the flight re sponded by firing a single HARM (high speed, anti-radiation missile) at the Iraqi radar," the Defense Department said in a written statement. Officials believe the site was destroyed because "the radar ceased illuminating after the impact of the missile," Cullin said. He said no immediate assessment was available and there had been no re sponse from the Iraqi government to the incident. 'City of Angels' rejoices the calm THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES — Churchgoers re joiced as the calm after the verdict in the Rodney King civil rights case held Sun day. Police, saying the quiet was hard to believe, considered whether to pull some firepower off the streets. Cries of "Amen" rippled through the First AME Church congregation as the mayor, the governor and others lauded the convictions of two officers. "We come to praise God for peace in our city and justice in our courtrooms," Mayor Tom Bradley told churchgoers. "(Police Chief) Willie Williams and I pleaded for peace ... we knew we were ready to preserve the peace in this city." Police had prepared for the worst, fearing a repeat of the violence^a year ago when a state jury acquitted four white officers of beating King, a black motorist. All 7,700 city officers were mo bilized and 600 National Guard troops stood by in armories. But peace prevailed after a federal jury on Saturday convicted Sgt. Stacey Koon, who supervised the beating, and Officer Laurence Powell, who struck the most baton blows, of violating King's civil rights after a high-speed chase on March 3, 1991. Officer Theodore Briseno and Timothy Wind, a rookie officer fired after the beating, were acquitted. "It stayed quiet," Los Angeles Sher iff's Deputy Britta Tubbs said Sunday. "No major incidents. It's hard to be lieve." King, who made a dramatic appeal for calm during the riots a year ago, didn't make a statement after the federal trial. Although some were dissatisfied that only two officers were found guilty, a fragile calm settled over a city fraught with tension since the night the beating - captured on videotape by an amateur cameraman — shocked the nation. At the church in riot-scarred South Central Los Angeles, the Rev. Jesse Jack- son preached a message of rebuilding the area and looking for hope in its ruins. "I know that behind every dark cloud there is a silver lining," he told about 2,500 people. "But sometimes you have to pray to God for some insight to see the silver lining." "The beating of Rodney King, that's the cloud," he said. "What's the silver lining? It exposed (former Police Chief) Daryl Gates irreversibly." Speaking of the four defendants in King's federal civil rights trial "two are going to a physical jail, two are going to a mental jail," he said. At that, the packed congregation erupted in ap plause. Gov. Pete Wilson told worshippers: "We've not only got to rebuild Los Ange les, we've got to rebuild it better than we found it." Williams, hired after Gates retired un der pressure last summer, credited the police and community for keeping the peace. Parents 7 Weekend concludes BILLYMORAN/The Battalion Dave Bland of Shreveport records his son Brian as he marches review. Bland was in town to visit his son during Parent's with his outfit of the Corps of Cadets to Kyle Field for the corps Weekend. The Holocaust Memory key to avoiding reoccurrence, survivor says By BELINDA BLANCARTE The Battalion People need to remember the Holo caust and make sure nothing like it ever happens again, survivor Mike Jacobs said Sunday at a Holocaust memorial service in the All Faiths Chapel. "I was in the ghettos and concentra tion camps for five and a half years," Ja cobs said to about 70 people. "I never gave up hope; I never gave up belief. I knew I was going to survive." Jacobs is the founder of The Dallas Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies. He discussed his experience in obser vance of Yom Hasho'ah, Holocaust Memorial Day. Reliving the beginning of the Nazi rise to power, Jacobs recalled watching Ger man soldiers invade synagogues and bum prayer books during World War II. "I remember looking at the pile of prayer books and scrolls as a match was lit," he said. "The books were burning and it started raining. Again, the books were burning and again it started rain ing. "When the books stopped burning, it stopped raining. I believe that was a mir acle," he said. During the war, Jacobs was moved from camp to camp where he was as signed various duties. "I was tortured and I was beaten, but I See Holocaust/Page 3 Gulf War benefited from Vietnam, analyst says 'New relations' remain under fire By KEVIN LINDSTROM The Battalion Decisions made by American armed forces after the Vietnam War contributed greatly to U.S. success during the Persian Gulf War, said a U.S. military analyst. "Most of the wiz-bang weapons that we watched in the Persian Gulf all started their research and development process in the 1970s," said Dr. Caroline Ziemke, an analyst with the Institute for Defense Analysis in Arlington, Va. Speaking Thursday to an audience of 60 in the MSC, Ziemke said, after the Vietnam War U.S. armed forces had to deal with an increased need for U.S. pres ence in the world and a hostile Congress that was cutting military spending. "It was evaluated that the risk that America was going to war within five or 10 years after the Vietnam War was very low," she said. "But there was an increas ing long-term threat of a major war around 1985." Ziemke said the armed forces deter mined that the best way to deal with the long term threat was to gamble that there would not be a conflict in the short term and prepare for the long term war by up grading their equipment and strategy. "The services had to make tradeoffs," she said. "They eventually made the de cision to funnel as much of their funding as they could into modernization pro grams that led to the new weapons that we saw in the Gulf War." See Vietnam/Page 3 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - A "road map" for normalizing relations with Vietnam, laid down by the Bush administration and followed by President Clinton, is in tat ters due to a document suggesting Viet namese duplicity on the POW-MIA issue. Hanoi says the 1972 report, discovered by a Harvard University researcher in the archives of the Communist Party in Moscow, is a fabrication. The Pentagon is urging caution, saying the document needs further study. The report says Vietnam was holding 1,205 American prisoners of war in 1972, twice the number eventually released. Regardless of whether the document is real, the long road back to normal rela tions has again become longer. "The so-called road map for normaliz ing relations with Vietnam should be rolled up, put on a dark shelf and forgot ten," said Richard Christian of the Amer ican Legion. Christian joined representatives of vet erans groups, POW-MIA families and members of Congress on Capitol Hill last week to oppose any improvements in ties with Hanoi until the POW issue is re solved. Krueger leads Senate race with 23 percent. (3% margin of error) Richard Fisher 5% Joe Barton 7% Jack Fields 7% Kay Bailey Hutchison 1 2% £ Bob Kruger 23% Olhere/UndecidecMd^yJ MACK HARRISON/The Battalion THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AUSTIN — Interim U.S. Sen. Bob Krueger has a lock on a runoff spot in the special Senate election to replace Lloyd Bentsen, but at least four candidates have a chance at the second slot, according to a new poll. The poll, conducted for the Austin American-Statesman and the San Antonio Express-News, found that 23 percent of respondents plan to vote for Krueger, a Democrat, in the May 1 election. Republican state treasurer Kay Bailey Hutchison was favored by 12 percent, fol lowed by Republican U.S. Reps. Jack Fields and Joe Barton with 7 percent each and Democrat Richard Fisher with 5 per cent. Thirty-nine percent of respondents poll indicates said they were undecided. There are 23 candidates seeking to re place Bentsen, who left the seat to work as President Clinton's Treasury secretary. If, as expected, no one wins a majority, a runoff between the top two candidates will be held, probably on June 5. The poll, with a 3.5 percent margin of error, was conducted April 8-13 among 801 likely voters statewide. A&M Muster: 1993 marks 110th anniversary By JASON COX The Battalion On April 21, Aggies all over the world will remember friends and classmates who have passed away in what many people consider one of Texas A&M's most beautiful and important traditions - Muster. This year is the 110th anniversary of Muster, a ceremony that gives students, former students and faculty a chance to relive their college days while honoring Aggies who have died during the previ ous year. Since the 1980s, Aggies have held an average of 400 registered ceremonies each year around the world, with more than 8,000 people attending last year's campus Muster. The tradition began in 1883 as a com petitive track and field day, with students and alumni getting together to talk about old times and celebrate Texas' victory at the Battle of San Jacinto. On April 21, 1903, after the corps bandmaster failed to give the signal for students to go to class, the 300-member student body seized the opportunity and marched through Old Main, a former campus administration building. They continued to the home of then-university president David F. Houston to demand some official observance of the Battle that won Texas its independence. The University administration made the students return to class, and they left vowing that no future Aggie would ever forget what they considered the greatest day in Texas' history. The conflict result ed in the date becoming an official cam pus holiday. Muster's meaning shifted and gained world-wide attention during World War II when 25 Aggies held a ceremony on Corregidor Island in the Philippines. In the midst of Japanese snipers, the men, under the command of Gen. George Moore, held a roll call to remember their lost friends. The group knew they could not resist attack much longer and "The Rock," or the island, fell 15 days later. The following year, the word "Muster" was coined, and the focus of the event changed from the "bull sessions" of the See Muster/Page 3 Inside Sports •Baseball: A&M survives pitching duels with Baylor, ends weekend series with two wins, one loss •Curl, Fedora provide offense just when Aggies need it most Page 7 Opinion •Pro-Con: Should state-run education be subject to increasing privatization? •Column: Future editor exhorts students to be part of the Batt Page 9