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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1993)
I0 « enters its century, ember 30,15)j The Battalion The Battalion ices with Tews n Denton, Vol. 93 No. 25 (8 pages) Report The Associated Press WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen replaced the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on Thurs day and suspended five other top officials after a scathing report faulted the agency for the raid on a Texas religious cult in which four agents died. Field commanders "obviously ,.. should not have" proceeded with the Feb. 18 raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco upon learning that cult leader David Koresh knew they were coming, Bentsen said. He announced that he was im- 1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993 Friday, October 1,1993 blasts ATF for handling of Waco raid mediately replacing the agency's director, Stephen Higgins, with John Magaw the head of the Se cret Service who will serve as act ing head of ATF. Higgins had an nounced plans Monday to retire on Oct. 30. "Corrective steps are neces sary," Bentsen said. He released the report of an in vestigation, ordered by President Clinton, that said the agency's plan for the operation was "based on seriously flawed assumptions" about Koresh and his followers. The report found "disturbing evidence of flawed decision mak ing, inadequate intelligence gath ering, miscommunication, super visory failures and deliberately misleading post-raid statements about the raid." Three of Higgins' top deputies were placed on paid administra tive leave along with two Hous ton-based agents who command ed the operation at the scene. The two field commanders made false statements to their su periors and Treasury Department investigators and altered their orig inal planning document "in a con certed effort to conceal their errors in judgment," the report asserted. "And top ATF management, perhaps out of a misplaced desire to protect the agency from criti cism, offered accounts based on those raid commanders' state ments, disregarding evidence that those statements were false," the report said. Higgins, who the report con cluded was misled by his top deputies, had joined other agency officials in describing the raid's failure as an unexpected ambush. In those public statements, agency officials blamed a loss of secrecy for the raid's failure. But they had ample evidence that when the raid began those in com mand already knew Koresh was expecting it, the report said. "The story ATF top manage ment told the American people bore little resemblance to what had been told to the shooting review team" that conducted an internal investigation after the raid, it said. Higgins, who said Monday he would retire after 11 years as di rector, had assured Treasury De partment officials that the raid would be aborted if the element of surprise were lost, Bentsen said. But Charles D. Sarabyn, the lead agent at the scene, ignored a report from an undercover agent who told him 40 minutes before the raid that Koresh had been warned, the report said. Some 60 agents at the staging area heard Sarabyn say that "Ko resh knows we are coming," it said. Sarabyn and Phillip J. Chojanc- ki, his second in command, both denied in initial statements to their superiors that the undercov er agent, Robert Rodriguez, had provided definitive information that Koresh had been warned. Sarabyn also denied telling agents that the cult knew of the plans and stuck to this story during re peated questioning. "It took months, or certainly weeks, before he admitted know ing" that Koresh has been warned, said Ronald K. Noble, the assistant treasury secretary for en forcement who oversaw the five- month investigation. Asked about Sarabyn's deci sion to proceed, Bentsen said: "I don't know what went on in the man's mind when he made the decision" that was "in absolute violation of the instructions.” n the military, trried and read il careers, saiii 49. tor of The Bar- , these menaj aey instilled at ion among tlit however, tlit nds still in ust jressed to shot' s that had ot Conference aims at race relation issues By Kim McGuire The Battalion changed in my mans were trau- vould not tali he battlefield. dedicated as; •r came back. . to those mo ives in defenst cription reads : and in bronti r valor and tt ■ their memon — their sacn- Administrators, faculty and students participated yesterday in a video conference and panel discussion focusing on race relations on university campuses. The prerecorded video conference featured six panelists represent ing faculty, staff and students discussing their roles in enhancing race relations on campus and creating innovative programs stressing multiculturalism. Karan Chavis, employment relations manager of the human re sources department, said the program was in response to campus-wide interest about the topic of cultural diversity. "The program deals with issues that are especially of interest on this campus," Chavis said. "We wanted to have total representation of the University, so we tried to target all facets." The program was structured so that audience members watched a section of the video conference highlighted by the panelists and then listened to a panel of A&M representatives discussing campus issues. During the introduction of the program. Interim President Dr. E. Dean Gage said A&M must make a commitment to having good race relations. "Each of us must resolve to create an environment where students are not judged by their race, but rather scholarship, team effort, achieve ments and contributions to A&M." -E. Dean Gage, Texas A&M interim president "Each of us must embrace a can-do attitude to enhance racial rela tions," Gage said. "Each of us must resolve to create an environment where students are not judged by their race, but rather scholarship, team effort, achievements and contributions to A&M." The University must meet four basic expectations to ensure good race relations, he said. A&M must practice fairness in hiring and pro moting, practice a basic human respect, recruit minorities to reflect a changing environment, and provide students service and leadership opportunities. Hugh McElroy, panelist and associate director of the human resources department, said good racial relations begin with the administration. "I think its unrealistic to expect a unicultural administration to under stand multicultural issues," he said. McElroy commented on State Rep. Ron Wilson's visit to A&M last year. "Wilson said if the administration and faculty were not ethnically rep resented, the legislature has the option of taking funding away from the University," McElroy said. "I didn't perceive it as a threat, but it is a fact the Legislature has that legal option." Dr. William Perry, dean of faculties and associate provost, said good racial relations depends on establishing and rewarding a diverse faculty. "I know we can't equate commitment to dollars, but last year, at the assistant professor level, we hired 30 women and 15 people who were African-Americans or Hispanics," Perry said. "To me, that says the fac ulty search committee has made a commitment to diversity." Perry also said money is now being given to departments who have demonstrated a commitment to diversify undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in the college. Ron Kaiser, a Faculty Senate representative, introduced the Senate's proposal that would require multiculturalism courses under the Uni versity core curriculum. Other panelists included: Rose Red Elk Hardman, intertribal council for the Native-American Students Association; Dr. Victor Arizpe, direc tor of international programs; Tanya Williams, president of the MSC Black Awareness Committee; and Dr. Sallie Shepherd, associate provost of undergraduate programs and academic services. Inside Sports •Texas A&M/ Texas Tech football preview •Women's volleyball preview: Aggies play UTA Page 5 Opinion •Stanford: Mechanically declined learn from maintenance mistakes. Page 7 Weather •Friday: mostly cloudy in the morning, partly cloudy by afternoon •Forecast for Saturday: mostly cloudy, and not as warm, some showers •Your Battalion extended forecast: clear and dry, lows near 50 'Hello down there!' Amy Broivning/THL Battalion Two residents of Puryear Hall hang out of their windows to holler at wanted to wish people well and ask "how's it going." passer-bys on Thursday afternoon. The two anonymous Playboys NAFTA Debate Zaeske, Kolari at odds over trade By Stephanie Pattillo The Battalion What one expert considered a global trend occurring around the world, another called a greedy move by multinational bankers and industrialists, Thursday night during a debate over the proposed North Ameri can Free Trade Agreement(NAF- TA) sponsored by the Hispanic Business Student Association. NAFTA, if passed by Congress, will phase out most of the trade barriers between the United States, Mexico and Canada over a 15-year period. Dr. James Kolari, associate professor of finance, presented arguments in favor of NAFTA, to a group of about 50 students in Rudder Tower, citing that countries competing with one other around the world is better than putting up protection ist barriers. In opposi- Zaeske tion to the free trade agree ment, Lou Zaeske, chairman of the American Ethnic Association, said, "This is a global movement where multinational bankers and industrialists with no patriotic loyalty are willing to do what they need to to achieve the cor porate bottom line." He argued that the U.S. is "limping" now and can't afford to help the Mexican economy be cause that will mean losing Amer ican jobs. Zaeske predicted that as many as 25 million jobs will be "sucked south of the border if NAFTA passes." "I'm not saying that Mexico shouldn't be industrialized, but the U.S. can't do it by shipping jobs and industries down there and making the taxpayers pay for it," he said. Kolari said, if the U.S. doesn't sign the free trade agreement, Mexico's "debt bomb" will go off. "The issue isn't going to go away even if NAFTA doesn't pass," he said. See NAFTA/Page 2 A&M officials not worried about effect of UH problems By Mark Smith The Battalion Recent events at the Univer sity of Houston have called the future of its athletic program into question, however, A&M officials say Texas A&M's pro gram remains on solid ground. Faculty members at UH have started a debate over the viability of intercollegiate ath letics. A recent vote by the UH faculty called for the removal of the athletic program. University and athletic offi cials at A&M, however, said no such problem exists here. "The University of Hous ton's situation is different than anyone else's," said Dr. Bill Smith, chairman of the athletic council. "For a num ber of years, they have been losing money and taking stu dent fees to underwrite the athletic program. I've never heard anyone on the council express opinion against the athletic department." Ronald Kaisor, deputy speaker for the Faculty Senate and Senate liaison with the athletic department, said "It is certainly within the realm of possibility (to remove the de partment) as we evaluate the needs for athletics, but the Faculty Senate has not dis cussed the possibility of re moving athletics." See Athletics/Page 3 TEAC to help clean Matagorda Bay beach By Kim McGuire The Battalion The Texas A&M University chapter of the Texas Environmental Action Coalition (TEAC) will clean a section of Matagorda Bay Beach this weekend as part of the Texas General Land Office's Adopt-A-Beach program. Vanessa Traylor, TEAC president, said the chapter has participated in the program for the past two years, and feels it is vital to maintain clean Texas coastlines. "People have the misconception the program is solely picking up trash," Traylor said. "Wg do that but we're also collecting information about where the trash is coming from so we can target the sources." Traylor said program coordinators pass out data cards to the volunteers so they can tabulate what kind of trash is being deposited and where it's origi nating from. Roxanne Rouse, Texas Adopt-A-Beach program director, said the data collected from the cards is sent to the Center for Marine Conservation Office in Washington D.C. She said the center has been able to direct ly target the source of litter and make some productive changes from the data cards. "From the data collected, we discov ered hundreds of salt bags being deposited from shrimpers who were throwing them from their boats," Rouse said. "We con tacted the salt company and they com pletely changed their packaging to include a direct message on the salt package to the shrimpers saying 'Don't Throw This On The Beach!"' See TEAC/Page 3