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Vol. 102, No. 55 (12 pages)
Established in 1893
Friday • November 10, 1995
Recent scams raise concerns among faculty, UPD
□ UPD officers said faculty or
staff members should contact
the police immediately if they
receive letters requesting
credit card or bank account
numbers.
By Michelle Lyons
The Bati align
Texas A&M faculty and staff mem
bers should be aware of a scam being
run by unknown individuals world
wide, University Police Department of
ficials said.
The con artists attempt to obtain per
sonal information from faculty and staff
members, such as bank account and
credit card numbers.
The scam is currently under investi
gation by the United States Secret Ser
vice and by university officials across
the nation, including A&M.
Bob Wiatt, UPD director, distrib
uted a memo to A&M employees after
an A&M professor recently reported
receiving a letter postmarked from La
gos, Nigeria.
The sender identified himself as a
representative from a Nigerian petrole
um company who was interested in re
cruiting partners for an enterprise sanc
tioned by the Nigerian government.
The victim of the scam was requested
to provide the sender with his or her
bank account number and in exchange,
the sender would deposit a substantial
amount of money to that
account. The depositor
would then be able to
use the abcount, and for
this service, the A&M
employee would receive
10 percent of the money.
Since distributing
the memo, Wiatt said
UPD has received sev
eral more reports of
similar activity.
“Since that memo came out, we have
received maybe a dozen other reports
from faculty and staff,” Wiatt said.
“There have been a number of reports of
employees on campus who have said
that they too have recently received let
ters from Nigeria.
" ... when you talk about con artist or
confidence games, the victims are re
luctant to come forward because they
are embarrassed ... "
— Lt. Burt Kretzschmar
University Police Department
“They are blanketing a lot of people
across the nation.”
Wiatt added that although the
names and scenarios in the letters
sometimes varied, the overall message
was the same, and all the letters were
postmarked from Nigeria.
According to the Secret Service, after
obtaining the person’s account number,
the perpetrators “clean out” the ac
counts, including credit card accounts
and, in some cases, Teacher’s Retire
ment System accounts.
Lt. Burt Kretzschmar of UPD said it is
possible that more people have been con
tacted and are reluctant to step forward.
“A lot of times when you talk about
con artists or confidence games, the vic
tims are very reluctant to come forward
because they are embarrassed — embar
rassed that they were taken advantage
of,” Kretzschmar said. “Others receive
See SCAMS, Page 12
MSC to add U.S., Texas flags
to Flagroom on Veteran’s Day
Organizations to
honor veterans
□ The four military
service flags will be
added during Military
Weekend in the spring.
By Lily Aguilar
The Battalion
The Memorial Student Cen
ter is acknowledging the Uni
versity and the armed forces
on Veteran’s Day Saturday by
dedicating the state and na
tional flags to the MSC Fla
groom at 11 a.m.
The dedication will feature
speaker Lt. Gen. James
Hollingsworth, Class of ’40,
who is the most highly decorat
ed living Aggie officer.
Hollingsworth will accept the
flags on behalf of Texas A&M
and the MSC.
A ceremonial posting of the
national colors by the Corps of
Cadets and a reception in 292
Rudder Tower are included in
the celebration.
William Zarco, Texas A&M
Veterans president and a senior
business analysis major, said
members of his organization
discovered the MSC did not
have the American flag or the
state flag of Texas when they
went to take their organiza
tion’s picture earlier this year.
“We were a newly formed or
ganization, and we wanted to
take our picture in front of the
American flag,” Zarco said. “To
our surprise, there was no U.S. or
state flag. It was completely inci
dental that we discovered this.”
Zarco, who served in the Ma
rine Corps for four years, said
the MSC is supposed to honor all
former students who have fought
and fallen in American wars. He
said the presence of the state
and national flags reflects his
See Flags, Page 1 2
As the nation honors its veterans, two
Texas A&M student organizations are cooper
ating to honor veterans Saturday at 11 am.
The Texas A&M Corps of Cadets will
place a commemorative wreath at the West
Gate Memorial next to Albritton Tower. A
bugler from the Aggie Band will play Taps
during the ceremony.
The West Gate Memorial is dedicated to
the 55 Aggies who died in World War L
Following the wreath-laying ceremony,
the Texas A&M Veterans Association will
dedicate two flags to the MSC.
Both the United States flag and the Texas
flag will be added to the MSC flagroom.
Retired Lt. Gen. James F. Hollingsworth
of San Antonio, a member of the Class of
1940, will speak. A reception will follow.
The two ceremonies are open to the public.
A&M to host Model U.N. Conference
□ The political officer for
the United Nations will
speak at the MUN
conference on campus to
celebrate the U.N.'s 50th
anniversary.
By Tara Wilkinson
The Battalion
A United Nations officer is visit
ing Texas A&M today, prepared to
answer students’ questions about
how the United Nations works and
what it does.
Dr. Jehangir Khan, political officer
in the United Nations Secretariat De
partment of Political Affairs, will
speak at 6 p.m. in 601 Rudder Tower
about “the past, present and future of
the United Nations.”
The Texas A&M Model Interna
tional Organizations Committee,
MSC Political Forum, MSC In
ternational Programs Committee
and the Jordan Institute are spon
soring Kahn’s appearance in cele
bration of the 50th anniversary of
the United Nations.
Kahn’s appearance will also
launch a Model United Nations Con
ference at A&M this weekend.
Hilary Holman, MSC Political
Forum chairwoman and a senior
political science major, said Khan’s
speech will be interesting because
though most people have heard of
the United Nations, they do not
have a comprehensive understand
ing of how it operates.
“They do more than just police the
world,” Holman said. “There’s more to
the United Nations than that, and a
lot of people don’t realize it.”
Holman said Kahn was given a
broad speech topic so that he can
tailor his presentation to the inter
ests of the audience. The speech
will be followed by a 20- to 30-
minute question-and-answer ses
sion. The whole presentation is ex
pected to last 45 minutes.
. Refik Sahin, Political Forum direc
tor of programming and a freshman
civil engineering major, said he ex
pects Kahn to focus on the United Na'-
tion’s accomplishments during the
past 50 years.
“I’m sure the topic will include
some more contemporary issues too,”
Sahin said.
Students from colleges across
Texas will be on campus to hear Kah
n’s speech and to participate in the
rest of the Model United Nations
Conference.
The conference will include discus
sions on current events and global is
sues, all conducted in the form of a
mock U.N. meeting.
Delegates, who choose which
countries they will represent,
See Conference, Page 12
Tim Moog, The Battalion
Starting stack
The redpots move the bottom of centerpole as it is lifted into place Thursday afternoon.
The raising of centerpole is the beginning of the stack phase of Bonfire. Bonfire is sched
uled to burn on Dec. 1.
Experts to focus on effects of fascism on today’s society
□ An A&M professor
said fascism is making
a comeback.
By Courtney Walker
The Battalion
What some people thought
disappeared with the end of
Nazi Germany, is retuiming to
the Western world in the form
of racism, sexism and ultracon
servative philosophies, a group
of Texas A&M professors said.
Experts from around the
country, including several
Texas A&M professors, will
discuss the emergence of a new
fascism in a series of lectures
on “Fascism’s Return: Scandal,
Revision and Ideology Since
1980” today and Saturday in
401 Rudder Tower.
Annette Levy-Willard, se
nior political writer for the
Parisian newspaper Liberation
and a documentary filmmaker
for French national television
and the British Broadcast
Corp., will talk about her role
as a reporter on European
neo-Nazism.
Levy-Willard will also show
a film she made for the BBC
called The Other Face of Terror
which addresses neo-Nazism.
The lectures will also fea
ture academics from other uni
versities such as Dartmouth
College, Stanford University
and the University of Califor
nia at Los Angeles.
Speakers will discuss the
different perspectives of fas
cism and how it is resurfacing
into the Western World. Topics
range from the Holocaust de
nial and the New European
Right to the Hitler Youth
Generation.
Larry J. Reynolds, director of
the Interdisciplinary Group for
Historical Literary Study, said
people need to understand why
fascism is returning in the West
ern world and the effects of Euro
pean fascism on America.
“We need to know why skin
heads are seen beating people
who are foreign or different
and a basic xenothabia or fear
of the foreign is becoming
prevalent,” Reynolds said.
Although fascism is not an
immediate problem in the
United States and on American
college campuses, A&M profes
sors said the ideology behind it
is intertwined in everyday is
sues like racism and sexism.
Arnold Krammer, an A&M
history professor, said fascism
is making a significant come
back in the Ku Klux Klan, mili
tias and survivalist groups.
“We shouldn’t dismiss fascism
just because it happens in Europe
because it can be found in Ameri
ca as well,” Krammer said. “What
it all boils down to is a single
leader telling a group of docile
people what to do, and that can
happen anywhere.”
Even though fascist dictator
ships ended in Europe 50 years
ago, Krammer said, fascism
continues to make its presence
felt in intellectual controver
sies, public scandals and cur
rent political movements and
ideologies.
He used the example of ex
posing an infection to sunlight
to heal the wound. The infec
tion is fascism, and the sun
light is the public.
“We are here to educate the
public because the sooner people
realize it is a growing problem,
the sooner they can do something
about it,” Krammer said.
Richard J. Golsan, an A&M
French professor, said the con
centration of neofascism is in
Europe, but some aspects of it
can be found in our culture.
“Fascists have an extreme
focus of nationalism and do not
take into account the differ
ences in people and their cul
tures, which is a problem al
most everywhere,” Golsan said.