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The Battalion
jme 103 • Issue 12 • 12 Pages
Tuesday, September 17, 1996
The Batt Online: http://bat-web.tamu.edu
uayle rallies support
)r Republican Party
Melanie D. Smith
The Batt alion
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the June and
rmer Vice President
^uayle urged students
Republican in the
November elections during
his Monday appearance at
Rudder fountain.
Quayle’s rally, sponsored
by Texas A&M College Re
publicans, was an effort to
Troops await orders
Clinton does not seek confrontation with Saddam
Stew Milne, The Battalion
iQuayie speaks at Rudder Fountain Monday afternoon.
drum up support for local
Republican candidates and
encourage voter turnout
for students.
Quayle endorsed Pete Ses
sions, a 5th District Republi
can congressional candidate
and praised Texas Agricultur
al Commissioner Rick Perry.
But most of Quayle’s speech
focused on Bob Dole’s presi
dential campaign.
“We need our public offi
cials to tell the truth,”
Quayle said. “Pete Sessions
will tell you the truth. Rick
Perry will tell you the truth.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a
commander in chief who
will tell you the truth?”
Quayle said the character
of the candidates should play
a vital role in the presidential
See Quayle, Page 10
WASHINGTON (AP) —
The United States is not out
to force a showdown with
Iraq, President Clinton said
Monday, as administration
officials cooled their
rhetoric over a potential
clash with Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile, 3,000 U.S.
soldiers at Fort Hood,
Texas, waited to see
whether they would be or
dered to Kuwait for a new
round of desert exercises.
“We have sought no con
frontation with Saddam Hus
sein. We never did and we
don’t now,” the president told
reporters in the Oval Office.
“My concern is that we
limit Saddam Hussein’s abil
ity to threaten his neighbors,
that we do it with the no-fly
zone and, in so doing, we
keep our pilots safe,” Clin
ton added.
On Friday, Saddam said
he would no longer shoot at
coalition planes patrolling
the two no-fly zones over
Iraqi soil, which are de
signed to cripple Saddam’s
ability to mount threats
against his neighbors.
Army officials said Friday
that 5,000 members of the
1st Cavalry Division at Fort
Hood, Texas, had been or
dered to deploy to Kuwait to
take part in an ongoing exer
cise. By Monday, officials
said they expected no more
than 3,000 would be going
— but insisted no final order
had been issued.
“We have not gotten an
execution order, and when it
comes — if it comes — it
might even be something
less” than the 3,000, said III
Corps spokesman, Army Lt.
Col. Randy Schoel.
In a telephone interview,
Schoel said soldiers at Fort
Hood were continuing with
their normal routine, includ
ing practicing putting ar
mored vehicles on a ship at
Beaumont, Texas. “It is just an
exercise,” Schoel insisted.
A senior military official,
asked about the delay, said,
“We’re in a watch-and-wait
mode. We’re watching to
see if Saddam’s words
match his deeds.”
To the embarrassment of
Pentagon and administra
tion officials, Kuwait balked
over the weekend at ac
cepting the latest troop de
ployment, apparently
miffed at a lack of consulta
tion prior to its announce
ment late Friday.
White House spokesman
Mike McCurry told re
porters Kuwait decided to
accept more U.S. troops,
but he declined to say ex
actly how many.
America’s
reluctant allies
YEMEN A
400 miles , ;
I 11 "
400 km
Q] Turkey has barred the use of its southern
air base in Incirlik for the launching of air
strikes against Iraq.
[|] Kuwait has agreed to the deployment of
additional U.S. troops to add to their
1,200-strong contingent.
[3] Bahrain will allow U.S. F-16s to be based
on its territory to help enforce Iraq’s
southern “no-fly" zone.
[4] Saudi Arabia has not permitted the
Americans to launch air strikes against
Iraq from their territory.
AP/Wm. J. Gastello
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mu,WASHINGTON (AP) — A fail-
SnvJlr.ahi the Pentagon and key field
manders to locus on terror-
contributed to the death toll
he bombing in Saudi Arabia
killed 19 U.S. airmen in June,
tiding to a task force report
ased Monday.
nresponse, Defense Secretary
liam Perry ordered a review of
Z itheranyAir Force personnel
Tild becourt-martialed.
resident Clinton praised the
"/think we need to
lo a great deal
ore to protect our
|oung men and
fomen.”
Come fooi 1
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want.
Newt Gingrich
Speaker of the House
ondo
d meet MoW
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?ec Center.
irt as “unvarnished, blunt,
{forward.”
f e intend to do everything
an” to protect troops in the
Id Clinton said. “We’re going
gressively implement the ...
it.”
ouse Speaker Newt Gingrich,
.campaigning in his home
accused the Clinton admin-
tion of being “consistently
tin its approach to protect
deans from terrorism.”
think we need to do a great
more to protect our young
and women,” he said,
focus of Perry’s review is ex-
d to be Air Force Brig. Gen.
1 J. "Terry” Schwalier, com-
der of the 4404th Wing and
fficer responsible for the se-
y of the roughly 2,000 ser
vicemen living at Khobar Towers
in Dhahran, site of the bombing.
"Khobar Towers was identified
to Gen. Schwalier as one of the
three highest priority soft targets
in the region,” the report notes.
But Schwalier seems not to
have made terrorism a top priori
ty, the report said, contending
that he “never raised to his supe
riors force protection matters
that were beyond his capability
to correct. Nor did he raise the is
sue of expanding the perimeter
or security outside of the fence
with his Saudi counterparts.”
An end-of-tour memo written
by Schwalier the day before the
June 25 bombing does not even
mention the terrorist threat as a
focus of his tenure.
Perry was not specifically
criticized by the task force,
which was commissioned by the
Pentagon and headed by retired
Army Special Forces Gen. Wayne
Downing. However, the Down
ing report cites as its first find
ing the Pentagon’s failure to is
sue orders on protecting forces
housed in buildings.
“I am concerned that insuffi
cient attention is being given to
anti-terrorism measures and
force protection,” Downing wrote
in a memo to Perry accompany
ing the task force report.
With thousands of Army
troops packing bags for possible
deployment to Kuwait, Gen. John
Shaliicashvili, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the mili
tary is taking steps to coordinate
its response to terrorism. Still, the
four-star general admitted to be
ing caught off guard.
“All of us have been surprised
by the size and sophistication
and the destructiveness of this
attack,” Shalikashvili said.
Council unites
student groups
By Ia.ura Oliveira
The Battalion
A student body executive
council comprised of repre
sentatives from different cam
pus organizations has united
to tackle major problems that
Texas A&M students face.
The council was created by
Carl Baggett, student body
president and a senior ac
counting major. Baggett said
the council heightens interac
tion among organizations on
campus and fulfills his vision to give a voice to
diverse groups.
Chris Reed, speaker of the Student Senate
and a senior finance major, said the council
serves as a platform for expressing a variety of
student viewpoints.
“I think it is a great organization because it
allows student leaders that have different per
spectives to come together and talk about issues
that are important to students,” he said.
The council is led by Amy Bigbee, Student
Government chief of staff and a senior chemical
engineering major. Bigbee said the council’s
main goal is to develop solid solutions for com
plex problems.
“We have a goal of tackling problems that do
not have immediate solutions,” she said.
The council wants to deal with two major issues
a year and create strategic plans for problems.
One goal is to bring a new convention center
to College Station because the Memorial Stu
dent Center and Rudder Tower do not provide
ample space for meetings and conferences.
The council is working on a list of guaranteed
events that would be scheduled at the new cen
ter. They will also lobby potential developers.
Nikki Guerra, executive director of Minority
Student Affairs and a senior civil engineering
major, said she is pleased by the council’s effec
tiveness. She said cooperation is the key to the
council’s success.
“We can pull resources together and work as
one big group to face problems,” she said. “I
think we can really make a difference.”
Baggett
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Sports, Pag€
GOP loses traditional edge on crime politics
WASHINGTON (AP) — Law and
order was a powerful refrain for Re
publican Richard Nixon in the 1968
presidential campaign, and again
for George Bush two decades later.
But Bob Dole can’t bank on party
tradition as he tries to use the crime
issue against President Clinton.
Mindful of the Democratic Par
ty’s painful lessons in crime politics,
Clinton has spent much of his first
term trying to neutralize the long
standing Republican advantage on
the issue.
Monday’s timely endorsement
by the national Fraternal Order of
Police was one sign of that. The
nation’s largest police organiza
tion backed Bush over Clinton
four years ago, but the Democrat
ic incumbent basked in a sea of
blue uniforms this time in
Cincinnati, just as Dole tried to
push the crime and drugs issue to
the forefront of the campaign.
“We have a straightforward ap
proach: more police on the street,
guns and drugs off the street,” Clin
ton said earlier Monday at a White
House ceremony, where he joined
Attorney General Janet Reno in
claiming credit in the war on crime
and in rattling off a string of statis
tics he said proved his point.
Begging to differ, Dole argues
that rather than fight, Clinton has
surrendered, particularly in the war
on drugs. And on this latter point,
he has statistics of his own: Clinton
shrunk the staff of the drug policy
director’s office, and the president’s
own administration recently report
ed alarming increases in drug use
among 12- to 17-year olds.
Dole says this is no accident, and
his television ads will soon feature
some powerful footage to help
make the point: video of Clinton
laughing on MTV when asked if he
would inhale marijuana if given the
chance to relive his college years.
“Sure, if I could,” Clinton said.
It is a startling image Dole
hopes will shake up the race, one
aimed at eroding Clinton’s sup
port among the suburban parents
that Dole must win over if he is
defeat Clinton.
“I will make the moral issue
clear,” Dole said Monday, in
Pennsylvania as he pledged to cut
drug use at least in half if elected
and to double federal funding for
prison construction. “There is
right and there is wrong, and
drug use is wrong.”
This was the opening foray in a
new Dole effort to focus voter atten
tion on what he considers America’s
moral decline. There is plenty of evi
dence to suggest voters share his
concern, but little to suggest they
blame Clinton.
An ABC News-Washington Post
poll earlier this month, for exam
ple, showed Clinton with a nar
row 46 percent to 40 percent edge
when voters were asked which
presidential candidate they trust
ed more to fight crime. The num
bers are testament to Clinton’s
task in escaping his party’s past
— not only on crime but on wel
fare and other so-called “wedge
issues” used by Republicans in
past national elections.
During the 1992 campaign, Clin
ton returned home to Arkansas to
sign execution papers for a convict
ed murderer — and overcame op
position from liberals to put the De
mocratic Party on the record in fa
vor of capital punishment.
As president, Clinton overcame
Republicans and the National Rifle
Association opposition to pass two
major gun-control measures, one
banning certain assault-style
weapons, the other requiring a wait
ing period for handgun purchases.
These laws are popular among
working women and suburban
moderates, perhaps the two most
critical constituencies in the presi
dential election.
As Dole tries to turn the crime
issue in his favor, he is turning to
the familiar liberal vs. conserva
tive rhetoric of Republican cam
paigns past.
Speaking at Villanova Universi
ty, Dole said Monday: “From pack
ing the federal court with ideologi
cal liberals to running up the white
flag in the war on drugs to taking a
go-easy approach in prosecuting
criminals, this administration’s
crime policies can be summed up
in the phrase, ‘Speak loudly but
carry a small stick,’ or probably no
stick at all.”