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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 24, 1999)
Page 8 ♦ Wednesday, March 24, 1999 News Clinton, Congress prepare for NATO airstrikes on Serbia WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton pre pared the American peo ple on Tuesday for an im minent attack on Serb targets, acknowledging U.S. forces would be put at risk. Congress fell in behind him, shelving a move to keep the Ameri can troops away from Yugoslavia. As NATO airstrikes appeared all but in evitable, Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov registered his opposition by canceling a White House visit while en route to Washington. The Russian leader’s plane turned around and headed back to Moscow. “I want to level with you,” Clinton said in a speech to a union group and the American public at large. ‘This is like any other military action. There are risks in it.” But he said that patient American diplomacy had reached a dead end and that Serb troops were terrorizing and mur dering civilians in Kosovo. ‘‘We have to take a stand now,” Clinton said. “If we don’t do it now, we will have to do it lat er.” The Senate had been scheduled to take a key procedural vote Tuesday on legisla tion by Republican leaders designed to keep Clinton from using U.S. military power in the Balkans crisis without sup port from Congress first. But after Clinton called senior mem bers of the Senate and House to the White House to receive a report on envoy Richard Holbrooke’s failure to budge Yu goslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Kosovo, Senate leaders shifted gears. “That is a debate for another time. We are at a critical hour,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. and a potential presidential can didate in 2000 told the Senate after the meeting. He said with a bombing cam paign imminent, it was no time to under- CLINTON mine Clinton’s role as commander in chief. At the White House meeting and later at a Democratic Senate meeting with members of Clinton’s national security team, lawmakers were told to expect the strikes as early as Thesday evening, ac cording to participants who spoke on con dition of anonymity. They said the attack could be put off until Wednesday, however. The final go- ahead depended on weather conditions and certain other tactical factors, partici pants at the briefings were told. Primakov dramatically dissociated himself from a NATO assault on the Serbs, with whom Russia has historic cultural and religious ties. The prime minister’s jetliner turned back over the Atlantic as he was flying to Washington for a long- scheduled meeting with Vice President A1 Gore designed to strengthen U.S. eco nomic and scientific cooperation with Russia. According to White House accounts. Gore called Primakov to inform him of the “worsening situation” in the Balkans and the prime minister had the plane turn AP Committee determines little should change in UT sports AUSTIN (AP) — While a survey finds nearly two-thirds of faculty members perceive an overemphasis on athletics at the University of Texas, a faculty com mittee has concluded little should be done to change UT sports. But members of the UT Faculty Coun cil, debating the committee’s report for the first time this week, put off formally endorsing it. They said they needed more time to discuss options that reflect their concerns. “I’m very disappointed,” council member Alan Cline, a computer science professor, said earlier. “I don’t think they looked at the issues hard enough. I see athletics heading in the direction of greater and greater dominance . . . over the academic enterprise.” The committee, he said, “had an op portunity. They took a swing, and they missed.” The debate on the report, which took more than a year to produce, highlighted concerns some faculty have about the role of athletics at UT — from spending on stadium construction projects to the $1 million salary paid to football coach Mack Brown. The report says that because UT plays in the big leagues of college sports, turn ing back the clock and dropping out of Division I-A competition is not a viable option. Instead, the report recommends such tinkering as changing advisory commit tee appointments and informing the fac ulty of athletics construction projects that cost at least $10 million. “There were those who hoped we would recommend drastic reforms,” said the report submitted by committee chair man Charles Alan Wright, a UT law pro fessor. “We did not do so because, given the assumption that we will continue to com pete at the level we presently do, we found no need for drastic reforms. “We are fortunate here that we have an athletics program that is self-support ing and that has an enviable tradition of integrity and competing within the rules.” The debate is expected to continue at the April 19 council meeting. The coun cil could amend the report before adopt ing it and sending it to UT president Lar ry Faulkner. ie Batlal ioi Eye in the sky MIKE PUENTESTh Don Holder, an electrician for Gray Electronics, repairs a security camera in the parking lot of the George Bush Presidential Library Tuesday. Lightning is suspected to have been the cause of the security camera malfunctions Rape victim sues police departmei Sfi » ■ ■ £ Student claims officers laughed, accused her of lying following incii SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — After calling 911 in November to re port that she had been raped, Jennifer W. says, police laughed at her, called her a liar and warned her she would have to pay for the lab tests if the results came back negative. Finally, last week, the man she accused pleaded guilty to raping her. And he also admit ted raping a teen-age girl more recently. Now Jennifer, a 24-year-old junior at the University of Neva da at Reno, is suing the Sparks Police Department, its chief and three other members of the force for more than $200,000. “There wouldn’t be a second victim if the Sparks police did their jobs instead of calling me ‘a g-d d—ned liar,’” she says. The officers accused in the case and City Attorney Chet Adams say they cannot com ment while the lawsuit is pend ing. Timothy Mobly pleaded guilty to attacking Jennifer, who asked that her last name not be used. Mobly and his roommate, Aaron Cross, also pleaded guilty to charges they lured a 17-year-old girl to their apart ment on Jan. 2 and raped her before she escaped the next morning. Prosecutors are asking for 30 years in prison for Mobly and 20 for Cross. Jennifer, like the 17-year-old girl, met the men through the Internet. Jennifer dated Mobly briefly, then tried to break it off via e-mail. Mobly wanted to meet, and she told him he could come to her parents’ house, where she lived. Jennifer said Mobly showed up with Cross and immediately attacked her, handcuffing her hands and feet, stuffing a sock in her mouth and putting her in a suitcase in the trunk of his car. Mobly later cut off her clothes and raped her. Then they drove her home. “They thanked her for help ing them live out their fantasy,” says her attorney, Marc Picker. Jennifer says she told them she would call the police, but they told her that nobody would believe that someone had raped her and then taken her home. “Little did Jenn know he was right and she was wrong,” Picker says. She did call police, and spent three hours being interviewed. At the end, officers told her they thought she was lying and threatened to prosecute her un less she immediately withdrew her complaint, Picker says. When Jennifer was taken to a hospital for an examination. Detective David Adams al legedly told her she would be charged for the test if it came back negative for signs of rape. She was billed, but Picker says he thinks it came back positive and police lied. Jennifer, a biology and psy chology major, says she urged investigators to search Mobly’s trunk for DNA evidence and her room for fingerprints. She says the police laughed. “My father keeps the garage as clean as the White House. He told them there were tire marks in the garage that he would nev er leave there and they blew him off,” she says. Later, Mobly even sent her a taunting e-mail: “I got away “He told me, 'You're a G-d d—ned lair. Nobody in town believes you'... and he slammed the phone down on me." —Jennifer Rape victim with rape.” Jennifers* called police to tell them it and got a call the nlj from Sgt. Robert Schmip “He told me, ‘You’reu d—ned liar. Nobody inp believes you. Yourparentsl believe you. You accused! nocent man of r<ipe,’ iii slammed the phone dowm me,” she says. '[Wo months later, po\ contacted her, saying her was going to the district al 11 ey ’ s o ffi ce because of nev idence: A 17-year-o\dsti! who had been lured thi another Internet liaise Mobly and Cross’ apar had escaped an assault, naked. Jennifer says policed even apologize. “1 knew going to be rough, tha would ask me a lot o questions,” she says.' never imagined 1 wois called a liar.” Picker says four women have come fo: with stories about beia cused by the Sparks poS making up rape com| over the past 20 years. Jennifer has left scho is in counseling to dealw taunts she says she hear |jp don’t know why theydi™ lieve me,” she says what I went through things better for otherw && .fi The Texas A&M University Student Publications Board is accepting applications for The Battauon ap ® m Hi till II ll wt-JP If " The Battauon - Including radio and online editions - - Including radio and online editions - Summer 1999 (The summer editor will serve from May 24 through Aug. 6, T 999.| Fall 1999 (The fall editor will serve from Aug. 16 through Dec. 10, 1999.| Qualifications for editor in chief of The Battalion are: • Be a Texas A&M student in good standing with the University and enrolled in at least six credit hours (unless fewer credits are required to graduate) during the term of office; • Have at least a 2.00 cumulative grade point ratio and at least a 2.00 grade point ratio in the semester immediately prior to the appointment, the semester of appointment and semester(s) (all summer course work is considered summer semester) during the term ofoffice. In order for summer school grades to qualify as previous semester grades, a minimum of six hours must be taken during the course of either the full or two summer session(s); • Have completed or be registered in JOUR 301 (Mass Comm Law), or equivalent; • Have at least one year experience in a responsible editorial position on The Battalion or comparable daily college newspaper, — OR — Have at least one year editorial experience,on a commercial newspaper, -OR- Have completed at least 12 hours journalism, including JOUR 203 and 303 (Media Writing I and 11), and JOUR 304 (Editing for the Mass Media), < equivalent. Aggieland 1999 Qualifications for editor in chief of the Aggieland yearbook are: Be a Texas A&M student in good standing with the University and enrolled in at least six creditti 30U( (unless fewer credits are required to graduate) during the term of office; Have at least a 2.00 cumulative grade point ratio and at least a 2.00 grade point ratio in the semester immediately prior to the appointment, the semester of appointment and semester(s) (oil summer course work is considered summer semester) during the term of office. In order for sunw school grades to qualify as previous semester grades, a minimum of six hours must be taken durirc the course of either the full or two summer session(s); Have completed or be registered in JOUR 210 (Graphics) and JOUR 301 (Mass Comm Law),or equivalent; Have demonstrated ability in writing through university coursework or equivalent experience; Have at least one year experience in a responsible position on the Aggieland or comf yearbook. ItF Application forms should be picked up and returned to Francia Cagle in the Student Publications office, room 012 Reed McDonald Building. Deadline for submitting application: 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 31, Annlirnnk will no mtorviowoQ QuriP rl tno SfiirJonF P, iklivcv4',^r«p D^p,r-pJ : _i ^ _ tut 1 a . •! r i nrtrs • — i . . _ i i _ i. 1 1 1 '' Applicants will be interviewed during the Student Publications Board Meeting beginning at 4 p.m. Monday, April 5, 1999, in room 221F Reed McDonald Building. An Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer. Committed to Diversity.