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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 14, 2000)
Page 6 NEWS Wednesday, June 14, THE BATTALION Portrait of an artist Junior environvental design major, Andrew Smith creates art with oil paints at his painting class on Tues day. Smith, who has only recently begun painting, has been practicing art his whole life. Three men acquitted iij Ireland gun conspiracj FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Three men were convicted Tuesday of ship ping weapons to Ireland, but acquitted of the most serious charges against them. Conor Claxton, Martin Mullan and Anthony Smyth were acquitted on charges of shipping weapons to terror ists and conspiracy to maim or murder persons in a for eign country. If they had been convict ed of the more serious charges, they could have faced up to life in prison. After the verdict was read, Claxton turned to his family and supporters in the courtroom, smiled and gave a thumbs-up. He then hugged his attorney, Fred Haddad. Claxton, a 27-year-old Northern Ireland resident; Mullan, a 30-year-old Philadelphia handyman; and Smyth, a 43-year-old car salesman in .Weston, a Fort Lauderdale suburb, were ar rested last July. All three are Roman Catholic natives of Northern Ireland. They were accused of buying guns and ammuni tion in Florida and then mailing them to Ireland, where they could be used against the British govern ment in Northern Ireland. Police intercepted 23 pack ages containing 122 guns and other weapons alleged ly mailed by the group. The weapons and am munition were intercepted by investigators in New York and Ireland. Authori ties said they had been pur chased in Florida and mailed by Smyth, Claxton and Mullan. During the monthlong trial, Claxton insisted that only he knew about the gun smuggling and that he did n't know it was illegal. He testified that militant Irish- Americans pushed him to buy weapons because they feared Catholics — few of whom are allowed to own guns in Northern Ireland — could be left at the mercy of the Protestant paramilitary • Gore > Vice pr de commer on mi n and police forces unde recent peace accords. The defense maintil that the purchases cot] considered self-defense en the years of bloodsM Northern Ireland. The defense also] that Mullan didn'tkno« packages he mailed Claxton during a fami! cation contained weap and that Smyth thoup was acting as a middle) for legitimate gun deal- Smyth's fiancee,iij han Brown, wasaki rested and pleadedgd to one of 33 cop against her. She awaits sente - : this month. Ra m; Italy pardons Turkish gunman Agca to serve time for killing that took place before pope attack ROME (AP) — Italy pardoned the Turkish gunman Tuesday who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981, and im mediately moved to transfer him to a Turkish prison — taking with him the answers to the mysterious assassina tion attempt. Mehmet Ali Agca offered profuse thanks to the pope, who had personal ly forgiven and comforted his would- be killer in a 1983 visit to Agca's prison cell. The Vatican recently reassured the government that John Paul supported clemency for Agca. "That the granting of pardon comes during Holy Year celebrations makes the pope's personal satisfac tion even more intense," said papal spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls. Agca must now serve time in Turkey for a killing that took place before the attack on the pope. On May 13, 1981, Agca pulled a trigger twice as John Paul rode smiling and waving in an open car through ex cited throngs of pilgrims in St. Peter's Square. One shot hit the pope's abdomen, barely missing vital organs. Doctors say the wound forever weakened the pope, then an athletic hiker and skier, now a frail, stooped 80-year-old suf fering from symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The former Soviet bloc was imme diately suspected in the attack — sus picions that lingered over the years de spite denials by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and the onetime spy chief for the former East Germany. Soviet spy chiefs were seen as fear ing the adamantly anti-communist pope would spur popular revolts against the Soviet bloc — as John Paul in fact did, above all in his native Poland. Agca had told investigators he acted at the instigation of the Bulgarian secret service and the Soviet KGB. But Italian courts ruled there was insufficient evi dence to support the accusations, and Agca himself went on to give widely varying accounts over his 19 years and one month behind bars in Italy. Agca purposefully feigned insani ty in court to cast doubt on the credi bility of his own stories, a prosecutor said Tuesday. "This extinguishes the last hope of reaching the truth," prosecutor Anto nio Marini said of the pardon and ex tradition. Committee absolves NATO of its war crimes in Kosov# THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal said Tuesday it found no reason to in vestigate NATO for criminal activity during its 78-day bombing campaign in Kosovo last year that killed nearly 500 civilians. The committee, appointed 13 months ago by war crimes prosecu tor Carla Del Ponte, reviewed com plaints by the Yugoslav government and by international human rights bodies that the NATO bombing of civilian convoys and infrastructure amounted to crimes against human ity and genocide. The campaign by the western mili tary alliance in the spring of 1999 was intended to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to rein in Serbian forces trying to evict ethnic Albanians from the Serbian province of Kosovo. Del Ponte told the United Nations last week that she would not initiate any prosecution for the NATO cam paign. Amnesty International has re peatedly charged that NATO "violat ed the laws of war leading to cases of unlawful killing of civilians.". The report released Tuesday gave a case-by-case justification for declining to pursue the war crimes allegations. "We will not open a criminal in vestigation," the prosecutor said. Hi We will not open a criminal investi gation. [There was] no political motivation, no political reasons, just fact and law.” — Carla Del Ponte war crimes prosecutor There was "no political motivation, no political reasons, just fact and law" that led to the committee's conclu sion, she said. NATO pilots and commanders were accused of 21 specific incidents of crime, including the bombingofai'l voy of 1,000 Albanian refugeesretfl ing to their homes and thedestrurtl of the Yugoslav television state I Belgrade, the capital. The prosecutor took the unusi step of publishing the report's!ir; - :-. to avoid any impression itvvaswfel washing the allegations. In its report, the committeeadr ted its findings were based on pur statements from NATO and fiwi: Yugoslav government, andiliab members did not visit Kowotbr. firsthand investigation. When asked (or further ink tion, the report said, NATO was sive and refused to answer spe: questions. ; I The committee said it foundnol stances in which purely civiliantarii were deliberately bombed. During the campaign, NATO'-; - planes flew 38,400 sorties and dropfe 23,618 bombs. The committee (■ firmed that among those muiil were weapons using depleted util um and cluster bombs, botlil nounced by human rights. Texas Ad Ray M. Bow return to usi tor in admis 1996 Hopwi an end to etl A&M and c ties, is overt "If Hopv pealed, and issues to ad our pre-Ho 75.51 Pr i e- AcUe Gscsk'n; ^Adrian TM MNIJMICO OIMNICLU BY J. GOLDFll KEATON' THCI?6 THE <515?;. VOU LIHTC: CHECKrNO NOW t-S CHANCE TO TALK TO HCt?' THAT Pi€?«T HELLO TH£«?£' Z'M KEATON. 1 OO /OH <V\£'r we <W£T at A PAC?TV LAeST PCftOAY.. MAY X AfSK WHAT VOL* LITTLE GUV WITH £UF?LY HAlf?'*’ WOG?«ST TEACMEf? I EVER? HAI7. (WWA!! Vffl/tl S MPPCWCD TO (J*) (T IfE/A'S THf (DAK AffW HA5 mm PPfY TO THf ALWRING Cl iV cr» AF* DtLIiiwA A.Ti Akl u£ce, (Z&e&t, m SceO'6... SaowKt QUEEN BEA BY NOTORIOUS LJ CL oei.se. r vo'-.+i’v'e -S't'w -cAewV pt'-o'fe.stovcs Uo.ve -fcKk.e*'"'- Yke. 6<asL /kcHen+row pro+e.storsl Coewe. owT exsocJ. Ojive. # r\o w I excise v-c\e bwV o-s <x repi-esen+o-Live c-P p^'oFfc.s \i To potv^.'V owF +V-vo.-V we o-v~e cV sp ck. •f \ esq r*<xv\ + n asp* 1 c.T NS S‘f<X'AI'~>ck, COV% -s <2rvcN.Vt We cke- p l ot'-a Suck «.V-,c>.\/'o r' «. A; cd'e. Bcxsh ou/r Ke-cAs? Do ? Do if Nov-* k N . gF i-H K TKovUs^ A * V' v ■Jh. ^ ‘ 1 ■ jBt Sf H|f ojoiv.^ -To work seen || oef ker.iT sfovte. OH lip H August Graduates The Official Texas A&M Graduation Announcements Order via the web! http://graduation.tamu.edu All orders and payments must be received by June 16! MSC Box Office M-F 9:00am-4:30pm 979-845-1234 1-888-890-5667 SUBS & SALADS FREE SCOOP of ICE CREAM - 26 flavors to choose from! w/ the purchase of a Combo Meal at regular price. 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