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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2000)
Thursday, October 2(1, ay, October 26, 2000 Page 5B Jl. THE BATTALION : opposed to shopping onlii icy was the greatest cod'/ of Internet users agreed thatp e put their privacy at risijjt found is that almost no oj ernment monitoring us,”ft raid corporations are watclii signing tition urging rethinking of Bonfire changes should be supported ]ues esearchers said the survey f 2 percentage points. idge ijects ple< s the anniver- sary of the 1999 vpes to continue the studyAggie Bonfire ears in an effort to address: liapse looms near, he technology. lotions are running rector of the Pew Interne While many stu- ject, said the report suppor nts are watching the Internet is a tool thatyrdevelopments of it isolates. The Fire Burn- e evidence that people nii;(KTFB), one per- distance friendships onli# s working for change through politi- llvenues. Defying the administration ly was funded by the Nad ^ ilot § et an y° ne anywhere, but a politi- m as well as America On jjhaHenge, if conducted tactfully, could )rp., the Walt Disney Co. ? | i ^ SU d S ’ , ., , j -a »ecky Bartschmid, a sophomore tour- i no Questions were mfli»| m ^ is he . ltling J effort an J d de . rJcs to be commended. ■Jnlike the efforts of KTFB, Hschmid’s efforts take a political route Matting a petition for a compromise on Suture of Aggie Bonfire. While a rene- de bonfire will do little more than upset Administration, efforts by Bartschmid ill have to be reckoned with. Bartschmid hot defying the administration, but try- Ito find common ground. ■he argues that a two-year suspension 1 (Bonfire will greatly endanger its evolu- I CTT1 naSSV n Signers of the petition agree that the «. W J. A A JJj t] .j ct j ons t00 an( j believe a ^ # Iddle ground must be found. YW r\ 1<T ' B e fb re blindly following and agreeing UlllUlllt ith Bowen’s decision, students must re- O |niber that Bowen is the same person l-.W YORK (AP) —Ajuiiai)p U 5]]cly declared to the media that if ted a guilty plea ot a de:; | Special Commission found any fault in the I S. embassy boiiAthe administration led to,the collapse, case after the man saidfep/ould step down, innocent but wanted:‘Students also need to remember that ! guiltv to avoid the hum: e ^ministration did contribute to one of of a lengthy trial l man y factors of the tragedy, and adih El Hageisoneof fc nisstill 11 here ' t , > -h'lro in th > |# 1 T he cancellation of student cut and a L L i , c mlti-tiered Bonfire can be considered ex- )in T s 011 1 nn ‘ lssk 'essivechanges. This was not necessarily a and 1 an/ama, "' iclhservative decision, but an excessive 224 people, includingi , n | t bat was made to please the media and leans. F.ight of those indihe country, notA&M students. However, ; fugitives. pme decisions made by the administra- S, District Judge Leonaon were needed. Bonfire needs to have asked El Hage onTwsT offered to plead he believed he is guilty replied, “No, someot nate reasons.” Hage, charged with conspi , , ,, , ,id he saw no chance 10.1" the wake of the tragic terrorist ,e and dreaded daily lripi| attac 1 k on the USS Cole last .. . • LiAweek, many questions remain stmts m cold holding^ is responsible f or ! te attack? What type of explosives secutoi s i efei to El Hage, | re use( j9 pf ow (ju the terrorists ssociate and tormerpew etso c | ose {0 q ie s bjp unnoticed? etary ot Osama bin Lade|| n , t b ere is the most important udi millionaire accused |i est j on 0 f a ip which the Clinton ininistration has refused to answer estly: /hat was the Cole doing in Aden, Yemen, in the first f all the nations on the Arabian peninsula, Yemen is ar the most hostile to the United States. Yemen sup- :ed Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War, and has been known hive of terrorist activity. A State Department official referred to Yemen as the “wild west of the Arabian insula.” 3en. Anthony Zinni, former head of United States Cen- Command (CENTCOM), told the Senate Armed Ser- ;s Committee that Yemen was a “sieve of terrorists.” still, the Clinton administration saw fit to park a U.S. troyer in an unfriendly port for refueling. Seventeen /icemen and servicewomen will never come home in as a result of the Clinton administration’s latest se of military forces. The Clinton administration has repeatedly used this iiscuss these opportunities. * H)n ’ s overstretched and underpaid armed forces as a ovided. If you are unable® F thin g’ then fails t0 g ive lhe military the support it or visit our website i^ s ' administration’s actions in the wake of the ole tragedy have underscored this pitiful habit of de- oy and decry one last time. [U.S. Navy vessels have been refueling in Yemen the past 18 months in an attempt to “open up nen,” according to a State Department official, ini in his testimony claimed that he made the deci- n to start the refueling trips to Yemen when he was [pharge of CENTCOM, and claimed that the port of n was as safe, if not safer than any other port in _ _ _ J e g ion - pinni’s attempt to fall on his sword and deflect blame ^ Drive p those who deserve it is honorable, but does not more supervision. More time needs to go into finding and agreeing on a structural design, and more monitoring of students and their behavior is a must. participants are informed of before partici pating. If a student cut and more student involvement can be reinstated, it can be done with minimal risk. Bartschmid argues that A&M should have some type of student cut. Student Body President Forrest Lane in a Battal ion article earlier this month defended the administration’s decision on cut. He said that because most of the in juries and accidents in the history of Bon fire occurred during cut, its elimination is justified. Yet those injuries are a risk that More Aggies have been injured at par ties, or driving, yet that is acceptable and taken with a grain of salt. People accept risk when they get up every morning. Par ticipating in Bonfire is no different; there are risks, and that is part of life. Now, as the future of Bonfire is in peril, the ones with a voice are the Class of ‘04 and transfer students that have not partici pated in a Bonfire. Basically, anyone from the Classes ‘03 and before, as far as peo ple are concerned, are all tainted. One reason the two-year suspension was instated was to allow previous thoughts and actions concerning Bonfire to leave the system. Transfers, freshmen and future students have not been tainted by the Bonfire philosophies of past. If students make their voices heard, the University will not and cannot turn a blind eye to them forever. The more students push for what they believe in, the more the former students will support those efforts. Do it the right way. Do it politically, do not defy the administration. Negotiate with it and provided the student body with a voice to be reckoned with. The administration was overwhelmed by the media, and in doing so, made an ul traconservative decision. It forgot what is important: the students. The Senate has formally declared its support of Bowen’s decision, speaking on behalf of all the students. It is not doing its job; it is not representing the student body— nor is Lane, they are being pup pets of the administration, not serving the students as they were elected to. Political correctness should not be taken at the stu dents’ expense. Bonfire 2000 is a bad idea, but Bonfire 2001 is not. It is possible; after all, A&M is one of the best engineering colleges in the nation. The Empire State Building was built in a year, so students with ample professional supervision undoubtedly would be able to build a stack of logs safely. There can be a cut, though it needs considerable supervi sion. There need to be cutbacks, but not eliminations. A further compromise can be met. Few students want Bonfire to be can celed altogether, but few want the scaled- back version in which only a select few are allowed to participate. If change occurs, it should be done through politics, like a petition, not through defiance. Andy Hancock is a senior journalism major. Unworthy risk American military neglected, abused minding the attacks. r & People Translating Sales Network^ Project Analp Technical louse 5000 d with ucs illege Station. ns, Inc. TX 77845 com wash. Any decision made about adding ports of call must be approved by both the Defense Department and the State Department; in this case, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had requested that such an idea be considered. Any claim that Aden was the safest available port is a farce. Ports of call previously used by the Navy include Naples, Italy; Alexandria, Egypt; Jeddah and Dammam, Saudi Arabia; and Manama, Bahrain — the headquar ters of U.S. Navy forces in the Persian Gulf. Zinni claimed that Jeddah and Dammam were especially risky. Then, there is the most impor tant question of all, which the Clinton administration has re fused to answer honestly: What was the Cole doing in Aden, Yemen, in the first place? The days of Teddy Roosevelt’s “Great White Fleet” are over. Military forces should be committed only under the most serious of circumstances with a clearly defined objective, not on a political whim. This administration, more than any other, is guilty of abusing the military. It started in 1993, with the botched attempt at “na tion-building” in Somalia. The operation in Haiti was deemed a “success” by the Clinton administration, since the supporters of living martyr Jean-Bertrand Aristide — “our guy” — are now the ones doing the killing. Iraq has been used as a punching bag whenever Clinton’s personal peccadillos have gotten him into trouble — Iraq was bombed one day after Clinton’s infamous “apology” speech for his involvement with Monica Lewinsky and the day he was impeached. The use of force in Bosnia and Kosovo has not ac complished any concrete objectives, but has merely caused the population to wait for foreign forces to leave before letting ancient fueds erupt again. Perhaps the reason the Clinton administration is hap py to repeatedly send underpaid, undermanned units on Quixotic crusades is its lack of respect for the armed forces. The current commander-in-chief wrote of his “disdain for the military uniform,” in his famous letter to Yale’s ROTC commander after his draft deferment. His sentiments seem to.be echoed by his political ap pointees, who have shown contempt for the military uniform with their actions. When the Voice of America (VGA) wrote an editori al that it intended to broadcast to the world decrying the cowardly use of terrorism, the State Department (which oversees VGA broadcasts) shot it down. An unnamed State Department official wrote in a memo that was leaked to the media that “The 17 or so dead sailors does not compare to the 100+ Palestinians who have died in recent weeks,” and demanded that VGA “take the edge off.” Once the memo was public, the State Department had a change of heart. Spokesman Richard Boucher is sued a statement calling the memo “wrong” and saying that it “in no way reflects the views of... the department or the bureau of Near Eastern affairs.” It is tough to be lieve that, considering how the Clinton administration has repeatedly shown disdain for the armed services. The Austin American-Statesman was correct in its Oct. 22 editorial, which stated, “The (Clinton) adminis tration’s national defense policies are nothing to brag about.” Some feel that since Clinton is about to leave office, such offenses can be overlooked. This cannot be done, especially when considering that A1 Gore has al ready stated his intentions to continue Clinton’s defense and foreign policies. The military is not a toy. Individuals in uniform are brave human beings who should benefit from the re spect of all Americans, especially those in government. The Clinton administration has repeatedly abused the armed forces through needless deployments and then stabbed them in the back with a lack of support. When those being dumped on are in uniform, the of fense should be deemed downright criminal. Mark Passwaters is a senior electrical engineering major. Cyberlaw Development of Internet laws should be encouraged T he Internet has been de scribed as many things: a land of opportunity, the information superhigh way, the ultimate free-enter prise system, a capitalist’s utopia and a place where any thing goes. All are accurate, and for the most part, this is a good thing. However, too much of a good thing could be a bad thing. The Internet has afforded all people incredible opportunities, and according to some critics, that is the problem. With every door that the Internet opened for a small business or an individual in vestor, another door opened for those seeking to abuse the freedom the Internet has to offer. In recent years, the number of Internet fraud cases that have gone to court has skyrocketed. Less blatant forms of Internet abuse are also widespread. A remedy for this problem is the speed with which law schools are teaching this new form of law. The efforts of the legal community to quickly teach and create these laws and the intricacies that they contain should be applauded, endorsed and hurried along. WED Nov 1 3hem 102 Ch. 20 7hem 101 Ch. 10 ^hys 218 Ch. 8 ^hem 228 Prac test Belle Chem 102 THUR jtodggie Band missing icause of finances ^ \n response to Brenda Toepfer’s Oct Mail Call. Jam a senior in B-Company in the Practesuwi ^j n - y exas Aggie Band. The reason Aggie Band was “missing in action' |s strictly financial. It is my understanding that it cost und $150,000 for just the upper- $smen to travel to the Notre Dame ne this fall. Believe me, the Aggie d would have loved to attend that ne, but we can only afford one of se types of trips per year, o, I apologize for your disappoint- Mail Call Chem 10 1 CH.11A Phys 210 Ch.9 ment, but unless you happen to have a large wad of cash just lying around, these football games will have to go on without the Pulse of Aggieland. Roy Toone Class of ‘01 Fetus displays justified In response to Brad Burris’Oct. 25 Mail Call. Burris asks the question of those hanging the posters “Is your objective to dissuade young women from abor tion by any means necessary?" Although I have not personally been involved in the hanging of posters, I ap plaud those who are actively involved in trying to protect and save human life. Consider for a moment that your personal view equates abortion with murder, and that an unborn child has an inherent right to life. Would you not then be required by your convictions to dissuade others from performing such a heinous act, even if it meant offend ing someone or causing someone to feel uncomfortable? And why does it offend you? Is it be cause you are offended by all clumps of mass and tissue that are torn apart, and you can therefore never again par ticipate in a biology dissection lab? Or is it the thought that the picture you see is a human child, and that as a proud member of the “socially accept able” pro-choice crowd, your mind re fuses to acknowledge the fact that what is seen is a fraction of the geno cide of innocent children? If you were forced to concede that a fetus is actually a human child, then you would have no choice but to view abortion as murder. I think the posters offend you be cause you cannot look at them without seeing an innocent baby. You are not required to feel the same as those opposing abortion, but at least respect those who are stand ing up for what they feel is right. Kevin Kennedy Class of ‘01 With companies like America Online, Ama zon.com and many online brokerage firms using the Internet as their primary means of conducting business, countless numbers of disputes arise and are settled in the courts. These things are in evitable. A remedy for this problem is the speed with which law schools are teaching this new form of law. The efforts of the legal community to quickly teach and create these laws and the intricacies that they contain should be applauded, endorsed and hurried along. Law can be perceived as a well-grounded and slowly changing discipline. After all, many argu ments presented by attorneys revolve around deci sions made by other courts concerning similar is sues years ago. With disputes concerning the Internet, lawyers rarely are afforded that task or privilege. When the laws of the pre-Internet world are applied to Inter net cases, the logic is sometimes morphed along the way or totally inapplicable. Three years ago, there were 15 to 20 Internet law courses taught at the 196 law schools affiliat ed with the Association of American Law Schools, according to Pamela Samuelson, a leading cyber law scholar at the University of California- Berkley School of Law. Today, it is estimated that the number has swelled fivefold. Students study this subject for practicality and self-interest. Internet law is hot and in high demand. This is also a revolutionary time in the field of law. Samuelson said, “I tell my students, if you like stable stuff, this course is not for you. If you would like to see the law in formation, see the forces that will affect how the law develops, this is a good course.” Law students graduating with a specialization in cyberlaw will not only be pioneers in the field, but will also have played a significant role in the creation of the law itself. The importance of a solid platform for cyber law to build on can be seen in recent events. Less than a month ago, 16-year-old Jonathan Lebed was prosecuted by the Securities Exchange Com mission (SEC) for manipulating stock prices on the Internet. Lebed used Yahoo finance message boards to spread fabricated good news about stocks he al ready owned in hopes that others would buy the same stocks and cause the price to rise. The task at hand was drawing the line between simply being devious and breaking the law. The technicalities in the case were wrongful ly ignored. Lebed sent between 200 and 300 identical messages on Yahoo under different user identifications. Therefore, when a visitor to the site read sev eral of the same messages, the impression was that different people held a positive consensus on the stock. The issue of Yahoo allowing an infinite number of user identifications or accounts for a single user was ignored. The framework needed to handle cases' like Lebed’s is in desperate need. Without them, judgments and verdicts will be handed out based on archaic rulings and criteria that play a rela tively insignificant role in the heart of the matter at hand. The massive undertaking by law schools na tionwide to begin the teaching and creation of this new Internet law is necessary and should be encouraged. Luke McMahan is a senior industrial engineering major.