UESDAYAPRIL 9, 2002
VOLUME 108 • ISSUE 126
THF RATTAT TOM
J A1 U/V JL 1 xi.J_/J.UIN
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
lice: Hussein’s day is coming
By Jessica Watkins &
Rolando Garcia
THE BATTALION
■America's day of reckoning with
ratji dictator Saddam Hussein is
bring soon. National Security
Ad'iser Condoleezza Rice said
ifjpnday at Texas A&M, hinting that
■ White House is leaning toward
■itary action to topple Hussein.
■‘Sooner or later the world will
me to come to terms with this
daligerous man who is acquiring
dligerous weapons,” Rice said,
lie status quo is unacceptable.”
■Although President George W.
Bush has not decided to use force
against Iraq, Rice said “all options are
on the table" if Hussein does not
begin allowing United Nations
weapons inspectors into the country.
Hussein's track record of aggression
and brutality makes Iraq’s efforts to
develop weapons of mass destruction
a particularly urgent threat to national
security. Rice said.
She also dismissed Iraq’s
announcement that it would stop
selling oil for 30 days to protest
Israeli incursions.into the Palestinian
controlled West Bank. The interrup
tion in world oil markets will hardly
be noticeable, and will not hinder
America’s ability to broker a Middle
East peace, she said.
“Oil is a comodity and Iraqis
have to have food as well, and I think
you ought to remind them they are
going to have a hard time eating
their oil,” Rice said.
Rice reiterated Bush’s demand
that Israeli forces withdraw from
the occupied territories. Following
a wave of Palestinian suicide
bombings, the Israeli military
moved into the West Bank to root
out terrorists. Rice called on
Palestinians to renounce terrorism,
and said long-term peace in the
region only would be possible once
Arab nations recognized Israel’s
right to exist.
“The attacks underscored in the
most dramatic fashion the need to
deny terrorists access to weapons of
mass destruction,” Rice said. “There
is no such thing as a good terrorist
and a bad terrorist. Terrorism by its
very nature is evil. They are against
peace, they are against freedom, they
are against life itself.”
Rice discussed the long-term
implications of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, saying the United States
See Rice on page 2
JOHN LIVAS • THE BATTALION
Condoleezza Rice addressed a packed Rudder
Auditorium Monday afternoon.
Stars and stripes
+DUTY*noriQR A- COUNTRY-*
Former President George Bush accepts a 15-by-22
foot painting of an American flag at the Presidential
Conference Center on Monday. The painting was
STUART VILLANUEVA • THE BATTALION
bought at auction by Conoco Chairman Archie
Dunham, left, and then donated to the center where
it will be permanently displayed.
Walthall chosen as
head yell leader
By Emily Kline
THE BATTALION
Cardo Walthall was chosen to serve
as Texas A&M’s head yell leader for
the 2002-2003 school year Monday.
Walthall, an agricultural develop
ment major from San Antonio, said his
most important responsibility as head
yell leader is to serve the Texas A&M
student body.
“I will represent the Twelfth Man
by setting a good example on and off-
campus,” he said.
Yell leader adviser Rusty Thompson
said a committee of students, faculty
and staff interviewed the three elected
senior yell leaders and made a recom
mendation for the head yell spot to Dr.
J. Malon Southerland, vice president of
student affairs, who then made the final
decision.
Thompson said the head yell leader
is the group decision-maker and the
liaison between the yell leaders and
WALTHALL
the administration,
the Association of
Former Students
and all other groups
Texas A&M serves.
Walthall said
although he is the
leader of the group,
he plans to discuss
all decisions with the
other yell leaders.
“We are a team and any decision we
make will be between the five of us,”
he said. “I couldn’t be more happy
about what happened this year with the
election and I know we will all work
together and do a great job.”
Senior yell leader-elect Scott
Goble said he is excited about work
ing with Walthall and Bo Wilson as
senior yell leaders.
‘.“One thing about us, we are such a
team and have all been best friends for
four years,” he said. “This next year is
going to be so much fun.”
Editors nominated for
Battalion, Aggieland
VtSC exhibit remembers victims
By Sarah Darr
THE BATTALION
More than 5.9 million Jews were killed in Nazi death and
ps from 1933 to 1945 in the longest deliberate
extermination of one race by another in modern histo-
Ooly a third of Eastern Europe’s Jewish population sur-
^ by the time Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich was toppled at
'ork
JOHN LIVAS • THE BATTALION
v ' ew Posters of Holocaust history and photographs in a box car replica in
i e SC on Monday. The replica will be on display until Thursday.
the end of World War II.
A lone boxcar stands in the Memorial Student Center at
Texas A&M, no bigger than the trucks some students drive,
in which 130 people were once crowded together on the
long, fatal trips from their homes to concentration camps
such as Auschwitz and Belzec.
One-fifth of the people crowded into those tiny railroad
cars would not make it alive to the concentration camps they
were sentenced to.
Members of the Hillel Foundation at A&M, a
Jewish student group, say they will do every
thing they can this week during Holocaust
Rememberance Week to make sure no one will
forget the horror of the Holocaust.
Even 50 years later, some student observers
said they were struck with the reality of what
happened during the Holocaust.
“The Holocaust was so sad, and this exhibit
made it more real to me,” said junior Mandie
Davis.
Hillel president Brette Peyton said this week
is important to make students more aware of
what went on so that something so devastating
never repeats itself.
“The reason we do this is to get the word out
to students so that this kind of tragedy never hap
pens again,” Peyton said.
See Holocaust on page 10
By Sarah Szuminski
THE BATTALION
Summer and Fall Battalion editors in
chief and the 2003 Aggieland editor have
been nominated by the Student Media
Board. Jessica Crutcher (Fall) and Doug
Fuentes (Summer) will be The
Battalion s new editors, and Denise
Bischofhausen will be the Aggieland edi
tor for 2002.
Editor applicants are
reviewed by members of the
Student Media Board who
then vote and collectively
nominate a candidate for
each position. The board’s
nominees must be approved
by Provost Ronald Douglas
before the editors may be
officially offered positions.
Candidates’ application
process included a
requirement of previous
experience, essays
describing their intentions
and qualifications, sam
ples of their work and an
interview with the student
media board.
Aiming for a better
newspaper is the goal of
Jessica Crutcher, Battalion
editor for the Fall. A senior
journalism major with soci
ology and histoiy minors,
Crutcher has been writing
for The Battalion since August of 1999 as
an opinion columnist.
“I see my role as editor to guide, to
mediate and to make the paper the best it
can be,” she said.
Crutcher, who is from the Dallas
area, served as opinion editor for the
spring and summer of 2001, and was
See Editors on page 10
GUY ROGERS • THE BATTALION
Battalion editors Jessica Crutcher, left, and Doug Fuentes,
middle, and Aggieland editor Denise Bischofhausen, right.
rab leaders look
for Powells help
ir P C H A o ABLANCA ’ Morocco (AP) — Arab leaders pres-
^ Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday to do
~ e to halt Israel’s military sweep in the West Bank in
’ anc e of President Bush’s fresh call for a swift pullback.
e dnt what I said,” the president declared.
fh . n g Mohammed VI bluntly told Powell on the first stop
ls Peacemaking mission that U.S. officials should focus
See Powell on page 12
RRIMARYiRUNOFF^ELECTI0NS ARE TODAY
Polling locations are available throughout the
city, including the Memorial Student Center
CHAD MALLAM • THE BATTALION
UsiSlDlE
Opinion Pg. 11
A political battle
Local negative campaigns
have proven entertaining
AggieLife Pg. 3
Life in the fast lane
Student runners enjoy camaraderie,
challenges from daily runs
wmmm
WEDNESDAY
HIGH
82° F
LOW
58° F
FORECASTS COURTESY OF