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Sports: Ags look to McNeal, Riley for future • Page 5 Opinion: Vision 2020 not to blame • Page 9
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Volume 109 Issue .'4 • www4hebanxon^^jj^|H^MIMHBMH>HMMVVednes<lay, October 16, 2002
Pumpkin head
JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION
College Station resident Susan Webb helps her the right size pumpkin Tuesday afternoon at
2-year-old son Campbell Webb pick out just The Farmer's Market on South College Ave.
Business Fellows bring
resources to womens prison
By Lauren Smith
THE BATTALION
The Lowry Mays School of Business Fellows are
Vo steering at the women’s federal prison work
ca mp in Bryan.
We will be teaching the ladies everything from
resume writing and interview skills to ethical issues
e y will face as they make the transition back into
e world following their sentence,” said Ty
lanri eWe ^’ sen ' or finance and accounting major
I (l ^ e t h e coordinators of the program.
L , ^ committee brainstormed on a way to give
|Fe|, a * we had the privilege of learning in the
!fitf° WS P ro § rarn ' an< T this was definitely the perfect
|iorf r aC * 1 ' eV ' n g our goal,” said Laura Pringle, sen-
| J nance major and program coordinator.
Istud 6 ^ ,rst . semester °f die Fellows program for
|y e en | s ’ w hich begins the spring semester of junior
L r ’ | 0cu ses on professional development and the
K d . Personal growth.
just we interact with so many who are
j 1 e us. In visiting the prison, we gain a true
taste of reality,” said Arati Bhattacahrya, senior
marketing major and Fellows member. “This is a
unique opportunity because it allows us to step out
of our comfort zones spurring personal growth and
facilitating the transition we will face in the work
ing world.”
Walking through the gates of the prison and
standing before the women at the kickoff program
was definitely a different experience for the
Fellows, Bhattachrya said.
' “We were intimidated at first, but it is just such a
great learning opportunity to provide them with all
that we have learned and truly give back to the com
munity,” she said.
The Fellows will go to the prison once a week as
well as two Saturdays for three hour sessions.
The first big session took place on Saturday,
Sept. 28 and served as a kickoff for the program and
introductions.
The second Saturday session will focus specifi
cally on job interviews, and prisoners will learn
how to say correctly that they have served time to a
possible employer, Popplewell said.
Board of Regents
endorses initiative
By Melissa Sullivan
THE BATTALION
Researchers at Texas A&M will collabo
rate with researchers at Baylor to uncover the
entire sequence of DNA for cattle that will
help develop tests for traits including resist
ance to animal diseases.
The Board of Regents approved the project
at its meeting in September.
The National Institutes of Health has just Fin
ished human genome sequencing and are inter
ested in genome sequencing in other organisms,
said James Womack, distinguished professor in
the College of Veterinary Medicine.
“Basically, we are interested in species
important to human health ” he said.
Researchers now know of threats to human
health such as mad cow disease and agricultur
al bio-terrorism, and it is important to under
stand the genome of domestic animals,
Womack said.
Womack, along with Loren Skow, a profes
sor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and
researchers from Baylor University, University
of Illinois and the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) lab in Nebraska drafted
the proposal to the regents.
The project initiative is centered around
Texas A&M and Baylor, Skow said.
“The relationship with Baylor comes from
myself and professor Womack submitting
DNA sequences for analysis,” he said.
Now that the Board approved the resolution,
A&M has put a higher priority for sequencing
species, Womack said.
The project’s cost is estimated at $50 mil
lion. Researchers are in the process of joining
with USDA and others to help fund the project.
“We hope the beef industry will be behind
it generating political and financial support,”
Womack said. “Sequencing three billion
pieces of information is not cheap.”
Texas is a leader in the area of this type of
research and will continue to strive for success,
Skow said.
“This puts us in the position to to not only
work with cattle but other species like dogs,
sheep and cats,” Skow said. “It goes hand in
hand for efforts to clone these animals too.”
Efforts for genomic research began as early
as 1978, before the word genome was even
created, Skow said. Professors from the
College of Veterinary Medicine and the animal
science department have worked continuously
on the effort.
Researchers will begin meeting in December
to discuss further plans for the project.
Airstrikes in Iraq focus
on key southern air base
WASHINGTON (AP) — A key target of
U.S. and British bombing in Iraq in recent
weeks has been an air base south of Baghdad
that would be central to Saddam Hussein’s
defense against an American invasion.
Since mid-September, Tallil Air Base — a
key link in an Iraqi air defense network that
remains formidable despite damage from
years of periodic U.S. bombing — has been
struck seven times, more than any other target
in that period, according to Central
Command, the headquarters for U.S. opera
tions in the Persian Gulf.
The choice of bombing targets could
reflect Pentagon efforts to lay the ground
work for an invasion if President Bush
decides military force is needed to oust
Saddam Hussein. Pentagon officials, howev
er, say the attacking pilots are simply
responding in self-defense to provocations
from Iraqi air defense guns and radars.
Although Tallil has been a frequent target
lately, the bombing has not been extensive
enough to neutralize the target. Over the years,
Iraq has shown a remarkable ability to repair
and replace damaged air defenses.
Besides Tallil, the other major air defense
sites in southern Iraq that have been hit recent
ly are A1 Kut, A1 Amarah and the airport at
Basra. On Tuesday, the Central Command said
allied aircraft bombed a command and control
communications facility near A1 Kut, in
response to unspecified “hostile acts” by Iraq.
Tallil, about 160 miles southeast of the
Iraqi capital, is an air defense sector head
quarters. It has surface-to-air missiles and the
communications facilities to link them to the
rest of Iraq’s air defense network. It also has
two substantial runways and can support
dozens of fighters
In contrast to the recent flurry of allied
attacks in the south — 23 since Aug. 27 —
there were none reported in northern Iraq in
that period.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
says the U.S. attacks are simply a necessary
response to Iraqi efforts to shoot down the U.S.
and British pilots who patrol the skies over
northern and southern Iraq to enforce “no fly”
zones. Iraq has long asserted that the Bight
zones are a violation of its sovereignty.
Rumsfeld did acknowledge last month that
he ordered U.S. forces to take a different
approach.
Instead of firing mostly at Iraqi air-defense
guns and radars, pilots are now targeting more
of the communications centers, command
buildings and fiber-optic links that are easier to
find and harder to replace.
In at least a few cases, U.S. targets have
appeared related to preparations for war.
On Sept. 5, for example, allied pilots
bombed a military airfield 240 miles west of
Baghdad. The target, as described by Central
Command, was ordinary: an air defense com
mand and control facility. But the location was
unusual: a remote airfield known as H-3 that
originally was built to support an oil pumping
station near the Jordanian border. In a break
with its usual practice. Central Command did
not identify the location.
Stephen H. Baker, a retired Navy rear admi
ral who served aboard the USS Theodore
Roosevelt during the Gulf War, said the strike
at H-3 was unprecedented in the decade-long
history of “no fly” zone patrols.
“The objective of the strike could have
been to destroy air defenses to allow easy
access for special operations helicopters to fly
into Iraq via Jordan or Saudi Arabia as part of
a critical primary mission to hunt down Scud”
missiles. Baker said recently. “Knocking out
Iraqi radars at H-3 also would allow allied air
craft mounting major raids on Iraq a clear
route into the country.”
The spate of aerial attacks on the Tallil base
began Sept. 15.
In its typically cryptic description of U.S.
and British bombing, the Central Command
said precision-guided munitions struck an air
defense communications facility at Tallil that
day. Nine days later, other unspecified “air
defense facilities” were bombed at Tallil and A1
Amarah, another repeated target.
Ninth victim in
rorkt LLS CHURCH > Va. (AP) — An FBI ter-
ninth ana *y st was identified Tuesday as the
s, iipe P 6 / 801 ? kMed by the Washington-area
t 0rs r ’ s * 10t ' n the head in an attack investiga-
Fo ^ h the most detailed clues yet.
give if C ^ lr - St Bme, witnesses were able to
ties " 0rrnat t° n about license plates on vehi-
tolore^pK eein§ the scene ’ including a light-
rear taillight^ 0 * 61 Astro van with a burned-out
of enf0rCement oR i c ial, speaking on con-
descriof anon y rnit y, said another witness gave a
Hisnan• 100 of a dark-skinned man, possibly
Panic or Middle Eastern, in a white van.
that we 6 ^ WaS SOrne additional information
and I , Were able to get from last night’s case,
g°i nK 111 c °nfident that that information is
Fai r f| x p ead us to an arrest in the case,”
Law °f nty Police Chief Tom Manger said,
indicatin n < j ,rcernen t sources said there was no
because V, sni P er targeted Linda Franklin
Cyber-C° ler j°b- She worked for the FBI’s
nrnes Division, created last year to
sniper shootings identified as
focus on computer crimes as well as intellectu
al property cases.
Montgomery County (Md.) Police Chief
Charles Moose, the head of the investigation,
emphasized that Franklin was not working on
the sniper case.
Franklin, a 47-year-old mother of two
grown children, was killed Monday night as
she and her husband loaded packages into their
car outside a Home Depot store.
Ballistics evidence Tuesday connected the
slaying to the gunman who has killed eight other
people and wounded two more since Oct. 2.
With the terrifying spree nearly two weeks
old. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
agreed Tuesday evening to provide military
surveillance aircraft in the hunt for the killer, a
Pentagon spokesman said. Sources said federal
agents on the plane will relay any information
they collect to authorities on the ground.
The Army also has started searching its
records for people with sniper training.
Separately, Homeland Security Director
Tom Ridge said investigators are hesitant to
rule out the possibility that the slayings are the
work of a terrorist because there is no hard evi
dence about motive.
Friends who gathered at Franklin’s
Arlington home said she and her husband were
planning to move to a bigger home in the area
and were at The Home Depot to buy supplies
for the move and the new house.
Franklin recently had a double mastectomy
following breast cancer and was still in physi
cal therapy at the time of her death, according
to her friend Paul Hulseberg. He called her
courageous.
“Linda was a dedicated employee, and she
will be missed,” LBI Director Robert Mueller
said. “All of us are deeply shocked and angry
over this tragedy.”
Robert Young, a Washington construction
worker, returned to the shopping center
Tuesday to talk with police. He said he had
See Sniper on page 2
FBI terror analyst
\ Montgomery.,
A woman was fatally shot while loading ^ _ a " - j
her car at a Home Depot in Falls '
Church, Virginia Monday night. Police ?
were seeking a Chevrolet Astro van f
last seen near the scene.
Woman shot in Virginia
r"w
■ w
Mariassas
Prince
Georges
Shootings
■ Fatal
Prince
William /
VIRGINIA ^ . /
Woman killed at
a Home Depot
ra injury
a No injury
MARYLAND
Ra P/^, Stafford
J
Fredericksburg —
Spotsylvania
an killed
j station Friday
gas
SOURCES: Associated Press; Home Depot; ESRI; GDT