Aggieufe: Deranged drivers • Page 3A Sports: Ags hold off Bearkats in offensive battle • Page 1B
NATK,
the battali
THE BATTALION
olume 109 • Issue 124 • 16 pages
Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Wednesday, April 2, 2003
★
H.S. battles to clear way for Baghdad assualt
By David Espo
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
★
★
J Army ground forces attacked Republican
[Guard units Tuesday near Karbala, scarcely 50
Bles from Baghdad, part of around-the-clock
[combat pointing toward an assault on the capital.
An American ROW was rescued in Iraq.
■ Defense officials said Army units attacked ele-
| rlents of the Medina Division of the Republican
[Guard in the clash near Karbala, hitting an elite
l|u|i force weakened by heavy air bombardment
[ over several days.
I Pfc. Jessica Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk
from Palestine, W.Va., was freed after nine days in
Iraqi hands. Military officials said she was rescued
from an Iraqi hospital but gave no details of the
rescue or her condition.
“Coalition forces have conducted a success
ful rescue mission of a U.S. Army prisoner of
war held captive in Iraq,” Brig. Gen. Vincent
Brooks said at U.S. Central Command in Qatar.
“The soldier has been returned to a coalition-
controlled area.”
The developments unfolded as huge explosions
rocked Baghdad, Saddam Hussein’s seat of power
and site of repeated bombing in the two weeks of
the war. Plumes of white smoke rose from the
southern end of the Old Palace on the west bank of
the Tigris River, home to a camp for the
Republican Guard.
Saddam — through a spokesman — sum
moned his country to a “jihad,” or holy war,
against the invaders. But American and British
officials used the occasion to raise fresh doubts
about the fate of a man seen in public only on
videotape since the war began.
The attack on forces near Karbala marked the
first major ground battle against Saddam’s
Republican Guard, and capped a day of aggressive
American and British military actions.
Marines staged a nighttime raid on Nasiriyah, a
column of amphibious assault vehicles rolling into
town under a moonless sky — and finding Iraqis
had abandoned a huge, walled police compound.
In Basra, a city of 1.3 million, warplanes
dropped 500-pound and 1,000-pound laser-guided
bombs on an Iraqi intelligence complex in an
effort to dislodge die-hard defenders who have
kept British forces at bay for days.
“What you’re seeing foday on the battlefield in
Iraq is a continuation of prepping the battlefield
for a major encounter with the Republican
Guard,” said Navy Capt. Frank Thorp.
Commanders refused to say when that might
come, or whether the attack near Karbala repre
sented the beginning of a push toward the capital.
But senior American officials said the ceaseless
pounding on Saddam’s elite Republican Guard
was taking its toll. “Some of them have been
degraded to pretty low percentages of combat
capability, below 50 percent in ... at least two
cases, and we continue to work on them,” Gen.
Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, said at the Pentagon.
Despite the summons to jihad issued in
Saddam’s name, British officials said two would-
be suicide attackers had turned themselves in to
troops in Umm Qasr. “They didn’t want to be sui
cide bombers any more,” said British Col. Steve
Cox. “We are accommodating them.”
Other British and American officials said there
was a growing list of Iraqi civilians shedding their
See Baghdad on page 7A
t to members of the Coa>
the United States is on*
)ying Baghdad.
key to
ecisioii
Hijacker surrenders
Cuban Airlines plane
By Erik Schelzig
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KEY WEST, Fla. — In the
. .. ^B:ond hijacking of a Cuban
a day early for scarce sea , . J . ... .
courtroom for TuesdavTff. 1 " .* "* ks -» hl ^ k -
lumcnts. and hundreds cf r da T n 8, 10 l V lve ,w f ° 8'*" ades
innative action demons!, aurrender = d a " h< ; u ' after forong
re expected to gaI | K , >e aircraft to land in Florida with
court Tuesday morning. 3 | £ 0p ! e abl > ard '
O'Connor, even more tin le hijacker was carrying a
low swing voter Kennei lltlle bo >' when he came off lhe
vjy to |j s i en dosely to|C u b an Airlines plane at the
nts about the practical efft^fy West airport and was
university admissions ^wearing a red windbreaker
/yers said. with the word “America”
Both O’Connor and KennStiiched in white on the back.
moderate conservaiiHc was taken into FBI custody,
ned to the court in lhe 19 ; “He got off the plane with a
former President Ro:child in his arms,” Key West
agan. They joined the re po iice spokesman Steve
^-member conservative Tprrence said. When he put the
form the majority in FMchild down, “the little child
re, the case that effectively Babbed his leg,” he added.
I the 2(X)0 presidential e l The surrender ended a more
i, and that same 5-4 I®than 12-hour ordeal spent largely
;n prevails in some of a t the Havana airport, where the
rt s most ideologically p hijacker demanded that the plane
g rulings. ^ refueled so it could reach Key
I he lour more liberal jus ^ cst j-| e had insisted on continu-
icallv score v id ones v i n „ a y 5. official’s warn-
:n 1 1 s ‘ cl " ul,N l >u ing that he would be prosecuted
Ind denied asylum.
I The man was identified as
Cuban plane
hijacked to Florida
rther or singly, and give f
: a majority.
3n affirmative actioffl^, . ..... ^
f „ . r., • .■ Adermis Wilson Gonzalez, 33,
vs or most of the justices ’
ly clear. |P
3ased on the justices’ «■
; and votes in past cas
ly lawyers expect 0
ice William H. Rehniji
justices Antonin Scalia A hijacked Cuban Airlines plane
rence Thomas to vole originating in Nueva Gerona,
;e down the Michigan p Cuba stopped in Havana to
ns as unconstitutional, refuel before landing safely at
likewise. Justices John P Key West International Airport,
ens, David Souter, l
er Ginsburg and Step!
/er are expected to appir
)rogram
3 75 mi
) 75 km
Isle of Youth
Gulf of Mexico
Key West
f/liami
Atlantic
Ocean
" > CUBA
/MA st
? A'. a
• Nueya Gerona
said U.S. Attorney Marcos
Jimenez, who added that the
suspect would be charged with
hijacking.
Gonzalez was traveling with
his wife and 3-year-old son,
Jimenez said. The FBI said the
boy he was holding when he
stepped off the plane was not
his son.
FBI agent Hector Pesquera
said translators planned to
interview the 24 other passen
gers — 11 men, nine women
and four children — and seven
crew members.
Authorities found two fake
grenades after using a bomb
sniffing dog to search the air
craft, Monroe County Sheriff
Richard Roth said.
A search of Gonzalez’s home
in Cuba turned up four home
made grenades that had not been
armed with explosives, accord
ing to a statement read on Cuba
state television. The commu
nique also said Gonzalez had
been living on the small Isle of
Youth, southwest of Cuba’s
main island.
It was unclear how someone
could gotten the purported
grenades through heavy security
checks at Cuba’s airports, espe
cially less than two weeks after
a successful hijacking.
Passengers left the plane not
far from the parked Douglas
DC-3 that was hijacked on
March 19. Both hijackings took
place on Cuban domestic flights
from the Isle of Youth to the cap
ital of Havana.
During the standoff at
Havana’s Jose Marti
International Airport, about two
dozen passengers, including a
woman holding a small child,
escaped the plane by jumping
from the open back hatch of the
Soviet-made AN-24 into the
arms of emergency workers.
The FBI said the plane left
Cuba despite attempts by U.S.
Interests Section Chief James
Cason to persuade the hijacker
to surrender. Two F-16 Fighting
Fields of blue
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Junior agricultural development major Dawn Rakowitz flips
her hair before having her picture taken by friend and senior
agricultural science major Aimee Kern in a patch of Texas
Bluebonnets off the side of the road at Wellborn and Harvey
Mitchell Parkway. The bluebonnet is the Texas State Flower
and blooms between March and May in attended areas.
Mystery illness not yet a threat for U.S.
Caribbean Sea '
OURCES: Associated Press; ESRI
AP See Hijacker on page 2A
By Malcolm Ritter
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
An airliner from Asia was briefly halted
on a tarmac in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday
because of a scare over a mystery illness —
the most dramatic sign yet that the disease
blamed for more than 60 deaths worldwide
is provoking worry in the United States.
As it turned out, none of the five passen
gers who caused concern among the flight
crew had the disease.
Seventy cases of the illness, severe acute
respiratory syndrome, called SARS, are sus
pected in the United States, but no one has
died. Worldwide there are about 1,800 cases.
The California airport incident was the
first time a plane has been stopped in the
United States for fear of passengers spread
ing the disease. Some passengers and health
officials called it an overreaction.
U.S. health officials are not considering
quarantines so far because the disease is not
spreading as rapidly as in Asia and the relat
ed outbreak in Toronto. Health officials said
Tuesday that two more people in Canada
have died because of the illness, bringing
the country’s total deaths to six.
In Hong Kong, for example, some 240
residents of an apartment complex where
SARS has spread were taken away to quar
antine camps on Tuesday. But such meas
ures don’t yet appear warranted in the
United States, said Tommy Thompson, sec
retary of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services.
“We are in the business of protecting the
public health of all citizens,” Thompson said
Tuesday in Atlanta. “If there is a virus that
is explosive...and the only way to control it
is by quarantine, we have to consider it. But
we’re not there yet.”
Health officials say there’s no sign that
SARS is spreading freely throughout any
American community. The disease, which
originated in Asia, seems to be confined
mostly to international travelers, to health
care workers who have taken care of SARS
patients, and to those in close contact with
See Illness on page 7A
tudy abroad still sturtv sat«iy nnroad
hriving at A&M
Rock Prairie
1700 Rock Prairie
>79-680-0508"
By Nicole M. Jones
THE BATTALION
Indications of growing anti-American
entiment in Europe have not discouraged
exas A&M students from traveling there
to study.
A recent Pew Research Center study
reported that even though most Europeans
(enjoy American movies, music and televi
sion programs, they do not like the spread of
American ideas and customs. However, stu
dents who have recently spent a semester
studying in Europe said it was a welcoming
and enlightening experience.
Sarah Phillips, a senior psychology
major, received 12
hours of course credit
when she studied at
the University of
Copenhagen in
Denmark in the fall of
2002. Being the only Aggie in a group of
300 foreign students, Phillips said she never
felt unsafe in Denmark or when she traveled
to other parts of Europe.
“We did have several times that we were
warned by the school to stay low-key on our
American pride,” Phillips said. “This main
ly happened during the Sept. 11 anniversary
and during the European Union convention,
but nothing happened.”
Study abroad, a hands-on education is
POW Lynch rescued
SOURCE: JORDAN INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
beneficial for students of all majors, espe
cially those considering an occupation with
an international focus, said Cathy Schutt,
assistant director of international programs
at A&M.
Laura Weber, an adviser in the study
abroad office, said that Spanish-speaking
countries are usually in the highest demand
for students wishing to gain international
See Study Abroad on page 7A
By Matt Kelley
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — American
troops on Tuesday rescued Army
Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who had been
held as a prisoner of war in Iraq
since she and other members of
her unit were ambushed March
23, the Defense Department
announced.
Lynch, 19, of Palestine,
W.Va., had been missing with 11
other U.S. soldiers from the
507th Maintenance Company.
The unit was ambushed near
Nasiriyah after making a wrong
turn during early fighting in the
invasion of Iraq. Five other
members of her unit were later
shown on Iraqi television
answering questions from their
Iraqi captors.
U.S. troops rescued Lynch
near where her unit was
ambushed, said Jean Offutt, a
spokeswoman for Fort Bliss,
Texas. The 507th Maintenance
is based at Fort Bliss.
Lynch had been listed as
missing in action but was identi
fied by the Pentagon Tuesday as
a POW. She was not among the
seven U.S. soldiers — including
the five from the 507th shown
on television — formally listed
as prisoners of war.
Offutt said she did not know
whether Lynch had been wound
ed or when she might return to
See Lynch on page 7A