Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 2003)
rec sports ATTENTION! Rec Users The Department is implementing cost cutting initiatives, beginning in May, in an effort to preserve our financial integrity until we have the opportunity to present another referendum in the Spring of 2004. The initiative that will affect students directly is the reduction in operating hours of the Student Rec Center and other recreational facilities. For a full list of all our new facility hours or if you have any questions relating to Department of Rec Sports budget issues, please refer to the New Facility Hours FAQ available at http://recsports.tamu.edu. Student Rec Center Hours Effective May 9 SUMMER Monday-Friday: Saturday: Sunday: 6:00am-10:00pm 10:00am-9:00pm Noon-10:00pm FALL/SPRING Monday-Friday: 6:00am-11:00pm Saturday: 10:00am-10:00pm Sunday: Noon-11:OOpm recsports. tamu. etfu 4(ec SPORTS 10A Tuesday, April 29, 2003 NATIOI THE BATTALIfll Bush promotes Iraqi democraq WASHINGTON (AP) — President George W. Bush is tout ing his administration’s efforts to plant the seeds of democracy in the rubble of Saddam Hussein’s toppled dictatorship, courting Michigan’s Arab community with an eye on his re-election. Bush traveled Monday to Dearborn, Mich., a Detroit sub urb where about 30 percent of residents claimed Arab ancestry in the latest census. He was not ready to declare combat in Iraq over yet, aides said Sunday. That is likely to come later this week. But Bush was offering an “optimistic vision of a liberated Iraq, and how Iraq can live in peace with its neighbors and become representative of an Islamic democracy,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in previewing the trip. Helping craft an “Islamic democracy” is dicey business, however. The United States has promised democracy for Iraq, but has ruled out the kind of Islamic government that democ racy could yield. With Shiite Muslims forming more than 60 percent of Iraq’s population, a free vote could produce an Islamic-oriented government with close ties to the historically anti-American Shiite clerics who have gov erned Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. In an interview with The Associated Press, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the United States will not allow a religious government like Iran’s to take hold in Iraq. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said Rumsfeld’s position “demonstrates the kind of quag mire that we are potentially going to be in Iraq.” “If you talk about a democ racy, which means that people vote and select the political leadership that they desire, then you can’t say, ‘But there are cer- KRT CAMPIIi Iraqi-American supporters dance and sing Monday in Dearborn, M where President George W. Bush delivered a speech on the rebuilding Iraq. tain segments of the population that are off-limits,’” the 2004 presidential hopeful said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” A group of Iraqis in Michigan wrote a communique outlining their hopes for their native country, and planned to deliver it to Bush on Monday. The communique asks that “Iraqis be allowed to be the masters of their own destiny,” said Jafar al-Musawi, a Dearborn-based Iraqi writer. The administration has been trying to build bridges to Arab- Americans in Michigan. Two months ago, during the run-up to war, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz con vened a town hall meeting of Iraqi-Americans in Dearborn, asking his audience to help the U.S. government oust Saddam. Wolfowitz says about 150 Iraqis who have been living in the United States or Europe have volunteered to go back to help establish a democratic government, and some already have gone. Among the exiles is Emad Dhia, who left Friday. Heisis engineer who has been living Michigan and heads the Iraj Forum for Democracy, a pol cal action group formed in I United States in 1998. Dhiarf be the top Iraqi adviser to retitd U.S. Lt. Gen. Jay Gamer, whois overseeing reconstructios efforts. Others declined the offei, among them al-Musawi, win said the Pentagon hskedhimi accompany Dhia. “What was I supposedtotel the people in Iraq: ‘Listentot I've lived in America, I know?'" he asked. “No one wouldlistei to me, or to the others, becaust we don’t have the kind of clou the clergy do.” More than 18 months beta the next presidential election, Bush is unabashedly makinj battleground states the focus of his travels. Bush planned to meet withifc chiefs of the Big Three 111 automakers while near Detroit The White House said the tta would endorse his push foratst cut of $550 billion over 10years NEWS IN BRIEF Kerry and Dean spar for votes WASHINGTON (AP) - Divisions between rival Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry and Howard Dean over the strength of the nation's military broke out in the open Monday, signaling escalating tensions between the two campaigns in the party's race for the White House. The debate began over Dean's comments in an article posted Monday on Time.com. “We have to take a different approach” to diplomacy, the for mer Vermont governor was quoted as saying dur ing a campaign stop in New Hampshire. “We won't always have the strongest military.” Kerry spokesman Chris Lehane issued a state ment expressing incredulity over Dean's remais and saying that Kerry, a decorated Vietnam ft veteran, would “guarantee that America has tin strongest, best trained, most well-equipped ml tary in history.” “Howard Dean's stated belief that the Uniteii States won't always have the strongest militaif raises serious questions about his capacity to serve as commander in chief,” Lehane said. “No serious candidate for the presidency has ewi before suggested that he would compromiseoi tolerate an erosion of America's militaif supremacy.” B T On Friday, ball team will I its first game o Aggies will he; second weeken case of deja vu Oklahoma Soc theSdoners thi; coming in with In the first j 12-6 Big 12) w overcome three Sooners 4-2 in Jessica Slatape Aggies (34-18 against Sooner Keiter, who is t Through th Slataper held t check, allowin, striking out thr drew blood in tl Keiter helped Slataper pitch c Equ< By THE The Texas A beheading to h weekend to Intercollegiate 1 National Cham hosted by M University, the erslook to defe ionship the team last year. “(The chain our program,” head Coach Ta f fflg (fiat. there t \ out # the addi the best advocacy program in the United States for training outstanding trial lawyers a prime downtown Houston location near practicing attorneys, major corporations and governmental offices tuition rates among the lowest in the nation for private law schools, with financial aid available a new state-of-the-art law library a Career Resources Center affording a wide range of services for legal, business and governmental employers identical full- and part-time programs of study admissions for spring and fall semesters SOUTH TEXAS COLLEGE OF LAW http://ww w. stcl. edu FOR YOUR PERFECT FUTURE South Texas College of Law provides equal employment, admission and educational opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex or disability