Sports: Future Aggie QB falls short in finals • Page 3
Opinion: Bringing Iran democracy • Page 5
THE BATTALION
y Jt.DeLum
Volume 109 • Issue 172 • 6 pages
109 Years Serving Texas A&M University
www.thebatt.com
Monday, July 21, 2003
round broken on 1999 Bonfire Memorial
By Jodi Rogers
THE BATTALION
More than 150 friends and family mem-
jersof the fallen and in jured Aggies of the
Aggie Bonfire Collapse attended a
roundbreaking ceremony at the Bonfire
/lemorial site Saturday.
A representative from each of the fall-
Aggies’ families broke ground at the
rcation on which centerpole once stood
longside Texas A&M President Robert
Gates and Student Body President
Aatt Josefy.
A family representative from each of the
2 victims’ families broke ground again in
ontof each victim’s memorial marker and
arried the earth back to centerpole.
Josefy said the memorial would be as
much for those who died as well as for the
people who remember them in the past,
present and future.
“The Bonfire Memorial will be a per
manent icon to them, to ourselves and to
the world of gratitude we have for the way
they impacted our lives,” he said.
Construction on the Bonfire Memorial
is scheduled to start early this fall, with the
dedication ceremony expected to take
place on Nov. 18, 2004, according to the
University’s Web site.
Gates said the memorial will serve as
a reminder to all who visit it that they are
not alone.
“I pray that this polo field becomes a
place where those who visit may find
peace of mind, comfort for troubled spirits
and even some measure of joy in the
knowledge of what those memorialized
here contributed to others in their families,
in their communities and on this campus
during their lives,” he said.
Nancy Braus, mother of Dominic Braus
who was injured in the collapse, said the
groundbreaking ceremony was emotional
for her, but that she. was glad the memori
al was underway.
“We all wanted the memorial to be here
because this is where they shed their last
blood,” she said. “And they shed it as sup
porting and loving, being together and
working together.”
See Bonfire on page 2
BONFIRE MEMORIAL
Groundbreaking
Ceremony
’ A representative from
each of the 12 victim's
families helped break
ground
Construction will begin
in the fall
Dedication
ceremony will be
held Nov. 18, 2004
SOURCE: BONFIRE MEMORIAL COMMITTEE
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
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RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Two-year-old Holden Howard of College Station puts
on a toy army helmet at his brother's birthday party
Saturday. The birthday party included a bubble
bounce, birthday cake and presents.
Hutchison gets $24 million
for A&M homeland security
By Brandi Foster
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M was awarded $24 million
last week for homeland security work fol
lowing a request from Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchison.
“Sen. Hutchison has been very active in
securing funds for homeland security,” said
Sandra Dugan, Hutchison’s spokeswoman.
“It is relevant, necessary and it is for the pro
tection of our country.”
Dugan said the first $4 million will come
from a $368 billion spending package for
the Department of Defense for fiscal year
2004. Among the other provisions are a 4
percent military pay raise, an increase in
troops’ housing allowances and additional
funding for family separation and imminent
danger pay.
The funds will be used to provide emer
gency response training at A&M for military
and civilian personnel. The training will
focus on responding to a terrorist attack with
a weapon of mass destruction.
The additional $20 million will come
from the Department of Homeland Security
spending bill. These funds will help finance
the National Emergency Response and
Rescue Training Center, part of the Texas
Engineering Extension Service.
“NERRTC receives no general revenue
from the state for operations,” said Bill May,
NERRTC director. “We operate on grants
from the Department of Homeland Security.
This funding will be used to continue deliv
ery nationally of our weapons of mass
Money for terrorism
research
A&M awarded $24 million for
homeland security work
First $4 million to come from a
$368 billion spending package
for the Department of Defense
Additional $20 million will come
from the Department of Homeland
Security spending bill ■■■■■
RUBEN DELUNA - THE BATTALION
SOURCE: OFFICE OF SEN. HUTCHISON
destruction terrorism training courses.”
NERRTC is a leading member of the
National Domestic Preparedness
Consortium of top homeland security train
ing centers all across the country.
According to its Web site, NERRTC pro
vides training at federal, state and local lev
els to prepare officials for terrorist attacks
and help assess the threat of a terrorist attack
in a specific area.
“Since 1999, we have trained over
55,000 emergency responders in over 3,400
jurisdictions in all states and territories,”
See Hutchison on page 2
Student dies after car wreck
Lynch heads to West Virginia home
By Justin Smith
THE BATTALION
Incoming freshman
Leslie Ann Snell of College
Station died July 15 after
suffering head injuries as a
result of a car accident.
Snell’s Acura Integra was
broadsided by a Toyota
Land Cruiser while turning
out of a parking lot on
Southwest Parkway July 14.
The driver of the Land
Cruiser was not injured.
“She was very strong
with the Aggie Spirit,” said
Marilyn Snell, Leslie’s
mother and a Texas A&M
employee at the Veterinary
School. “She had been look
ing forward to going to
A&M for years. She had
even been to Bonfire with
her sister.”
Leslie chose to attend
A&M following in her par
ents’ and sister’s footsteps,
Marilyn said.
Her father, Jim, graduat
ed in 1973, and her sisters,
Melissa and Courtney, grad
uated in 1995 and 2001
respectively, with several
aunts, uncles and in-laws
also attending.
Jim, who works at A&M
as the director of technical
services and a senior lectur
er of vet anatomy and public
health, said Leslie did not
apply to any other school.
Melissa said Leslie was
really looking forward to
taking part in every aspect of
campus life and that she
would have been a great
Aggie.
Leslie made an impact on
everyone she met, Marilyn
said, which is evident in the
fact that close to 200 of her
fellow students from A&M
Consolidated High School
came to the hospital to show
See Death on page 2
By Gavin McCormick
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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ELIZABETH, W.Va. — Jessica
Lynch has never seen her home
county look quite like this:
^decked, bow-strewn and virtually
-veedless.
Then again, Wirt County has
lever planned a celebration quite
like Tuesday’s homecoming of
Lynch, the 20-year-old Army pri-
'ate who was taken prisoner in
Iraq in March, and whose survival
and recovery by U.S. forces made
Ler a hero.
Knowing that hundreds of jour-
nalists will be descending on this
county seat of about 1,000 for
Lynch’s first public comments about
Let ordeal, the locals have been
Painting, pruning and preening for
w eeks.
“Every weed in every crack is
clown to dirt,” said Debbie Hennen,
the county assessor.
“We don’t want peo
ple to see weeds. We
want them to say,
‘Gosh, that is such a
friendly town. That’s
a place I’d like to
Ii ve -’ LYNCH
Many of the flags
and yellow ribbons that sprouted
after Lynch’s Lort Bliss, Texas,
maintenance convoy drove into an
ambush March 23 have been
replaced with new versions, espe
cially along the five miles Lynch’s
motorcade will drive on her jour
ney’s final leg from Elizabeth to her
home town of Palestine.
Lynch — who is still recuperat
ing from multiple broken bones and
other injuries — and family mem
bers will be flown to Elizabeth by
helicopter from Walter Reed Army
Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Her public statement will be
brief, and she will not take questions
from reporters, family spokesman
Randy Coleman has said.
Wayne Wright, commander of
the local Veterans of Loreign Wars
post, drove across the state line to
Marietta, Ohio, to buy the dozens of
flagpoles now attached to utility
poles along the motorcade route.
“We want to let her know that we
care,” Wright said.
On a break Sunday from retar
ring the parking lot of Dick’s
Market, a shirtless Todd Somerville
said he had paving jobs lined up
across the county over the next two
days.
“Oh, yeah, lots of people want
to spruce up their places for Jessi,”
he said.
Beneath the ribbons and paint.
Lynch will find life essentially
unchanged in this county of fewer
See Lynch on page 2
U.S. general predicts growing
anti-American violence in Iraq
By Robert Burns
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Resistance to U.S.
forces in Iraq will grow in coming months as
progress is made in creating a new govern
ment to replace the dictatorial regime of
Saddam Hussein, the top commander of
American and international troops in Iraq
predicted Sunday.
Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of
Central Command, said he is establishing
an Iraqi “civil defense force,” or armed
militia, to help U.S. forces combat the vio
lence and sabotage that Abizaid and others
believe is being spearheaded by remnants
of Saddam’s regime.
Speaking with a small group of reporters
over lunch at a Baghdad hotel, Abizaid said
that the establishment earlier this month of a
Governing Council of Iraqi political leaders
was a good first step that improves the out
look for getting the country back on its feet.
“But in the short run it creates great anx
iety among our enemies, and they’ll increase
the level of resistance,” Abizaid said. “So
I’m enormously optimistic about our oppor
tunity for success, as long as we don’t lose
our nerve.”
The ambush death of two soldiers Sunday
in northern Iraq brought the number of U.S.
troops killed in action since the March 20
start of war to 151 — including 36 since
May 1, when President George W. Bush
See Iraq on page 2