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BATTALIO
^ u ^ Wednesday, September 22, 2004
The Battalion
Sports:
Comparing 2004
with past teams
Page 5A
oltinte 111 • Issue l l > • 10 pages
A Texas A&M Tradition Since 1893
www.thebatt.eoin
ng
PACE BY: TORI FOSTER
Making a stand
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Bush defends war in Iraq at U.N.
General Assembly meeting
By Terence Hunt
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
UNITED NATIONS — President
Bush, defending his decision to in
vade Iraq, urged a vast assembly of
world leaders Tuesday to stand united
with the country’s struggling govern
ment and said the proper response to
spreading violence “is not to retreat, it
is to prevail.”
The country’s prime minister, Ayad
Allawi, offered an upbeat assessment af
ter Bush’s speech to the General Assem-
construct!ones blyofthe United Nations, saying, “We
eheaded inIro; are winning, we are making progress in
Iraq, we are defeating terrorists,” even
as insurgents claimed they had killed a
second American hostage in two days.
Of the brutal slayings, Bush said,
“We will not allow these thugs and ter
rorists to decide your fate and to decide
our fate.”
Yet in a sign of continuing world un
ease with the situation, U.N. Secretary-
t like you If General Kofi Annan who last week
called the war in Iraq illegal because
it lacked Security Council approval
s and allies s warned that the “rule of law” is at risk
around the world.
“No one is above
the law,” Annan
implement ^ Tuesday. He condemned the taking
and killing of hostages in Iraq, but also
said Iraqi prisoners had been disgrace
fully abused, referring to the U.S. treat
ment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison
near Baghdad.
Often at odds with the United Nations
on Iraq, Bush stood before a hushed
General Assembly at the opening ses
sion of the 191 -nation meeting six weeks
before the presidential election.
The U.N. appearance gave Bush a
world stage on which to demonstrate
his foreign policy leadership and de
fend his Iraq policies, a sensitive po
litical issue because of the relentless
violence and the deaths of more than
1,000 American soldiers.
Standing before many allies who re
fused to send forces to Iraq, Bush said,
“There is no safe isolation from terror
networks or failed states that shelter
them, or outlaw regimes or weapons of
mass destruction. Eventually there is
no safety in looking away, seeking the
quiet life by ignoring the struggles and
oppression of others.”
After the speech, Bush brushed aside
a bleak National Intelligence Estimate
of Iraq’s future that spoke of possibili
ties ranging from tenuous stability to
civil war. Bush characterized the sce
narios developed by senior U.S. intel
ligence officials as “life could be lousy,
life could be OK, life could be better.
And they were just guessing as to what
the conditions might be like.”
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., Bush’s
rival for the presidency, told a news
conference in Jacksonville, Fla., that
the president “failed to level with world
See Bush on page 2
CHARLES DHARAPAK - The Associated Press
President George W. Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly meeting on Tuesday. Bush spoke on foreign policy leadership
and defended his Iraq policies.
Task Force surveys Alabama Al-Qaida groups beheads
icludingl2e(ec
political v
his year,
TEEX checks Hurricane Ivan's damage second American in Iraq
bloodshed in ill
fghanistansfn
iposed to capii
iq to stabilizeii
By Pammy Ramji
THE BATTALION
On Sept. 15, Gov. Rick
omcmlhes*l rr >' a 8 reed t0 de P lo y Tcxas
nilitaty repof s f Force 1 • , one , of 28 t 1 eams
uidav” 111 the national urban and res-
rekilledinal 6 s y stem under the Fed -
iktika a lawl* a * Emergency Management
ghters as well pey (FEMA), to check
to operate Pility of structures in Ala-
were sli# F a a ^ ter tFe destruction of
wernmenttro? Fticane Ivan.
ise fortreatnic|Ehe Texas Engineering Ex-
sion Service (TEEX), a
|ember of the Texas A&M
iversity System, serves as
sponsoring agency for Tex-
Task Force 1. TEEX is one
■ the largest systems of higher
location in the United States
Id has jurisdiction over all ur-
In rescue systems.
■ Senior communications spe-
Mlist for TEEX Janet Frye said
C lndingateam will be helpful.
■The 31-member group was
■ployed to Orange Beach,
T la., and Gulf Shores. Ala.
In Orange Beach, the team
checked the structural stability
of a five-story condominium
hotel for five hours, and in
Gulf Shores the team searched
576 structures in multistory
high-rise condominiums that
collapsed from Hurricane Ivan.
The team returned to College
Station Monday.
Associate director for emer
gency response and rescue for
TEEX Jeff Saunders was one
member of the 31 -member team
deployed to Alabama.
“We did not find anyone
in any of those structures,”
Saunders said.
Saunders, along with mem
bers of the team, estimates
one month to six weeks un
til the power will be restored
from the main line, and right
now there is no air condition
ing or electricity.
“All their income comes in
from tourism,” Saunders said.
“When we let the residents back
into the area to see their homes,
TEXAS TASK FORCE RETURNS
the look on their faces was a de
pressed look because they are
looking at their little piece of
the world destroyed, knowing
it will take about two to three
years to get back to normal.”
The team received its demo
bilization orders from FEMA
on Sunday, after four days of
search and rescue missions.
“1 was a firefighter for 20
years, and I still have the need
to help people when they can’t
help themselves,” Saunders
said. “We know how hard it will
be for everyone to get back to a
normal life, and we want to be
there for the people.”
Communications director for
TEEX Jason Cook said he is
happy to know the team made
a difference.
“As President George Bush
toured the devastation left be
hind by one of the most power
ful hurricanes in U.S. history,
he personally thanked the 31
members of Texas Task Force 1
on Sunday,” Cook said.
ByAlexandra Zavies
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — An al-Qaida-linked
group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed
Tuesday to have killed the second of two Ameri
can hostages — back-to-back slayings that have
notched up the Jordanian militant’s ruthless
campaign of terror.
The claim, posted on an Islamic Web site,
could not immediately be verified.
Al-Zarqawi’s group, Tawhid and Jihad, kid
napped two Americans — Jack Hensley and Eu
gene Armstrong — and Briton Kenneth Bigley
on Thursday from a home that the three civil en
gineers shared in an upscale Baghdad neighbor
hood. Al-Zarqawi beheaded Armstrong, and the
militants on Monday posted a gruesome video
of the 52-year-old man’s death.
The new posting followed the passing of
the militants’ 24-hour deadline for the release
of all Iraqi women from prison, and after
anguished relatives in the United States and
Britain begged for the lives of Bigley, 62, and
Hensley, who would have marked his 49th
birthday Wednesday.
See Iraq on page 2
Edwards: Electoral College unfair
By Jibran Najmi
THE BATTALION
On Monday the Texas Task Force
returned from Alabama, where it
aided in sorting through the mess
left by Hurricane Ivan.
ID The team searched 576 buildings for
bodies over a two day period.
€) The team checked structural
stability of a five-story hotel
The team has 31 members and is
one of 28 in the national urban
rescue system
ANDREW BURLESON - The Battalion
JEFF SAUNDERS, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE - Source
liege?*
Another gas leak found at apartments
o
By Sonia Moghe
THE BATTALION
:l< Prairie Rd.
: Oak Mall
Iwy. 21
779.11II
:om
"ity Lender
' Please contact
tatives for
■Area maintenance work
ers for University Apartments
found a leak in a gas line Tues
day morning and alerted the
College Station Fire Depart
ment at 9:30 a.m., said Bart
Humphreys, fire department
public information officer.
g“As far as we know there was
only one leak,” Humphreys said.
University Apartments is the
location of the fatal July 31 explo
sion that killed 4-year-old Lamiya
Zahin and, later, her grandmother
Rabeya Chaudhury.
Since that incident, the Uni
versity has been working to in
spect and replace old gas lines,
Humphreys said.
“There has been a lot of ac
tivity over there (at the Univer
sity Apartments),” Humphreys
said. “They have been replacing
lines. They’ve been doing a lot
of work. “
Humphreys said the leak was
found outside of a building at
the complex and that to fix the
leak, workers had to shut down a
gas line, turning off gas in three
buildings about 45 minutes. The
area maintenance workers even
tually fixed the leak.
Humphreys said he did not know
if the leak was found in an old pipe
or a newly replaced one.
To a standing-room only audience, George
C. Edwards III advocated the abolishment of
the Electoral College Tuesday at the Annen-
berg Presidential Conference Center, saying
discourages voting.
“It was the Electoral College, not the Supreme
Court’s decision in Bush vs. Gore, that deter
mined the outcome of the 2000 election,” said
Edwards, a distinguished professor of political
science at A&M. “In the 2000 election, it was
the Republicans who feared that Bush would get
the most popular votes, but that Gore would win
the election as a result of the Electoral College.
They actually made some preparations to try and
convince some electors to vote for the candidate
who won the most votes in the country rather
than the one in the respective states.”
Edwards said the Electoral College does not
uphold the definition of democracy, which in
cludes equality in voting as a central standard
to the democratic process.
“The percentage of the votes received by a
candidate nationwide rarely coincides with the
percentage of the popular vote that a candidate
receives,” Edwards said.
Edwards attributed the phenomenon to the fact
that 48 of the states award candidates who place
first in the popular vote every electoral vote. Ed
wards said the system effectively disenfranchised
voters who supported losing candidates.
“A candidate can win some states by very
narrow margins, lose others by huge margins
and still win the electoral vote under our current
system,” Edwards said. “For example, three
million people voted for Gore in 2000, while
Bush received only 537 more votes in Florida,
yet received all of Florida’s electoral votes.”
Edwards also said that the Electoral College
does not protect the interests of smaller states, but
allows candidates to ignore the majority of the
country and focus only on battleground states.
“No matter what state you look at, there is
no single common interest that you point to,”
Edwards said. “The Electoral College distorts
the political process and violates the principles
WHITNEY MARTIN - The Battalion
George C. Edwards, III, Ph.D. speaks at
the George Bushh Presidential Library Tuesday
evening. Edwards is considered one of the leading
scholars of the U.S. Presidency.
of political equality.”
Edwards said the most controversial issues
that have arisen have been based on economic
interest or ideology, yet there have been no is
sues where it is small states versus larger states.
Several audience members agreed with Ed
wards’ assessment of the entire situation.
“I feel like I’m throwing my vote away by vot
ing for Kerry in Texas essentially, because it more
or less doesn’t matter as some states you just sort
of know who is going to win,” said Patrick Pas
chal 1, a sophomore political science major.
Paschal 1 said Edwards’ suggestion to attempt
to pass a constitutional amendment that would
abolish the Electoral College could happen.
“Edwards outlined a plan to start out locally,
start it in the grassroots. It’s hard to get a consti
tutional amendment passed but it can be done,”
See Edwards on page 7