Ex-hostage
homecoming
The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, January 27, 1981-Page 7
Iran official defends settlement
V-o rAnu .-ur1
full of prayer, play; love
WEST POINT, N.Y. (UPI) -
America's hostage-heroes spent their
first full day at home in prayer and play
at West Point yesterday, soaking up the
love of their families before heading to
the White House for the nation's official
welcome.
Most of the former hostages and their
fAMilies attended a prayer service at
the Cadet Chapel and spent the day
jogging, talking to reporters and
e axing with their kinfolk before din-
ner in the academy mess hall with the
cadet corps.
-SEVEN FORMER hostage Marines
visited the academy's grade school to
thank the children with pictpres,
autographs, and hugs for "Welcome
Home" signs the youngsters hung for
G"
department
stated for
elimination
(Continued from Page 1)
members who retire will not be
replaced, he added.
FACULTY MEMBRS and students
in the geography department were
"shocked" by the decision to undergo
discontinuation proceedings.
"I had no official communication that
they were considering it until (yester-
day) morning," explained Department
Chairman Nystuen. "My first concern
is to persuade the college to keep the
department. The problem is that small
departments are the only candidates
for discontinuance. So it is a question of
which small departments.
"We can't get rid of chemistry or
history, those are central to the
College," he continued. "We have to.
convince them we are central, but we
will have a hard time convincing our
colleagues that we are central."
"I CAN'T THINK of a single graduate
who is not in a permanent position,"
Geography Prof. George Kish said
yesterday. "Our placement record
shows that we are central, that is the
issue!"
Nystuen added that one of the great
strengths of the department is that
there are both "science and social
science type members. That's a rarity
in these days of greater complexity,"
he said.
"'The department has been one of the
top ten in the country, unlike some
ther (College) departments, which
shall remain nameless," noted Geology
Prof. John Kolars. "The University has
to encompass the small departments as
well as the large."
"I don't think it should happen,"
commented Ph.D. Candidate Richard
Nespar. "It strikes me as a pretty
drastic thing to do because it is a well
recognized department."
Vice-President Frye said the
ossibility of closing the department
was brought up by LSA four years ago.
"A review was done," he said, but it
was decided that LSA would not act on
the matter.
-Frye also said to "assume" that the
review process is just a formality is a
mistake. LSA would not be conducting
any review at all, he said, "if there was
not the opportunity that the decision
could be reversed."
Daily staff reporters Sue Inglis,
Kevin Tottis, and Janet Rae con-
tributed to this story.
t 440-%~
'D'
This space
contitbuted by the publisher
HAWPCUT -- SUCH
Former staff of PLAIN JANE,
SPECIALS!!
UNTIL JAN. 29
them in West Point's Thayer Hotel.
In Washington, a "watery-eyed"
President Reagan was told at a briefing
by Secretary of State Alexander Haig
that about a dozen of the former
hostages were suffering from "severe
problems -mostly mental."
Reagan signed a proclamation
designating Thursday as a national day
of thanksgiving for the return of the 52
Americans and Richard Queen, the
53rd hostage who was released for
medical reasons after 250 days in cap-
tivity.
NEW YORK CITY went ahead with
plans for a traditional Broadway ticker
tape parade for the hostages on Friday.
Mayor Ed Koch had promised to mount
the parade if only one former hostage
asked for it. The first to ask was Barry
Rosen of Brooklyn.
In Johnstown, Pa., former hostage
Army Sgt. Regis Ragan visited his
hospitalized 70-year-old mother, Anna,
who suffered heart trouble shortly after
talking to her son by telephone last
Wednesday. Ragan then left to rejoin
the other 51 former hostages at West
Point.
The hostages, who arrived here Sun-
day to a hero's welcome, will attend a
press conference this morning before
leaving for their official welcome
celebration with President Reagan at
the White House.
"IT IS LIKE taking a bath in love,"
said hostage Catherine Koob.
Hostage Elizabeth Swift, who said
she and Koob cooked together in cap-
tivity in the Tehran embassy's
basement kitchen, remarked,
"Everyone said the welcome wouldrbe
wonderful. It is wonderful."
Army Warrant Officer Joseph Hall,
walking arm-in-arm with his wife
Cheri, said of his homecoming, "It's
beyond words. Just beautiful." He
beamed. "If they had asked me where
I'd have wanted to go in America, I'd
have said West Point."
From AP and UPI
Iran's prime minister yesterday defended the hostage
settlement against criticism by President Abolhassan
Bani-Sadr. And another leader, denying reports of
hostage mistreatment, said the militants who imprisoned
the Americans were incapable of hurting anyone.
Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Rajai told the Majlis, or
Parliament, that Iran's problems result from the
upheaval of revolution and were not caused by allowing
the U.S. Embassy staff to be held hostage for more than a
year, as Bani-Sadr has charged.
THE PRESIDENT, a longtime critic of the clergy-
dominated government, has been particularly harsh in
the last few days, apparently in an attempt to create a
climate in which to expand his own influence.
Bani-Sadr has claimed Iran could have reached a much
more favorable agreement earlier, according to a
Yugoslav news agency report from Tehran, quoting ankin-
terview in Mizam newspaper.-
Reacting to hostages' reports they were mistreated,
Speaker of Parliament Hashemi Rafsanjani told his
weekly news conference he is certain no torture took
place.
"I KNOW MANY of these boys," he said, referring to
the captors. "They would not like to hurt any human
being."
The Iranian people "countered all these U.S. measures
and by their political fasting, they resisted the economic
sanctions," Rajai also said.
Rajai said the Americans became "perplexed and
helpless" when the sanctions, including a halt of Iranian
oil imports, failed, and Washington was forced to attempt
the aborted rescue mission in April.
RAJAI SAID THE United States "indulged in a neurotic
and futile action which further disclosed its vile charac-
ter. That was its direct military attack in Tabas, which
was more disgraceful than the U.S. invasion of the Bay of
Pigs and by God's grace, it ended in failure."
But Islamic Revolution, the newspaper published by
Bani-Sadr, said Sunday Iran gained nothing from the 14%
month ordeal.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department sought yesterday
to reassure American businesspersons who fear that the
financial deal which freed the American hostages also
committed those businesspersons to turning over disputed
assets to Iran.
Richard Davis, assistant treasury secretary for enfor-
cement and operations, said numerous American
businesses had been involved in financial deals to con-
struct buildings or perform various services in Iran
before the U.S. Embassy and the Americans were seized
141 months ago.
Those deals were often supported by letters of credit,
performance bonds, and other financial obligations, and
the Iranians could call for payment on those obligations
"virtually at will" before the embassy seizure, Davis
said.
What Treasury is telling the business community now,
he said, is that "we're not forcing you to fork over the
money."
--_ Y
Imagine yourse\
living and work
-A
-I-
pine yourself
creating the
0spacecraf
toprbe
Jupiter..
Imagine you
designing ti
radars that
the skies of
free world.
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Imagine yourself at Hughes.
... working on innovations that could change the world.
... taking advantage of Hughes' continuing education program-one of the finest in the country.
.. .enjoying the Southern California or Tucson lifestyle.
We'll be on campus February 3, 1981
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