Ninety-eight years of editorial freedom Vol. XCVIII, No. 135 Ann Arbor, Michigan -- Tuesday, April 19, 1988 Copyright 1988, The Michigan Daily U.S. attacks Iranian vessels PALESTINIANS PROTEST ASSASSINATION: Oil platforms, ships downed in retailiation MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) - American forces de- stroyed two of Iran's Persian Gulf oil platforms Mon- day, sank or damaged four attack boats and disabled two frigates that fired missiles at American planes, U.S. officials reported. Iranian naval forces responded with attacks on Arab oil facilities: U.S., British and Cypriot commercial vessels, and on a press helicopter chartered by NBC. No American casualties were reported, but Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci said a Cobra attack helicopter with two crew members was late in returning to a Navy cruiser and a search had begun. Yesterday's conflict between the U.S. and Iran was the most intense since President Reagan ordered last summer that Navy forces be strengthened in the gulf, where Iran and Iraq have been in war since September of 1980. Washington called destruction of the platforms a "measured response" to the explosion of a mine, al- legedly planted by Iran, that blew a hole in an Ameri- can frigate last week and wounded ten sailors. Reagan said Monday's operations were a warning to Iran that "we will protect our ships and, if they threaten us, they'll pay a price. We undertook this action to make sure the Iranians have no illusions about the cost of irresponsible behavior." Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency said there were deaths and injuries aboard the platform but it did not say how many. In the ground war between Iran and Iraq, the Baghdad government claimed it regained most of the southern Faw peninsula that Iranian forces captured more than two years ago, including the town of Faw. Iran claimed U.S. helicopter gunships fired at Iranian troops in the area and Tehran radio said "American forces have en- tered the war." In Washington, Pentagon spokesperson Fred Hoff- man denied the Iranian claims. No U.S. military forces have been involved with Iraqi units, he said. On Reagan's instructions, at about 9 a.m., two groups of Navy warships struck the Iranian oil plat- forms Sassan and Sirri-D, 100 miles apart in the southern Persian Gulf. They gave the Iranians advance warning to evacuate the platforms, which have been used as speedboat bases for attacks on neutral shipping. Reagan ordered the at- tacks as retaliation for the mine that holed the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts on Thursday. Both platforms were destroyed and left ablaze, one by naval gunfire and the other by explosives placed on it, according to statements in Washington. The Iranian news agency said U.S. warships hit the Sassan platform at'9 a.m. and, 23 minutes later, the Nasr platform off of nearby Sirri island. Sirri Island is one of the makeshift oil export terminals in southern waters to which Iran ferries oil from its main Kharg Island terminal in the northern gulf. Kharg has been a frequent target of Iraqi air raids. The Iranian agency said Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velavati wrote a letter of protest to U.S. Secretary- General Javier Perez de Cuellar that said, in part: "Iran will never submit to the policy of violence and intimi- dation, and will definitely respond to the cowardly U.S. attacks." After the U.S. attacks, Iranian gunboats went on a rampage in the -southern gulf. They attacked oil facili- ties and commercial vessels at the Mubarak oil field off the Sharjah emirate, and hours later assaulted a Cypriot freighter leaving the United Arab Emirates with a load of fertilizer. Carlucci said a Navy helicopter was fired upon dur- ing the raid on the platforms but not hit. Iranians shot at a press helicopter carrying an NBC-TV crew and an Associated Press photographer, but missed. Reagan defends strikes in Gulf WASHINGTON (AP) - President Reagan said yesterday he ordered military strikes against Iranian targets because of "irresponsible behavior" toward U.S. ships, and served notice that Tehran will "pay a price" for such aggression in the Persian Gulf. Defending attacks on Iranian military platforms in the southern gulf, Reagan said: "We aim to deter further Iranian aggression, not provoke it." he renewed the U.S. call for Iran to accept a United Nations resolution demanding a cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq war. Reagan used an appearance before a business audience to comment on U.S. reprisals for the mining of the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts. His use of force won bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. "I have something in the nature of a bulletin for you," he told representatives of the Associated General Contractors organization in the Old Executive Office Building auditorium. "Earlier today our Navy made a measured response to Iran's latest use of military force against U.S. ships in international waters as well as its continued military Daily rnoto Dy DNIEL SIEEL University students hold a "Peaceful Palestinian Protest" outside the Michigan Union yesterday. The studen- ts are protesting the assassination of atop PLO leader Saturday, accusing the Israeli government of being in- volved in the killing. Tw killed int Israeli violenwe JERUSALEM (AP) - Army curfews and strikes to protest the killing of a PLO leader paralyzed the occupied lands yesterday, and hospi- tal officials said soldiers shot two who was taking her children home. At least 167 Palestinians have been reported killed since riots began Dec. 8 in theWest Bank and Gaza Strip which Israel has occupied since capturing them from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war. An Israeli soldier and civilian also have been slain. Israel ordered the closure o f Jerusalem's only English-language magazine owned by Palestinians, al- leging that it is financed and directed by terrorist organizations. Its managing editor denied the allega- tions. Buildings in the West Bank were draped with black flaps of mourning for assassinated PLO leader Khalil al-Wazir. Hundreds of Palestinians paid condolence calls in Nablus to al-Wazir's cousin during three days of mourning, said Adnan Zahran of Nablus. "Nablus is a city of ghosts," the engineer told The Associated Press by telephone about the West Bank's largest city, which was in its second day of curfew. Al-Wazir, also called Abu Jihad (Father of the Holy War), was killed early Saturday by commandos who burst into his home in a suburb of Tunis, Tunisia. News of the death inspired riots in the West Bank and Gaza in which 17 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 wounded. It was the blood- iest day in the territories since the rebellion began. In a message to Arabs in the oc- cupied lands, Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat said al-Wazir, his chief aide and the PLO's military commander, "fell, weapon in his hand, to the bullets of a Mossad gang." The Mossad is the Israeli secret service. Arafat said he had lost "a brother, a friend, a revolutionary companion, and one of the symbols of the liberation fight of the Palestinian people....The price of his death will be high." and terrorist attacks against a nonbelligerents," Reagan said. Reagan's action drew bipartisan Michigan members of Congress. number of support from * CBN group to approach 'U' administration By MARINA SWAIN Members of the Campus Broadcasting Network formed a committee to communicate with the Univer- 4 sity administration - which said it may consider cut- ting the student-run radio station's funding - in an emotionally charged meeting last night. Board members argued about steps they shouli ake to respond to Interim University President Robben Fleming's statement that the Office of Student Services may reevaluate CBN's importance when formulating its budget this June. "Right now I'm concerned with keeping the network going," said LSA senior Paul LaZebnik, outgoing CBN general manager. "The station may not be here next year," he said. "They (the administration) want to hear real solid rea- sons why this place should stay a student-run radio station." Fleming has questioned the value of having both CBN and the University-operated WUOM. He said the Office of Student Services may decide to channel the money into other areas, such as handicapped services. The decision, however, will be left to Vice President for Student Services Henry Johnson. Instead of having a student as general manger of the station, Johnson told LaZebnik he may consider appointing a professional for the position. "We would like to find out specifically what their grievances are against us," said Emily Burns, an LSA junior and incoming WCBN general manager. "They say they don't feel a student general manager can perform adequately but they don't provide specific justification for their remarks," she said. CBN also issued a statement yesterday which sup- ported its April 13 decision to reinstate Ann Arbor res- & ident Chris Daley as a WCBN disc jockey. Black prof eleted to top LSA committee Uy LISA POLLAK University Prof. Donald Deskins' election to the LSA Executive Committee, this month makes him the first Black member of the col- lege's policy-making body, LSA Dean Peter Steiner's secretary said yesterday. When Steiner came under attack for allegedly racist remarks last Jan- uary, his detractors criticized the ab- sence of Blacks and other minorities from the college's most influential committee. "I think it's very significant that (Deskins) was chosen," Vice Provost for Minority Affairs Charles Moody said. See ISA, Page 2 un~~~ti!s Daily Photo by DAVID LUBLINER I N~'IE Ill This too shall pass LSA senior Bill Haeck writes his second-to-last paper before he graduates at the end of the month. He had to wait two hours at the Church St. computing center before getting a spot, and then spent four more hours writing his ten-page-long paper. s 3-m1-onth extension on taxes t ' e spot on <> u :c The t, I g id. By MICHAEL LUSTIG Graduate student teaching assistants but waivers had not been taxed before. D'Arms told the faculty's Senate As- , mh , 9-es~m .arhnvhih s art fall. .IThe University is considering giving all T antAc-l arrnlcc _et nte nn2tat