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NEWS: 76-DAILY
CLASSIFIED: 764-0557
www.michigandally.com

Wednesday
September 26, 2001

BAMN blasted for dominating racial issues

By Kara Wenzel
Daily Staff Reporter

The Michigan Student Assembly approved its
$415,370 budget last night, but much of the
meeting centered on a push by several members
of the assembly and other constituents to bring to
light the probable motives of one of MSA's most
vocal factions.
Many expressed disappointment over actions
by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action
and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any
Means Necessary since the Sept. 11 terrorist
Underage
drinkersa

attacks on New York and Washington. BAMN
has organized an anti-war rally on the Diag and
begun a green armband campaign meant to show
support for Arab-Americans who have been vic-
tims of harassment or violence because of the
suspected terrorists' ethnicities.
Some BAMN members have also formed a
new group, the Coalition to Stop Racial Scape-
goating and the War.
The speakers accused BAMN of using the
issue of racial scapegoating to gain visibility on
campus and draw support for their group.
"They did not come to any Arab or Muslim

students and ask them if they wanted that repre-
sentation;" said LSA Rep. Fadi Kiblawi.
Rackham Rep. Jessica Curtin, a member of
BAMN, said the green armbands are part of a
national campaign supported by Arab-American
students at other campuses.
"It's not true that Arab students as a whole
oppose this campaign," Curtin said.
The assembly also voted down a resolution
introduced by Curtin and Rackham Rep.
Suzanne Perkins-Hart to stop "war hysteria."
"Terrorism is a crime and our response can
only be to treat it as a crime,"Perkins-Hart said.

But other members of MSA argued that the
resolution was another BAMN-supported tactic
to draw attention to itself.
"I would vote against war hysteria if I knew
what it was," said MSA Vice President Jessica
Cash.
Jackie Bray, a member of Students Organizing
for Labor and Economic Equality, asked MSA to
stop groups like BAMN from dominating impor-
tant issues on campus.
"Please take a stand against organizations that
hurt student activism," Bray said.
Curtin and other BAMN members defended

the group's involvement, saying they only pro-
mote causes they truly believe in.
"I am a socialist, but this red-baiting is just a
political tactic," Curtin said.
Earlier this week, a number of affirmative
action proponents not affiliated with BAMN cre-
ated the group Students Supporting Affirmative
Action.
Also at the meeting, MSA increased funding
to the Ann Arbor Tenants Union to $26,000 from
a proposed $21,100.
The union provides legal advice to students
See MSA, Page 7

ore

terrorism

possible

could get
jail time
By Louie Meizlish
Daily Staff Reporter
A resolution against a bill currently
stalled in the Michigan Legislature
that would allow judges to send repeat
underage drinkers to prison was pro-
posed yesterday by the Michigan Stu-
dent Assembly.
The current code now allows judges
to punish first, second and third-time
minor in possession violators with
increasing fines, temporary suspen-
sions of driver's licenses and court-
mandated alcohol treatment, screening
or community service. The bill would
amend the Liquor Control Code to add
the possibility of jail sentences of up
to 90 days for second and third-time
offenders, and for first-time offenders
only if they fail to participate in court-
mandated treatment, screening or
community service.
LSA senior Jon Russell, who has
been ticketed for an MIP violation,
said the bill doesn't make sense.
"They're wasting jail space.... The
penalty is way too steep," Russell said.
"Jail time is ridiculous."
But proponents of the bill say
judges do not currently have the tools
to enforce their sentences.
House Bill 4200, which passed the
Michigan House in May, is now under
consideration by the Senate Judiciary
Committee, where it has languished
since May. Two senators on the com-
mittee, which has already rejected the
bill in its current form, say the bill will
have to be amended before it is passed.
MSA Rep. Rob Goodspeed, one of
the sponsors of an assembly resolution
in opposition of the bill, said the bill
creates penalties that are too harsh.
"Although underage drinking is a
problem, incarcerating students is not
the answer and it disrupts their lives in
a way that is uncalled for," he said.
"Hopefully our lobbying effects and
the concern that the Democrats have
expressed will be enough to effectively
kill it," Goodspeed said.
But the Rev. Allen Rice, executive
director of the Michigan Interfaith
Council on Alcohol Problems, who
testified to the committee in support of
the bill, said the legislation is neces-
sary to enforce underage drinking
laws.
"The judges have said they don't
have the ability to require fines to be
See BILL, Page 7

U.S. on watch
for hazardous
chemical attack

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pen-
tagon ordered 2,000 more reservists to
duty yesterday as President Bush
weighed putting more armed guards
on airliners and strengthening cockpit
doors against potential hijackers. In a
diplomatic victoryfor the United
States, Saudi Arabia cut ties to the ter-
rorist-harboring Taliban regime in
Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Attorney General John
Ashcroft warned of potential terrorist
attacks that could include trucks carry-
ing hazardous chemicals.
About 20 people have been charged
with trying to obtain fraudulent licens-
es to drive tankers, officials said. Some
of those arrested in connection with
the hazardous tanker licenses may
have connections to the hijackers, the
Justice Department said.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rums-
feld said Americans are in for a long,
brutal struggle for justice in the after-
math of the Sept. 11 attacks on Washing-
ton and New York. "It will be difficult,"
he said. "It will be dangerous."
Underscoring the threat, Osama bin
Laden's terrorist group warned of
retaliation if Washington attacks.
"Wherever there are Americans and
Jews, they will be targeted," said a
statement issued by Naseer Ahmed
Mujahed, chief military commander
for the al-Qaida network fingered by
Bush for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Rumsfeld and Secretary of State
Colin Powell went to Capitol Hill to
give Congress top-secret briefings on
Bush's brewing war plans.
Hoping to calm a jittery traveling
public, Transportation Secretary Nor-
man Mineta presented Bush with a
series of recommendations to tighten
airline security. He wants to make it
tougher to open cockpit doors, dramat-
ically increase the presence of air mar-
shals on flights and give the federal
government a greater role in oversee-
ing private security firms at airports,
White House officials said.
Bush was considering several secu-
rity options that would allow for the
reopening of Reagan National Airport
across the Potomac from the nation's
capital, the sole remaining airport
closed due to the attacks.
Bush planned to announce the pack-
age tomorrow in Chicago. In a show of
wartime bipartisanship, the president
invited Democratic and Republican
congressional leaders to join him.
The president also considered a
number way to revive the economy
and help laid-off workers. One option
under discussion: Extend unemploy-
ment benefits to workers caught in the
economic aftermath of the strikes.
He said America will not flinch in
the face of danger. "No threat - no
threat - will prevent freedom-loving
See ATTACKS, Page 7

AP PHOTO
Smoke rises as a section of the facade of World Trade Center Tower 2 is pulled down yesterday. The last standing piece of the
twin towers, a seven-story twisted metal ruin that has come to symbolize the terrorist attacks, will be carefully saved for
possible use In a memorial. "We're going to preserve as much of that wall as possible," Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said yesterday.

Most students, Americans support retaliation

By John Alexander
and Carrie Thorson
Daily Staff Reporters
Even though the majority of Americans back
the Bush administration in its war against global
terrorist organizations, University students and
campus groups with anti-war sentiments say they
have not found it difficult to push their cause
here.
A Gallup Organization poll released yesterday
- two weeks after terrorists attacked New York
and Washington - reported that 90 percent of
Americans support retaliatory military actions

against the groups or nations responsible for the
Sept. 11 attacks.
"We've had a tremendous amount of support
from the University administration and various
other groups on campus," said LSA senior Paul
Saba, president of the Arab American Anti-Dis-
crimination Committee. "There have been way
more positive things happening than anything
negative."
So far, anti-discrimination groups and anti-war
groups have been the most vocal and visible
groups on campus. Many students speculated
that the University's liberal environment makes it
easier for these groups to operate.

"A lot of people I talk to are opposed to any-
thing that would take innocent lives," said LSA
senior James Moon. Moon is one of the approxi-
mately 20 percent of Americans who knew
someone who hurt, killed or left missing by the
attacks.
"Something has to be done, but war isn't nec-
essarily the answer," Moon said. "It's almost like
we're going hate for hate."
Although students with anti-war opinions have
been most visible on campus, this doesn't mean
the majority of students oppose military action.
"All you see is the anti-war feeling, but that's
because nobody sits around protesting for war,"

said LSA senior Cole Redlawsk. "I haven't spo-
ken to anyone who doesn't think we should do
something."
Like Redlawsk, many students who favor mili-
tary retaliation said they have been more cautious
about.voicing their opinions on campus.
"My best friend is Muslim, so it's a touchy
subject," said LSA junior Reid Joliat. "I just
think something needs to be done so that it
doesn't happen again in two years."
Yesterday's Gallup poll also revealed that
Americans view long-term war to defeat global
terrorism more favorably than focusing only on
See WAR, Page 7

Teach-in views attacks
from global perspective
By Karen Schwartz is Islam," he said. "But he's preaching hate and
Daily StaffReporter hate isn't related to Islam at all. To me it teaches
brotherhood."

----i

-I

When LSA sophomore Rehan Siddiqui arrived
late to last night's teach-in, he found himself hav-
ing to join a crowd of students in the hallway out-
side the auditorium to watch the symposium on
television.
The more than 600 seats in the Lydia
Mendelssohn Theater were filled as University
experts explored the politics and perceptions
regarding the United States, the Middle East and
Islam as related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
on New York and Washington.
"I'm a Muslim so this is a time when I need to
be out and teaching people what Islam is and I
wanted to hear what the sneakers had to say."

Event moderator Carol Bardenstein said the
symposium, one of several teach-ins on campus
in recent weeks, was organized tobring together
people with academic expertise to inform, ana-
lyze and reflect on events with a different angle
than people might have been exposed to thus far.
"Here at the University it's crucial for us to
ask, to seek, to understand, and not to fear what
collective introspection might yield," she said.
"We need to explore the relationship of the U.S.
with the rest of the world and its attitudes and
perspectives towards the U.S."
Art and Design graduate student Ceci Mendez
said she came to the symposium to be informed so

"
Married
undergrads a
rarity at 'U'
By Sarah Scott
Daily Staff Reporter
Annie and Brandon appear to be an average couple.
The LSA juniors hang out with friends, study hard, and
spend as much time with one another as possible.
Statistically speaking, however, Annie and Brandon
are far from average; that's because after an August wed-
ding the couple became two of only a small number of
married undergraduates on campus.
"We're usually met with the reaction 'I could never do
that,"' said Brandon Kelly. "People seem to feel that mar-


I LAURIE BRESCOLL/Daily

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