Oregon daily
emerald
Ducks stumble in
race for roses
see page 6
Monday, October 24, 1983
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 85, Number 36
Truck bomb kills 147 Americans
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — At least 147 U S.
Marines and Navy men were killed and
scores were wounded early Sunday when a
pickup truck packed with explosives crash
ed into the lobby of an airport building
where the Americans were sleeping. A
revolutionary Islamic group claimed
responsibility for the suicide-mission blast
that leveled the four-story building.
Moments later another suicide terrorist
drove a truck-bomb into a building housing
French troops. State radio quoted civil
defense workers as saying 25 French
soldiers were killed and 12 were wounded.
The French Defense Ministry in Paris said
the death toll was nine dead, 14 wounded
and 53 missing.
In Washington, the State Department
received a report from Beirut saying a
group calling itself the Islamic Revolu
tionary Movement claimed responsibility
for both attacks. According to the report, an
anonymous caller telephoned the Beirut of
fice of the French news agency Agence
France Presse and said two of the move
ment's fighters, named as Abu Mazin, 26,
and Abu Sija'n, 24, perished in the suicide
bombings.
That group had not been heard of before
in Beirut. The caller reportedly told AFP the
movement would not rest until Beirut was
controlled by "revolutionary Moslems and
the combative democratic youth."
The two bombings were the most savage
attacks on the multinational force since it
deployed in Beirut last fall at the Lebanese
government's request to help keep peace
in the capital, ravaged by years of civil war
and foreign intervention. The bombing at a
Marine command post at Beirut airport
caused the largest number of casualties suf
fered by American forces since the Vietnam
War.
The four-story building housing a Marine
battalion landing team at the airport and
the nine-story structure occupied by the
French about a mile north collapsed in the
tremendous explosions just after 6:20 a.m.
(12:20 a.m. EDT).
"I haven’t seen carnage like that since
Vietnam," Marine spokesman Maj. Robert
Jordan told reporters, his own arms
covered with blood from helping carry the
dead and maimed. Most Marines were
asleep on cots when the explosion rained
tons of concrete and glass shards on them.
Frantic Marines, some clad only in
bloodstained underwear, grabbed shovels
to dig for buried comrades crying for help,
while others stood sobbing, stunned.
Blood formed puddles on the ground.
The area was littered with shattered glass,
singed clothes, helmets and cooking pots.
"I know there are no words that can ex
press our sorrow and grief for the loss of
those splendid young men and the injury to
so many others," Pres. Ronald Reagan told
reporters in Washington.
Reagan cut short a golf weekend in
Georgia and met with national security ad
visers to handle the latest crisis in Lebanon.
He vowed to keep the Marines there
despite the bombings, which he called a
“despicable act."
Iordan said the blast hurled several
Marines clear of the building and that some
survived. The truck-bomb, estimated by Jor
dan to contain at least 2,000 pounds of ex
plosives, ripped a crater 40 feet deep by 30
feet across.
Lebanese army ambulances, bulldozers
and vehicles from all contingents in the
multinational force rushed to the blast sites
to help evacuate the wounded, many of
them mangled and moaning in shock.
Medics and survivors laid out dead Marines
in rows, their bare feet protruding from
under blankets.
Some rescuers included members of the
Lebanese Shiite Amal militia, which has
been fighting the Lebanese army around
the Marine encampment.
Anti-government snipers shot at Marines
attempting to rescue trapped comrades
from the rubble, forcing many Marines to
retreat to bunkers and foxholes. But the
sniping stopped after three hours and did
not stop the rescue effort.
Col. Timothy J. Geraghty, commander of
the 1,600 Marines deployed at the airport,
told reporters some Marines remained trap
ped alive in the wreckage six hours after the
blast.
Iordan said the bomber drove a pickup
truck into an airport parking lot adjacent to
the Marine compound where a sentry spot
ted it and radioed headquarters. Then the
truck accelerated, smashed through an iron
gate, roared over a sand-bagged guardpost
and smashed into the lobby of the atrium
style building, Jordan said. It was unclear
whether sentries fired at the truck.
Gen. Francois Cann, commander of the
French contingent, said the explosions at
the French and American camps came 20
seconds apart, though early reports in
dicated a two-minute gap.
When asked who was responsible, Cann
said, "we have evidence of who did it." He
did not elaborate.
U.S. officials in Lebanon also refused to
speculate about who might have carried
out the attacks, which resembled the U.S.
Embassy bombing in Beirut on April 18 that
killed 17 Americans and 32 Lebanese. U.S.
officials blamed that explosion on pro
Iranian Lebanese extremists.
But Defense Secretary Caspar
Weinberger said on CBS's "Face the Na
tion" that "circumstantial evidence"
pointed to Iranian fanatics.
At least eight American and French navy
ships pulled close to shore off Beirut after
the Sunday explosions as helicopters fer
ried the dead and wounded away from the
blast sites. U.S. officials said the severely
wounded were evacuated to hospitals in
Cyprus and West Germany.
Computer graphics, such as the one pictured above, will be discussed at a University
sponsored conference.
Computer conference set
By Melissa Martin
Of the Emerald
The University is hosting the Pacific Nor
thwest Computer Graphics Conference — “Ap
plications on the Leading Edge," at the Eugene
Conference Center-Hilton Complex Monday and
Tuesday.
A special two-hour film and video show will
highlight the conference Monday, 7:30 p.m., in
the Silva Concert Hall at the Hult Center. Admis
sion is $5 at the door for those not registered in
the conference.
The show will include American, Canadian
and Japanese computer graphic film clips such as
"Mandala," "Egg White and the Seven Pixels,"
"Act III," "Blooming Stars," and other reels from
commercial animation studios.
Some of the clips were made on the "super
computer," the fastest computer in the world, ac
cording to Ken O'Connell, University fine arts
professor.
General Electric Co. donated the use of its
$85,000 large screen video projector for the show
Monday.
Following the film, Steve Cooney, technical
director from Robert Abel Associates, Hollywood,
and Richard Hoover, art director will discuss com
puter graphics' use in producing special effects,
animation in films and live action in commercial
productions.
Gene Youngblood, the conference's keynote
speaker, will discuss the evolution of computer
graphics technology in the next 15 years and its
impact on visual arts at 9 a.m. at the Hilton.
Youngblood is an international author, con
sultant and professor at the California Institute of
the Arts.
Tuesday's seminars will include Dana Tomlin,
assistant Harvard professor; Jeffrey Marsh M.D.
and Michael Vannier, M.D., Washington Universi
ty, School of Medicine and the Mallinckrodt In
stitute of Radiology, St. Louis; Robert Peterson
from Nike's research and development group and
Robert Langridge, professor of Molecular Biology
at the University of California.
The conference will bring together people
who use computer graphics for academia, the
arts, business, industry, science and medicine.
The conference will provide an opportunity to ex
change information, discuss applications and
identify potential ways to share resources.
Registration fees range from $50 to $110
depending on meals and lodging expensive.
Non-registrants are invited to tour at no cost
the vendor and exhibit area, which is a
demonstration of the latest micro and mini
systems hardware and noncommercial computer
graphics works.
Chancellor informs board
about faculty award plan
By Doug Nash
Of the Emerald
Universities and colleges
around the state will now have a
bigger carrot to attract
distinguished faculty, the result of
a $200,000 plan unveiled at the
State Board of Higher Education
meeting in Portland Friday.
Termed the "Legislative Faculty
Excellence Award," it will provide
continuing salary supplements to
a small number of professors with
"national or international reputa
tions in research or teaching,"
Chancellor Bud Davis said.
He added, however, that the
$200,000 given to the board by the
1983 Legislature would only
benefit a few of the many deserv
ing faculty members.
"We don't have money enough
to recognize all our distinguished
professors," Davis said. Institu
tion presidents may nominate up
to five candidates a year for the
awards, which will vary in
amounts from $2,500 to $10,000 a
year. The extra money will remain
a part of the professor's salary.
"My judgement is that the
$200,000 will continue (to be given
by the Legislature)," Davis said.
The plan was first named "Facul
ty Salary Enhancement Awards,"
but board members and institu
tion presidents saw a need to give
the title more distinction.
"If it's 10 $10,000 awards, that is
a fighting fund," board member
James Petersen said. "If instead it
is 40 $2,500 awards, then it's im
portant that it be given an
honorific significance and a title
would help."
Board member Louis Perry add
ed that the new name might also
have political advantages.
"If the Legislature's name is
associated with it, I think continui
ty has a greater chance of being
achieved," Perry said.
Selection of the 1983-64 award
recipients will be announced after
Dec. 1.
The board also unanimously ap
proved the University's new
Center for Advanced Technology
in Education located in the former
Condon Elementary School. The
project will consolidate computer
oriented programs in the Depart
ment of Education and form a con
sortium of state agencies that will
use the center to study the pro
blems of utilizing computers and
technology in education.
"There are an awful lot of ques
tions that are left unanswered in
terms of what are the role of com
puters and technology in educa
tion," Education Dean Robert
Gilberts told the board. "This is
the first time in a long time I have
truly been excited about the pro
spects of making a difference."
Dexter Fletcher, CATE program
director, echoed Gilberts'
sentiments.
"I claim that it is unique na
tionally," Fletcher said. "By and
large, there aren't any centers of
research in this area."
The center will provide instruc
tion in the use of computers in
schools for both University educa
tion majors and practicing
teachers.
In other matters, the board an
nounced that total income from
gift, grant and contract sources
during 1982-83 amounted to more
than $114 million, a 7 percent in
crease from a year ago.
"The general downward trend
in the economy, which significant
ly affected gift and grant income
during the previous two years, ap
pears to have been reversed," the
board reported.