Should guns be restricted?
Viewpoint, page 4
Lights, camera, action
Edward Slegal / Dally Tro|an
USC football greats, such as Marcus Allen (top right), Anthony Davis and Charles White, returned to campus Monday to film the CBS movie ‘Triumph of the Heart: The Ricky Bell Story,’ about the former Trojan running back who died of a skin and muscle disease In 1984. See story, page 12.
Volume CXIV, Number 13	University of Southern California	Tuesday, January 29,1990
Student shot during robbery
Bullet pierced victim’s hand, lodged in leg
By Ben Martin
Assistant City Editor
An armed robber shot a university student Wednesday night as the student and a friend were in the drive-through lane of Jack-in-the-Box at 2511 Vermont Ave., police said.
Christopher St. John, an undeclared sophomore, and Michael Orseck, a sophomore majoring in biomedical engineering, were approached by two men on the passenger side of the car at 9:30 p.m., said Det. Dave Barber of the Los Angeles Police Department.
One of the men demanded money from the students, Barber said. When they refused, one of the assailants shot St. John through the hand with a .22 automatic handgun, and the bullet lodged in his right thigh, according to the police report.
After that, Orseck turned over
$20 and both assailants ran away, Barber said.
The students contacted LAPD and the paramedics, according to the police report, and St. John was taken to County-USC Medical Center for treatment. St. John was held only overnight at the hospital, and doctors left the bullet in his leg, he said.
The armed robbery was one of two involving university students since last Wednesday, according to University Security.
"We were just at Jack-in-the-Box on Vermont and these two guys came up and said, 'Give us your money,' " St. John said in an interview Monday. "We didn't cooperate and one guy shot me."
"I was cursing him out," he said. "I was telling him to go f~ k himself, among a whole lot of other things."
"Then we gave him the money and took out of there," St. John said.
(See Shooting, page 6)
Students robbed after party Saturday night/ 3
‘Vogue’ win for Madonna
Life / Arts, page 9
Black wins big tourney
Sports, page 20
trojan
U.S. policy once supported Saddam
By Oscar C. Villalon
Staff Writer
Before President George Bush sent troops to the Persian Gulf and launched a no-compromise policy that has escalated into war, the United States had dealings with Saddam Hussein that opposed him and then supported him as the central Middle Eastern power, according to a recent article in Harper's Magazine.
These covert American activities during the 1970s and '80s may be largely responsible for the series of events that sparked war in the Middle East, says author Christopher Hitchens.
In 1972, the United States and Iran,
News Analysis
then an American ally, decided to support a Kurdish opposition in Iraq to destabilize the nation, Hitchens said.
The Kurds are an ethnic group in northern Iraq that have been trying to achieve independence from Iraq since the 1960s.
"We tried to make Iran the police of the Gulf," said Richard Dekmejian, a university political science professor and Middle East expert, after reading the article and weighing its merits. "As Iraq was getting
stronger, in order to keep them in check, we gave aid to the Kurds to get an insurrection going."
This aid was suddenly cut off as a result of the Algerian Agreement of 1975 when Iraq agreed to give Iran the Shatt al-Arab, the river formed by the joining of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, enlarging Iran's border with Iraq, he said.
The Shah of Iran fell from power in
1979	and the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, who had been in exile in Iraq, took the Shah's place.
"By December 1980, it was decided the Khomeini revolution had to be stopped, (See Analysis, page 13)
Can you spare a dime?
Congress may increase low-income student funding
By Holly Ziemer
Staff Writer
The Bush administration's proposed fiscal 1992 budget is expected to include several provisions affecting federal student loan and grant programs. The budget will be submitted to Congress Feb. 3.
James Tilton, assistant director of processing in the Financial Aid Office, said the number of students receiving Pell Grants should remain the same, but the maximum award would increase from the current $2,300 to $2,400.
"The Pell Grant program was initiated to help low-income students and over the years we have seen a change in focus," Tilton said. "I think we are seeing a reaffirmation of the original intent."
A spokesperson for the university's Office of Budget and Planning refused to comment on the proposed budget until it it released Feb. 4.
The Wall Street Journal reported the proposals are meant to target low-income students and prevent for-profit schools from benefitting from the loans. The Journal said low-income
students would get more aid in the form of grants, and students with less need would get more aid through loans.
Tilton said he does not forsee any significant changes affecting student loan programs in the administration's proposed budget.
Karen Thomas, financial aid director, said changes in the loan program would be regulatory in response to the large number of defaulted loans.
"Most of the changes are because loans turn out to be very expensive," (See Loans, page 14)
Iraq’s tactics no surprise to students
University students said they were not surprised by a Cable News Network interview with Saddam Hussein on Monday quoting the Iraqi leader as saying he is capable of launching weapons with chemical warheads attached and would do so if necessary.
CNN correspondent Peter Arnett conducted a 90-minute, one-on-one interview with Saddam at an undisclosed location Monday.
Arnett quoted Saddam as saying Iraq was indeed capable of launching chemical warheads, despite questions raised by experts since the start of the war. On the subject of chemical warfare, Saddam also said Iraq would use weapons equitable to those used against Iraq by allied forces, according to the report.
(See War, page 3)