( World News
Explosions shatter
shaky peace in Belfast
BELFAST (AP) — Two bombs shattered a calm
in Northern Ireland Wednesday as the outlawed
Irish Republican Army debated possible peace
moves.
The bombs in Belfast, one of which was found and
intentionally detonated by troops, caused no
casualties. They came amid reports that William
Whitelaw, the British minister named overseer of
Northern Ireland, soon will order the release of 60
suspected guerrillas interned without trials.
The death toll from 32 months of communal
violence between Roman Catholics and Protestants
mounted to 294. Henry Miller, 79, died of injuries he
suffered last month in a bomb blast that killed six
other persons on Belfast’s Donegall Street.
IRA terrorists were blamed for a bomb explosion
Wednesday that set afire a youth employment office
in Belfast. Three armed men hurled the explosive
into the building as morning rush hour crowds filled
the streets, the British army said.
A second bomb rocked the city’s eastern quarter,
damaging structures. It was being detonated by
army experts who said they were unable to defuse
it.
The army also reported a small cache of arms
and ammunition was found buried in hospital
grounds off the Catholic Falls Road district of
Belfast.
There were indications that the IRA might be
considering a halt in its guerrila campaign, in
response to mounting public pressure. Many
Catholics have called on the IRA to cease hostilities
and give a fair chantv to the British peace plan,
which installed Whitelaw and ended a half century
of Protestant domination over the Catholic
minority. Following up moves by the IRA in Lon
donderry to sound out Catholic opinion on reducing
the violence, the movement’s Sinn Fein political
urm in Dublin said it also may contact “units in the
field" to obtain the feelings of Catholics.
Peace-seeking Catholic women in Belfast’s An
dersonstown district, shouted down by the IRA
earlier in the week, said they may meet in secret to
discuss ways of quelling the gunfire.
In Londonderry, the Rev. William McGaughey, a
local priest who serves 7,000 people in the Bogside
and Brandywell Catholic enclaves, said he sup
ported the suggested talks.
“The feeling here is that the people want the
British initiative to be given a chance,” he asserted.
“I would encourage . . . anything that would
promote an end to the violence.”
Dublin IRA chief of staff Sean MacStiofain
declared there would be no suspension of operations,
at present. But he said he would welcome a con
ference of “all interests”—including Protestants—
on the Northern Irish question.
In Belfast, sources in the Home Affairs Ministry
said Whitelaw could be expected to release the 60
suspected terrorists within three weeks. There are
among 700 men currently detained under the
province’s emergency detention rules.
One of the promises the British government made
in assuming rule of Northern Ireland was that the
practice would be phased out, providing no new
violence resulted. A senior ministry official boarded
a prison ship decked in Belfast to investigate the
complaints of 132 inmates on a hunger strike. The
inmates on the vessel, Maidstone, said they were
unjustly held and fed contaminated food.
It was reported the official found living conditions
reasonable and the food good but ordered increased
recreation time for the detainees.
Two Catholic parliamentarians also appealed for
a truce.
John Hume, Social Democratic Labor party
member of the provincial Parliament, urged the
IRA to end its campaign of terror but asked a
comparable de-escalation by the British army.
Gerry Fitt, party leader and legislator in the
London Parliament, said continued street battling
“can only bring tragedy and unhappiness.”
An Army spokesman announced that 600 extra
British troops dispatched to Northern Ireland to
reinforce security over a tense Easter weekend,
would return to England Friday. Their departure
will return British troop strength in the province to
14,500
News Roundup
From AP Reports
VANCOUVER, Wash—A violent wind spawned by-a
thunderstorm whipped through Vancouver Wednesday, and
seven persons were reported to have died as a result of the
storm. A spokesman at St. Joseph Hospital said at least a
dozen persons were in the intensive care unit of the
emergency room, indicating their injuries were serious. A
check of two Vancouver hospitals indicated as many as 125
persons may have been injured in the windstorm. The report
of seven deaths came from Dr. Arch Hamilton, Clark County
coroner. There was no immediate word on how the seven
died.
WASHINGTON--The President’s chief economic ad
viser, Herbert Stein, said Wednesday it would be foolhardy to
predict that present economic controls will succeed without
change. He said the Pay Board and Price Commission must
be ready to modify their policies if necessary to get inflation
down to the administration’s goal of a 2 or 3 per cent rate by
December. But at the same time Stein, chairman of the
President’s Council of Economic Advisers, said he remains
confident that the goal can be met. A Los Angeles Times
report said Wednesday that confidential studies found
commission policies would lead to an annual inflation rate of
3'/2 to 4 per cent.
SAN JOSE, Calif.—A prosecutor crippled by a bullet in
the Marin County courthouse shootout said publically for the
first time Wednesday that he shot four abductors, three of
whom died. In a voice quavering with emotion, Deputy Dist.
Atty. Gary Thomas, 34, testified from a wheelchair at the
Angela Davis trial about the Aug. 7,1970, shootout. Thomas,
34, recreated the scene in a van outside the courthouse as the
armed men tried to flee the San Rafael courthouse with
himself, a judge and ttoo jurors as hostages.
SAIGON—The North Vietnamese attack in the far north
has triggered “the decisive battle for the survival of the
country,” President Nguyen Van Thieu declared Wednesday.
He disclosed he had asked for Maximum U.S. air and naval
support. Thieu said the Nortth Vietnamese are trying to
capture South Vietnam’s two northern provinces to use as
bargaining pawns in a settlement of the war. In a 15-minute
radio and television speech that followed a two-day visit to
the northern battle zone, Thieu told the nation that the North
Vietnamese advance southward had been halted for the most
part and the enemy had suffered heavy casualties.
Jury deadlocked on conspiracy charges
Berrigan, nun convicted on smuggling counts
IIAKKISHUKti. Pa. (AP) —
Tht* Krv. Philip Berrigun and a
nun who irrvrd as his llrutrnanl
in thr anti-war movement wrrr
convicted Wednesday of
smuggling inters in and out of a
federal prison, but the Jury
deadlocked on chargn that they
conspired with five other
defendants to kidnap presidential
aide Henry Kissinger. The five
were freed by the Jury deadlock.
■‘These verdicts are yours and
yours alone, and you don't need to
justify them or explain them to
anybody.” US. District Court
Judge K Dixon Herman told the
nine women and three men as he
dismissed them after their week
long quest for a verdict that
ended with their split decision
“There will be many, many
people who disagree and there
will be just as many who agree.”
added Herman, a bald 61 -year
old jurist appointed to the bench
in 1969
At the heart of the govern
ment's case was the three
pronged conspiracy charge
accusing the “Harrisburg Seven”
of scheming to kidnap Kissinger,
blow up government heating
tunnels in Washington and
vandalize draft boards in several
Eastern cities
But t his w ent by the boards as a
result of the jiffy's verdict
Instead. Berrigan and his
assistant in thr Catholic anti war
left. Sister Elizabeth McAlister
were convicted of smuggling half
a dozen letters in and out of
Lewisburg, Pa., federal
penitentiary after the priest
entered in 1970 to begin a term he
still is serving.
The other five defendants were
not involved in the letter
smuggling, and thus not included
in any way whatsoever in the
verdict. It was returned at 4:09
p.m.
The five defendants on whom
the jury could not agree were
Kqbal Ahmad, 41; the Rev. Neil
McLaughlin, 31; the Rev. Joseph
Wenderoth, 36; Anthony
Scoblick. 31 and his wife, Mary
Cain Scoblick, 33.
Ahmad, the only non-Catholic
among the group, is a Pakistani
Musiem associated with the Adlai
Stevenson Institute of In
ternational Affairs in Chicago.
McLaughlin and Wenderoth are
Roman Catholic priests, Scoblick
is a former Josephite priest and
his wife is a former nun.
The defendants had smiled and
embraced in the locked court
room in advance of the jury's
entry, as word ot a possible
deadlock spread
With the announcement that
the jury had deadlocked on five of
the defendants but convicted
Berrtgan and Sister Elisabeth the
air of relief vanished Neither the
convicted pnest nor the nun
displayed any emotion, however
The jury had convicted
Rerrtgan on Easter Sunday on a
single count of smuggling a letter
out of the Lewisburg, Pa., federal
penitentiary on May 24. 1970
His emissary at the time was a
fellow convict, Boyd Douglas Jr.,
who a week later became an FBI
informant against the priest.
Douglas, 31, was a star
government witness at the trial,
which revolved also around an
exchange of 24 letters in all
between Berrigan and Sister
Elizabeth.
The defense characterized
Douglas as an agent provocateur,
saying of his connection with the
peace movement:
"He infiltrated, he activized, he
betrayed.”
Lynch, however, said in reply
that the defense "hacked at him
but they never were able to
change his testimony.”
The Sunday conviction made
Berrigan liable to 10 years in
prison The three smuggling
counts added by the jury Wed
nesday carry an additional 30
years
Currently the priest is serving
a six-year federal prison sen
tence for destroying draft
records in Maryland in a case
unrelated to the trial.
Sister Elizabeth. 32, a S-foot-7
brunette, who was suspended
with pay as an art history in
structor at the Marymount
College in Tarrytown. N.Y., faces
10 years on each of the three
smuggling convictions.
The trial began Jan 24 in a
ninth floor courtroom of
Harrisburg's downtown federal
building
Four weeks were required to
pick a jury and six alternates and
it was not until Feb. 21 that the
actual proceedings got un
derway.
The government presented 64
witnesses before resting March
23, with Douglas the most im
portant of the 64.
The defense surprised the
prosecution and the court on
March 24 when it rested its case
without calling a single witness.
The defendants later an
nounced that this decision was
their own, agreed to by a four-to
three vote among themselves.
The saga of the Harrisburg
Seven began quietly in federal
courtrooms where the sentences
totaling six years were handed to
Berrigan for destroying draft
board records in Baltimore in
1967 and Catonsville, Md , the
following year.
Appeals failed. Berrigan tried
to elude prison by going into
hiding, but the FBI caught up
with him in less than three weeks.
On May 1, 1970, he entered
Lewisburg penitentiary.
aiting for the 48-year-old
priest that spring day was
Douglas. 31. nearing the end of a
five-year term for bank fraud and
armed assault on a federal agent.
Douglas was free to leave the
penitentiary daily for a study
release program at Bucknell—
the only one of 1.800 Lewisburg
convicts so favored at the time.
Was Douglas' entry into the
Bucknell program a convenient
arrangement by forward-looking
government agents anticipating
Berrigan’s arrival? The defense
asked. “It was my own idea,”
Douglas replied.
“I asked Philip Berrigan if
there was anything I could do for
him, the informer said. “I said I
thought I could get a letter out for
him if that’s what he wanted.”
From the outset, Douglas made
copies of letters Berrigan ex
changed with Sister Elizabeth
24 in all, including two dealing
with the proposal to kidnap
Kissinger. These copies ended up
in the hands of the FBI.
Douglas claimed he turned
informer in early 1970 when
confronted with an in
criminating letter discovered in
Berrigan’s cell. The defense
called the motive greed.
In the year following his Dec.
16, 1970, parole from Lewisburg,
Douglas received $9,200 from the
FBI for expenses and services.
He had asked for a “reward” of a
tax-free $50,000 for his continued
service as an informer. He said
he was turned down.
On Nov. 27, 1970, FBI director
J. Edgar Hoover—seeking ad
ditional funds for the bureau
revealed what he described as a
plot to blow up the Washington
tunnel system and kidnap an as
yet unidentified high government
official.
From that point on. the defense
claimed, the FBI went ail out to
produce evidence that would
support the Hoover charges
through an indictment.