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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1973)
Senate select committee to investigate Watergate WASHINGTON UPI — Sen. Sam Ervin Jr., D N.C. proposed Monday that a five-member Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Ac tivities be appointed to investigate the Watergate bugging case and charges of White House-led sabotage during the 1972 campaign. Ervin has been named by Senate Democrats to head the investigation of the break-in at Democratic National Headquarters last June 17. Two men pleaded guilty to the break-in and five others were found guilty by a jury last Tuesday, but the trial did not satisfy Democrats who complained that it never disclosed who the top-level Republicans were who ordered the alleged political espionage. Ina 7Vz page resolution outlining the in vestigation’s ground rules and boundaries, Ervin proposed that the committee be composed of three Democrats and two Republicans. The resolutions would specifically direct the committee to investigate the “the breaking, al tering, and bugging of the headquarters or offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Building in Washington, D.C.” It also would direct the committee to determine whether there were “any efforts to disrupt, hinder, impede a* sabotage in any way any campaign, canvass, or activity conducted by or in behalf of any person” seeking the Democratic presidential nomination last year. The resolution would instruct the panel to determine whether Watergate defendants who pleaded guilty in the bugging trials were “induced by bribery, coercion, threats, or any other means whatsoever to plead guilty.” The Ervin committee would be given full sub poena powers to summon White House officials and any others named a* implicated in the bugging case. During the 1972 campaign there were charges throughout the Democratic presidential primaries, White House officials directed attempts to spy on and sabotage the campaigns of Democratic con tenders, including Sens. Edmund Muskie of Maine and Henry Jackson of Washington. Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield said the resolution probably would not be brought up for a Senate vote until Tuesday. Ervin told reporters it was “my intention to conduct the inquiry in a trial manner...just like a judge.” He said he did not think “it would be possible to start any public hearings for a couple of months.” Conceding that the recent Watergate trials of seven defendants had not uncovered any sub stantially new information, Ervin said the Senate committee would not be “subject to a lot of the limitations that a court of law is.” Ervin, selected by his colleagues to head the investigation because of his reputation as a Judicial and Constitutional expel, said he rejected the idea of turning over the inquiry to a full Senate standing committee because there would be too many members asking “too many questions.” Ervin said that what the committee uncovers depends “on how much cooperation we can get out of the Department of Justice.” The resolution said the Select panel would determine the need for new congressional legislation “to safeguard the electoral process by which the President of the United States is chosen.” It would instruct the committee to make known its findings and recommendations “at the earliest practicable date, but no later than Feb. 28. 1974.” Senate Republican Leader Hugh Scott said the Watergate episode had been subject “to a wealth of rumors and a poverty of truth” and he hoped the Senate inquiry would “be removed from the political sphere.. .and treated as a purely non partisan investigation.” Can’t be spent properly says White House $8.7 billion more impounded WASHINGTON (UPI) — Amid growing threats of retaliation from the legislative branch, President Nixon formally notified Congress Monday be is withholding a total of $8.7 billion in appropriated funds on grounds it could not be properly spent just now. The amount is in addition to $6 billion in water pollution control funds which the White House announced earlier the President would not spend. The President’s formal report to Congress, undo* the Federal Impoundment Information Act, came as his top economic ad visers appeared before the House Appropriations Committee to defend Nixon’s $268.7 billion budget for the next fiscal year. Instead, the administration officials for the most part found themselves under attack by committee members for the impoundment of funds already approved by Congress. Nixon’s report showed the bulk of the money bong withheld had been earmarked by Congress for the Departments of Defense, Transportation and Agriculture. At the appropriations com mittee hearing, Rep. Jamie Whitten, D-Miss., raised the retaliation threat during the appearance before the panel of Treasury Secretary George Shultz, budget Director Roy Ash and Chairman Herbert Stein of the Council of Economic Ad visers. Whitten and Committee Chairman George Mahon, D Tex., led the attack, accusing Nixon of violating the Con stitution. Mahon said the ad ministration was taking a “papa knows best” attitude toward Congress. “You’re treading on the most dangerous ice I know of when you invite retaliation,” said Whitten, who is second-ranking Democrat on the committee and co chairman of a House-Senate budget committee looking for solutions to the conflict. “The most serious threat I see to our government is for one branch to say, ‘the king knows best,’ ” Whitten said. “I think it “the sling chair" $425° on sale iMtHti 11 mb. - 4 p.a. a limited quantity in stock F IJ li X I V U R IS | FORMS. L T D. \ invites retaliation. It invites a breakdown of our form of government.” Mahon added, “What’s bothering this committee is that you seem to think that if Congress enacts a law and you don’t agree with it, you don’t have to obey it.” Shultz, Ash and Stein generally sat quietly through the two-hour attack, occasionally assuring the congressmen that the President wanted to cooperate with Congress. “I can’t conceive that the American people are for inflation and higher taxes,” Shultz said in justifying the President’s im poundments. Shultz and Ash said Nixon had the legal right to impound funds, but any formal opinion on legality would have to come from the attorney general. Shultz said the spiral in con sumer prices will slow and unemployment will drop if Congress hews to Nixon’s budget — but if it does not, inflation will soar and Americans will be hit with more taxes. | UPI Roundup j Corona denied new trial FAIRFIELD, CaUf. — Juan Corona was denied a new trial Monday and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 25 itinerant farm workers. Superior Court Judge Richard Patton ordered Corona to serve the 25 life sentences “consecutively and not concurrently.” The judge turned down the motion for a new trial despite a sheriff matron’s j admission that she discussed the case with a juror before the panel returned its guilty verdict. He also rejected defense ; attorney Richard Hawk’s argument that the prosecutor £ improperly referred to Corona’s failure to take the stand { during his closing argument. j \ Last U.S, war casualty buried ARLINGTON, Va. — Col. William Nolde, the last American killed before the Vietnam cease-fire, was buried j with full military honors Monday at Arlington National | Cemetery. An Army chaplain said he represented all men who served in the Indochina war. Nolde, 43, a career officer killed at An Loc just 11 hours before the cease-fire, was buried with full military honors in one of the few remaining graves at Arlington. His widow, Joye, 42, their five children and some 200 other relatives and friends attended a brief funeral mass at the Ft. Myer, Va., chapel and followed the casket to the grave. I Stennis shows improvment WASHINGTON—Sen. John Stennis, D-Miss., “continues to show improvement” from two bullet wounds suffered in a holdup last week but remains in “very serious condition,” his doctors reported Monday. The latest medical bulletin was issued by Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where the 71 | year-old senator has been under treatment since the shooting in front of his Washington home last Tuesday evening. Irish premier dissolves parliament \ DUBLIN — Irish Premier Jack Lynch Monday dissolved j parliament and called general elections for Feb. 28 in a ; surprise political move. He made it clear the deteriorating ] situation in Northern Ireland was a major factor in his ac tion. Lynch said the Irish Republic faced a period crucial to its future and the government must have a clear mandate from the electorate. He said the new government would have to assess the proposed British White Paper on a Northern Ireland political solution and “will need the unequivocal support of the people to deal firmly with the new situation as it develops.” Lynch’s parliamentary position had been steadily weakened since the last general election on June 19, 1969, when his ruling Fianna Fail party was returned with an overall majority in the 144-seat Dail Parliament. U.S. military bases to stay in Thailand SINGAPORE UPI — Vice President Spiro Agnew told Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew Monday the Nixon administration agreed with Lee that American military bases should remain in Thailand to prevent the possible spread of Communism to Asia, a high-level Singapore source said. “There will be new approaches but toward the same ends,” the source reported Agnew as saying. He said Agnew phrased future U.S. policy “within the terms of the Nixon doctrine” which calls for greater self-reliance on the part of the Asian countries for their secruity. In meetings that lasted more than four hours, Singapore officiate present said Agnew and Lee found “no substantial divergence” be tween the official U.S. view and that of Lee that Thailand should serve as a buffer against post-war Communist expansion, the source said. Lee has said repeatedly Thailand should remain armed and that U S. bases should stay to deter Communist efforts to extend control and influence toward Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. The Singapore leader is an ardent anticommunist Lee has said Communist attempts at expansion are not likely to lessen as a result of an end to the Indochina fighting. In Phnom Penh, Camboia, sources said Agnew put “strong pressure” on President Lon Nol last week to broaden Nol’s political base. The sources said Agnew encouraged the Cumhwiian of state to include opposition politicians in his government. The Singapore source said Agnew and Lee were in basic agreement on ways to guard against the spread of Communist in fluence. He said they discussed in general terms “how to implement” plans for the security of the region. U.S. Embassy and Agnew staff officials refused to comment on the meeting. Agnew is on tour of Southeast Asia to assure American allies of post-Vietnam American support. His next scheduled stop is In donesia.
