Oregon daily emerald., June 27, 1973, Page 8, Image 8

UPI Roundup
Nixon expected to act on anti-bomb bill
WASHINGTON — Legislation to cut off funds for the
bombing of Cambodia cleared Congress and was sent to
President Nixon Tuesday as the House solidly rejected last
ditch efforts to give the administration more time in In
dochina. The measure, barring the use of appropriated funds
for U.S. military action “in, over or from off the shores of”
Cambodia or Laos, won final approval in the Senate 81 to 11
and was dispatched to the White House. Senate leaders said
they had assurances Nixon would decide this week whether
to sign or veto it, eliminating the chance of a pocket veto
while Congress is in a week’s recess for Independence Day.
Minutes after the Senate’s action, the House voted 218 to 194
to write the same provision into a “veto proof” resolution to
provide funds for all federal agencies when the new fiscal
year begins July 1. Rep. George Mahon (D-Tex.) chairman of
the House Appropriations Committee, delivered an
emotionally-charged speech urging his colleagues not to
“slap him (the President) in the face in the presence of the
entire world.” But Mahon was defeated 232-131 on approval
to delay until Sept. 1 the effective date for cutting off funds.
The continuing resolution now. goes to the Senate, which is
expected readily to adopt the antiwar restriction. The con
tinuing resolution is a device to permit the government to
stay in business after July 1 until regular appropriations bills
are enacted.
Prisons don ’t work, House panel finds
WASHINGTON — The House Crime Committee reported
Tuesday that Americans pay $1.5 billion a year on prison
systems, which fail to rehabilitate two of every three in
mates. “After a century of prison reform,” the committee
said, “our country has a penal system that is a dismal
failure.” The committee recommended instructional aid in
all prisons to help inmates prepare themselves for better jobs
after release. It also proposed a national prison ombudsman
to respond to prisoner grievances, state ombudsmen, and
unified state corrections departments. In fiscal 1971, the
report said, $1.5 billion was spent to keep 400,000 prisoners in
federal, state and local prisons. “And in return for their
money the taxpayers are the victims of more and more
felonies—80 per cent of which are committed by former of
fenders.” The report on correctional institutions said the FBI
estimates two of every three offenders released from prison
are re-arrested within four years. In reference to the recent
increase in prison disorders, the committee recommended
that the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration cut off
federal funds to states which fail to show “that every prison
and correctional facility has an up-to-date riot and disorder
control plan.”
FBI confirmation expected today
WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee
Tuesday approved Clarence M. Kelley to be FBI director. He
would be the first permanent director since the death of J.
Edgar Hoover more than a year ago. Full Senate en
dorsement was expected Wednesday. Committee sources
said the Kansas City, Mo., police chief, who spent 21 years as
an FBI agent, was approved unanimously at a closed session.
Kelley promised the senators that any intelligence-gathering
he undertakes will not violate the constitutional rights of
individuals. He favored an oversight committee, recom
mended tenure for a director of about nine years, and
questioned the economics of removing the FBI as Justice’s
law enforcement branch.
OEO head resigns
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — President Nixon accepted
the resignation of Howard Phillips as acting director of the
Office of Economic Opportunity Tuesday and nominated
another official of the antipoverty agency, Alvin Arnett, to
take charge. Nixon’s actions were announced here shortly
after Phillips disclosed in Washington that he was quitting,
effective Saturday. Both Phillips and a presidential
spokesman made clear that the administration would
proceed with plans to dismantle OEO, despite objections by a
federal judge and members of Congress.
US loses on whale issue
LONDON — The United States today lost its battle to ban
all catching and killing of whales for commercial purposes.
The Technical Committee of the 14-nation International
Whaling Commission approved the American proposal but it
was voted down, 8-5 (with one abstention), by the full
Commission.
Why let wind (well or ill) go to waste ?
NEW YORK — A scientist says wind carries enough
energy to provide half the country’s electrical power. He is
examining the possibility of building 100,000 windmills to
make use of that energy. Frank Ron of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration facility in Cleveland
said in an interview printed in the June issue of Intellectual
Digest, “What we’re doing now is designing windmills—or
wind generators—that are efficient and operate at low cost.
We plan to construct some for trial.” When the wind is not
blowing, he said power would have to be supplied by con
ventional means.
Viet cease-fire truer this time
(C) 1973, The Los Angeles Times
Saigon — A sharply declining
level of violence in South Viet
nam has led some ranking
American officials to believe that
what is called “cease-fire two” is
working.
It is the official hope that a
period of “relative tranquility”
will now last at least for five
more months through the period
of monsoon rains.
October is the traditional
beginning of the annual “in
filtration cycle” from North
Vietnam.
“That is when we may get
some idea of Hanoi’s new in
tentions in the South,” one expert
said.
While generally hopeful that
the restated cease-fire negotiated
in Paris by presidential adviser
Henry Kissinger was taking hold
more than its predecessor, of
ficials openly admit that some
trouble spots remain.
It is hoped that these will be
localized and will subside. The
two most ominous areas are in
the deep Mekong Delta province
of Chuong Thien and in the
central highland area between
the provincial capital of Kontum
and the Laos border.
American observers consider it
significant, however, that these
two locations are virtually the
only visible flash-points at
present.
Even the questionable South
Vietnamese reports of overall
cease-fire violations — which
include many virtually in
significant happenings — show a
sharp drop. The South Viet
namese command says that such
incidents now being reported are
running at a rate only half as high
as those following the original
cease-fire agreement last
January.
The South Vietnamese claim
that no tactical air strikes have
been launched since the new
cease-fire went into effect and
Court upholds Hatch Act,
okays use of food stamps
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The
1939 Hatch Act, which prohibits
political activity by federal
employees, was upheld by the
Supreme Court Monday on
grounds it does not discriminate
on any particular point of view.
The American Civil Liberties
Union, which initiated the test
case on behalf of the National
Association of Letter Carriers
(AFL-CIO), six employees and
six local political committees
challenged the constitutionality
of the language of the law.
“The restrictions so far im
posed on federal employees are
not aimed at particular groups or
points of view, but apply equally
to all partisan activities of the
type described,” Justice Byron
White said in the majority
opinion.
Before ending its 1972-73 term
and adjourning until September,
the Court also:
— Unanimously struck down as
unconstitutional a Mississippi
state program of providing free
textbooks to private academies
created to avoid integration
orders.
— Declared college students
and members of communes are
eligible for federal food stamps
despite actions by Congress in
1971 to exclude them.
— Struck down New York and
Connecticut statutes limiting the
rights of aliens.
that artillery fire is also way
down.
“There is still a good bit of
elbowing around out in the
country-side,” one official said,
“but both sides seem to be
making a relatively sincere effort
this time.”
Officials also said that cap
tured documents and intercepted
radio messages indicated that all
major communist troop units had
received more or less strict or
ders from Hanoi to stop shooting.
Such orders evidently left local
commanders with a great deal of
latitude, officials said, and
consequently localized incidents
would probably be common. On
the other hand, Hanoi has
evidently made sure that no local
commander would have the
authority to launch anything of
significant size — at least for the
moment.
Cutoff of opium
from Turkey mars
medical practices
NEW YORK (UPI) — The
federal government’s effort to
fight heroin addiction by paying
Turkish farmers not to grow
opium poppies has helped create
a shortage of the pain-killers
morphine and codeine in the
United States, says an American
Medical Association report.
The draft report, to be voted on
during the AMA’s convention this
week, said if an adequate supply
of opium is not restored, the
shortage “will lead in the near
future to the unavailability of
drugs essential to good patient
care.” Morphine, codeine and
heroin are derived from opium.
It urged the government to
“take all measures necessary in
the present emergency and in
future years to insure that an
ample supply of opium and its
derivatives are made available to
the medical profession.”
It’s his word against Nixon’s, says Dean
WASHINGTON (UPI) - John Dean III testified
Tuesday that President Nixon has known about the
Watergate cover-up scheme for nine months and did
not tell the truth this spring in disavowing any in
volvement in the scandal.
The charges were the most serious yet in the
former White House counsel’s two full days of
testimony before the Senate Watergate committee
and a nationwide television audience.
“The truth will win out some day,” Dean said as
he neared 12 hours at the witness table. He will
continue testifying today.
Sen. Joseph Montoya (D-N.M.) led Dean step by
step through Nixon’s words at press conferences
and in statements in March, April and May.
Montoya quoted Nixon’s April 17 statement that
“I condemn any attempts to cover up this case, no
matter who is involved,” and then asked Dean, “Do
you think he was telling the truth?”
Dean paused, then said, “No, sir.”
His voice hoarse but unemotional, Dean
testified that the White House used perjury, payoffs
and power to shield high-level officials from justice.
“I was participating in the cover-up at the
time,” he said when asked why he didn’t alert Nixon
to shady activities by the White House staff.
“I was hopeful the President himself would step
forward and tell of his involvement in some of these
things,” he answered when asked why he waited
until April this year to tell authorities everything he
knew.
Samuel Dash, the committee’s chief counsel,
ticked off the key points Dean made Monday about
Nixon’s alleged involvement in the scandal:
— That Nixon approved giving assurances of
executive clemency to Watergate conspirator E.
Howard Hunt Jr.
— That Nixon shrugged off Dean’s admission of
culpability in obstruction of justice.
— That Nixon told Dean there would be “no
problem” in paying the conspirators as much as $1
million to keep quiet and sat in on a discussion of
“laundering money and secret drops.”
— That Nixon ‘ ‘took no affirmative action to end
the cover-up” after Dean told him all about it March
21 this year and about the criminal involvement of
key Nixon aides.
— That Nixon made “specific plans” to hamper
the Senate’s Watergate inquiry and sought to pin the
blame for the scandal on former Attorney General
John Mitchell.
— That Nixon fired Dean as White House
counsel April 30 after Dean began cooperating with
authorities and implicated key Nixon aides
Haldeman and John Ehrlichman.
“Is that a fair summary ... in view of your long
statement of the meetings you had with the
President and the information you had with him?”
Dash asked.
“Yes, sir, it is,” Dean replied firmly.
He denied he was implicating the President in
an effort to gain immunity from prosecution. And
when Sen. Herman Talmadge (D-Ga.) asked why
people should believe the Dean story rather than
Nixon’s denial of involvement, he replied:
“Well, Senator, I have been asked to come up
here and tell the truth. I’ve told it exactly the way I
know it . . . You’re asking me a public relations
question, really, in a sense, why I would have
greater credibility than the President of the United
States — I’m telling you what I know. I’m telling it
just as I know it.”
Dean has been granted immunity from
prosecution for what he tells the Senate committee.
But federal prosecutors have refused to promise
him he will not be prosecuted at all, and Dean is
known to be a target of the Watergate grand jury
that is expected to hand down several more in
dictments within a few weeks.
Nixon is in California. The Western White
House said Monday there would be no comment on
Dean’s testimony.
One man who could corroborate parts of it —
Mitchell, Nixon’s campaign manager until two
weeks after the Watergate arrests — was due to
follow Dean as a witness on Thursday and was
scheduled to be intereviewed by the committee staff
Tuesday night.
He, too, has denied any involvement in the
Watergate bugging or its subsequent coverup —
though friends report him “shaken and angry” by
recent developments.