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ee ee, ee wasn oil} 1-, wou 7 ! | ayqnd sey oy _adoad 0} But -o1 Ul ‘Suuinp -- fay} 1 -ns st -183U j $,JOWE ae cee 0 ere ten poyoad * j * siy Ao . $,JUSp! SYooM 497118) uoisua ~ ; 139724 : “3 3} . * yad cz ‘uoljer ay) jo 4 =. 5 8 2 3 na * > we SE cae ye a1) — ny ors Syren pee oe ee pe eee eye Foe = ee _ Bob Wiedrich Wiedrich Giving " a rotten deal sions can change the minds of ehkiens concerned about the propriety of methods used to combat domestic subversion. In periods of detente with Moscow, ‘ous * Federal Bureau of Investigation agents ‘ charged with maintaining national secur- a8 = considered civil rights-viola' ting eu when the Russian bear _ -across the borders of Afghanistan ‘and thrusts his paws toward the Persian Gulf, _ the same politicians holler for the cops to i Protect their. precious security at all, ome —s is disgusting. However, the price paid by the victims of such ; political vascillation is tragic. . Nearly three years ago, for example, : the Carter administration’s Justice De- : partment obtained the federal grand jury ‘ indictment of former Acting FBI Director The Justice Department is persisting in invoking posi-Watergate morality retroactively to the revolutionary 1960s, when terrorists were | blowing up buildings. © le RO nine teeta me a L. Patrick Gray; W. Mark Felt, former associate director, and Edward S. Miller, onetime assistant director for domestic . intelligence. The three were charged with having conspired to violate civil rights by or- { dering illegal break-ins in the hunt for i fugitive members of the terrorist, radical * Weatherman Underground organization. THE GOVERNMENT alleged the three * officials had been overzealous in FBI . efforts to track down those believed re- sponsible for.the 1971 bombing of the capitol, among other violent acts. And since the indictments, the Carter adininistration and the Justice Department have steadfastly refused to dismiss the . charges, even though the defendants con- tend they were operating with the author- ity of the President of the United States. In the course of their ordeal, about $900,000 in legal fees have been accumu- Jated by the 130 past and present FBI agents Tovetoad in the Justice Depart- ment witch hunt. Former FBI Supervisor John alone rolled up $158,000 in attorney’s fees before former Atty. Gen. Griffin Bell dropped charges that Kearney had vio~ Jated civil‘ rights by directing subordi- . nates to make surreptitious entries of . manates terrorist groups and read their And thus far, Miller and Felt face legal fees of nearly $200,000, a figure certain to -climb even higher after their trial opens “March 17 in Washington. ° Clearly, these men have paid a high Price for defending their country ae foreign subversion. AND BEFORE THE case is ever, ‘the, price to American taxpayers may Ll oven more staggering. FIL D2. 2s <h FBI a ment is persisting in invoking poste ~~ Watergate morality to the , blowing up buildings in tn thelr efforts to orts violently“ overthrow the United ‘ government. Tncredibly, the vendette goes on‘ even as the Carter administration has done a camplete wy rece a — pre- paring to ngress to create a secret court with power to authorize break-ins and mail openings by government agents. That is where the hypocrisy comes in, because the proposal is being made as part of a comprehensive intelligence “\ agency charter by the same Carter ad- ~~ ministration that Indicted the FBI agents re for conducting the same kind of opera- he wants FBI agents to go on doing what they always did because their country needs them to protect it. He is recognizing the need for mail openings, pomonag en Pepi en- safeguard tio ton, just op aid virtually le the nation, as y a of his predecessors at the White But, be is refusing to instruct his Jos tice Department to drop the against Gray, Felt, and Miller lonies the operations'they are accused of having ordered not conducted under his SCANDALOUS neve arent . officials to bribery and the prod of Investigation to egg pore ; which they can be p : debate. _ The issue to which most atted} media is the lawfulness of present legal situation may aad “ty which — people ' poo!” have repeated & divided votes -in the United Ste #: is that law officers may offer ty” to commit crimes but ™ ment, or any other tactics law-abiding person to engage! & , oe that a succession of eo Presidents end their attorneys gen- eral knew that such pe now deemed illegal were being carried out. He is conveniently overlooking the files documenting information that Presidents practiced the doctrine of plausible denia- An offer by an undercover Doge * bility to avoid getting blamed themselves other contraband is regardeths for os they authorized that might later potential seller with an opportaez: oned. offer is accompanied by a tend And he is unconecionably ignoring the defense even that the gove ingredients to a suspect he : 5s them ini the manufacture . THESE GOOD AND decent men — themselves to defending sock Grey, 80 bate Felt — have suffered — promoting the comm enough. So have Agent Kearney and the altogether. persuasive sin others who endured public shame before { reasonably see themselves The suspect, they reason, ¥® 3 to someone else, if not to the ; ence, in their view, is that testify against the seller, what is sometimes mislabel A second criticism of exist does not confine entrapmes