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HillLeaders House Ethics Panel Called. Voice Shock, To Look at'Sting' Claims Continued From A-1 :Concern The undercover operation had-- investigation" will be conducted to ben under way since,mid-19/8:It find the source of leaks that appar- eyqived from an investigation.by.the ently forced the FBI to cut short the Brooklyn unit of the Justice Depart. .By, Allan Frank investigation. ment's Organized, Crime Task Force. Washiagton'star Staff Writer Robert M. Smith, a special assist- of organized crime involvement in Ethics:committees in both houses ant to Attorney General Benjamin R. the sale of stolen securities'and 'art. of Congress today pledged investiga. Civiletti, said the probe will be Sources said an informant then led .tions of reports that.seven House. aimed at finding out "whether investigators to intermediaries'who' members'and a senator were snared deliberate disclosures have been said they knew some politicians who in.an FBI Sting" operation, while made by federal employees" about were willing to help illegal.aliens ' congresional leaders voiced their the existence of the undercover Sstay: in the United States in return. .:.shock and:expressed fear for the operation, which involved national for payoffs. +. -image'of Congress. and local-politicians and business- The leading actor in the,FBI. *The House ethics committee was men here and in Pennsylvania, New called into a.emergency session to Jersey, New York and Florida. Sheik Kambir Abdul:Rahman,who. consider the.new allegatigns, while The investigation of the leaks to claimed to be a 40-year-old-Lebanese 'the'chairman of the Senate ethics in-control of millions of dollars-in. committee annouinced his .intention triggered by news reports yesterday oil transportation money from;the. to inyestigate the matter. United Arab Emirates and else- and late Saturday about the FBI The House ethics chairman, Rep. undercover operation, code-named where. Charles E. Bennett, D-FIa., said the Abscam. The name stands for Arab That agent met many of those who. panel has "for several months" been Scam, an operation in which agents were allegedly videotaped discuss: investigating allegations about deals posing as Arab sheiks are said to ing or accepting bribes of as muchfas. to help aliens gain residence in the have paid bribes totaling ss00,o0o to s50,ooo. Other agents, also posingas United States.. $700,oo0 to various officials. sheiks working for Rahman's He said those allegations involved After the revelation of the Abscam company, Abdul Enterprises Ltd., several congressmen whose names "are said to have met in variousloca-- now have come up in the FBI investi. operation yesterday, one law en- tions with some of the 30-persons' forcement source said it is possible a gation reyealed in newspapers over leak -- not to a newsman -- caused said to be under investigation. - the weekend. some of those under surveillance to Among those named as having. Bennett.said his committee would become suspicious. been targets of the FBI investigation' widen its;probe, begun as a spinoff Assistant Attorney General Philip are: of the committee's investigation of B. Heymann, head of the Justice De- . Senate Labor Committee Chair: alleged illegal payoffs by South man Harrison A. williams Jr., D.N.J. partment's criminal division, de- Korea to congressmen. clined to comment about the reasons - House Merchant Marine and Fish- At a news conference this morn- eries Committee Chairman John'M: for the termination of the FBI opera- ing, House Speaker Thomas P. O. Murphy, D-N.Y. Neill said that he expected the ethics tion. While specifically denying that : House Administration Committee committee investigation to move Chairman Frank Thompson Jr;, D-. any of the members of Congress. Swiftly and that he would not inter- were found to have ties to organized N.J. fere with it. : House ethics committee member crime, several sources said that dis- John P. Murtha Jr., D-Pa..- . licity so far.creates a new-public the safety of the undercover agents Reps. Michael (Ozzie) Myers,and. relations'problem for the House. and informants. Raymond F. Lederer, both Pennsy!: "Theinstitution has been hurt by it. The news stories also are certain vania Democrats: Naturally I feel hurt,"he said. Rep. John W. Jenrette Jr., D,S.C., Sen. Howell Heflin, D-Ala., chair. to fuel allegations that the govern- ; ment engaged in improper conduct, and Rep. Richard Kelly, R-Fla. man of the Senate ethics committee, Government sources stressed that said his panel will conduict "a thor- possibly prejudicing future court FBI Director William E. Webster and. ough investigation of all allega j cases, according to attorneys likely to be involved in defending con- high Justice Department officials tions against any senators snared had constantly reviewed the FBI in'the FBI's undercover political cor- gressmen. The Department of Justice will operation to make certain that:con. ruption investigation. have no comment at all about gressmen-and others were not being SenateMajority Leader Robert "entrapped" into committing illegal Byrd,D-w.Va., asked how the scan. specific investigations of political corruption or white-collar crime," acts. dal would affect the public's image Smith said today. "The disclosures Government sources also said that Of. Congress; said: It doesn't do it made by the media are regrettable with an operation involving as many any. good? I'm very disappointed -- Jaw enforcement personnel and poli- I'm sure.other members of Congress tions of innocent people.". ticians as this one; it may-have been likewise -- discouraged, shocked." "In light of the nature and extent impossible for the government to The Justice Department, mean-- of the purported disclosures, the Jus- complete the investigation before news of it was leaked. Some, reporters and middle.leve! and Ithe I criminal division will initiate .an government officials not directiy in. volved in,the,case had known about whether deliberate disclosuires haye been made by federal employees. broke on the news wires and the net- works Saturday.