Kennebec Journal (Newspaper) - September 25, 1975, Augusta, Maine 7 KENNEBEC JOURNAL VOL CL AUGUSTA Thursday September No 230 CIA opened Nixon s mail I r AP The secretly illegally read the mail of many prominent Americans and opened at least one letter addressed to Richard M Nixon before he became president the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday Later in the panel agreed un- to ask Nixon to testify in its wide-ranging probe of improper by U.S agencies Chairman Frank Church said members felt Nixon was the best witness in a including questions surrounding the short-lived Huston plan to give intelligence agencies sanction to break the law at times Nixon is not being called under sub- poena and when or in what manner Nixon might appear Earlier disclosed that in June 1968 the agency opened and rend a which Nixon's prospects in that year's presidential election ten by speechwriter Raymond Price while traveling in the Soviet Union i And Church said that one of his own letters written to his mother-in-law from the Soviet Union was included in correspondence found his staff while probing the CIA opening operation a project which was begun in 1952 and not closed down until Feb Church's first statement op the matter Wednesday morning offered no detail but implied a wider scope to the mail surveillance than he later In part he said We want to know why the CIA opened the mail of organizations such as the Ford Foundation Harvard University and the Rockefeller tion or why mail to and from persons such as Federal Reserve Chairman Arthur Burns Rep Bella Abzug Jay Rockefeller Martin Luther King Jr Richard Nixon himself Hubert and Edward Kennedy should have been regularly opened and theCIA An aide subsequently questioned by reporters said at first that Nixon mail had been opened both before and during as president and that mail of other presidents had been scrutinized as weH The aide later withdrew that statement he had misunderstood committee investigators and Church himself confirmed the narrower version Church said that all the letters in- by the CIA were either sent from Communist Bloc countries or Ford vows caution WASHINGTON AP As dent Ford vowed to be cautious in future travels an aide revealed Wednesday that Ford had heeded Secret Service advice to stay away from the crowd where a would-be assassin lurked on Ron Ford's press secretary said the President followed a Secret Service that he not plunge in- to a crowd of San Francisco wishers for his customary handshaking Ford was ieet away when a shot rang out Nessen said Ford would not relax his travel plans despite the dent's statement that I'm anxious to be as careful as I can Mrs Ford said she has advised her husband to continue his travels but to be more cautious and to cut down on forays which bring him into such close contact with strangers I think he can be more cautious perhaps not do so much Roundup It wasn't just one of your run-of-the-mill roundups Dallas police put away their guns and got out their lassos early Wednesday when a cattle truck flipped over near downtown Dallas and more than 100 head of cattle spilled out The animals roamed the not wide-open streets until police completed he cattle drive traffic was diverted I PI Tim Wilson to develop stato ion program mailed from the United States to nations He said the mail files oty prominent included single letters in cases and a series of letters in others These names were never on the CIA ao it io obvious that in the opening of mail- they have gone very far afield indeed Church turned Angleton the CIA's former counterintelligence chief to ask why found it necessary to open the letter to Nixon I would say it was very much in er- Angleton replied But Angleton insisted the overall operation had been valuable He cited leads it provided in the still unsuccessful pursuit of Kathy Boudin a woman seen running explosion which destroyed the Greenwich Village bomb factory of the a radical leftist group on March When we went back through the mail program letters we found she had ten from Moscow to 40 letters to people in the United Angleton said These were the only leads the FBI had She's still a fugitive It raises in anyone's mind the question of whether she's in Moscow CIA letters P 2 handshaking but still he can get out and meet the Betty Ford told reporters Wednesday remarks followed Senate Republican Leader Hugh Scott's prediction after a meeting with Ford would indeed be trimming his travel Scott of Pennsylvania and other GOP congressional leaders visited Ford at the White House to discuss his safety in the wake of the two re- cent attempts on the President's life by women with guns The senator said that Ford told I know what people are ing and I'm anxious to be as careful Scott said he thought there would be some hiatus in Ford's travels before too long When pressed for the source of that belief Scott re- ferred vaguely to items he had read in newspapers Questioned about Scott's re- marks Nessen said truly there's been no change in the President's travel plans as the result of the two incidents in California Ford now is scheduled to go to Chicago Sept 30 and to Detroit Oct 10 and several side trips associated with those two journeys are under consideration Nessen noted however that there wilLbe a letup Jn ember and December when the President will be concentrating on the to be submitted to Congress in January Nessen hinted that Ford has begun to bow more to the Secret Service's advice in traveling tions As an example he said the President followed the dation of his bodyguards that he avoid handshaking in the crowd from which a shot was fired at him in San Francisco Monday The press secretary said the President is more than satisfied with the security he receives from the Secret Service Even so he certainly is not going to try and block a planned Senate tion of the agency Nessen said Both Scott and House Minority Leader John Rhodes said after their meeting with Ford that the Secret Service should expand its efforts to locate potential assassins before they can get within range of the President But Rhodes asked if he approves of the congressional probe replied I certainly do not on ground that Congress may already have gone too far in delving into the activities of intelligence and law enforcement activities talks topless Wednesday advise J WASHINGTON AP Betty Ford the First Lady but also a worried wife said Wednesday she has advised the President to con- meeting the people but to be more cautious after two tion attempts She said she doesn't fear for the President's life I don't think he's in danger Mrs Ford said Mrs Ford seemed to be of two minds one personal one political as she discussed the President's future travels She said it is important for her husband to get out and meet the people but also said he should try to keep his distance from the crowds Or course I've talked to him I'm a wife she said The First said she had ad- vised the President just to stay away from the people keep going but stay away from the people I think he can be more cautious perhaps not do so much handshaking but still he can get out and meet the she said talking to reporters a White House session Mrs Ford said sire believe that gun control would help any because there would be ging and people still would be able to obtain guns When asked if she thought there had been too much publicity about the two assassination attempts and the threats against the President she said The less publicity the less would be happening Arnold marcher By DAN SIMPSON State House Bureau An that has been kicked around the State House for years but never got anywhere put to work by Gov James B Longley Lowe said Wilson is ideal job I would characterize Wilson as a man who was impatient to get things done he said He was chosen of his empathy towards this type of He concern for people Longley's office announced H 1 won't tanl to press his own branch t frank and the chips fall where an ifF work Ls already lining OUT in government One although it has not been publicised rri II iMU se to citizens oe tne citizens Assistance and 32 Pages plus supplement II safe PITTSTON Bad weather postponed arrival Wednesday of Jne vanguard of the 1975 Arnold Expedition The A EQ Ml makes the more L Hospital fifties 23 J lack of govern response he undertook the 1 return persons an agency on that con- fleet is composed of schooners the jnore basic of is to 6 should be servants helping persons caught v-i i iri get treated p r jf lie is not
