May 18, 1973

Lebanese Govt and Palestinian guerrillas on May 17 announce that they have reached 'identical viewpoints' on settlement of conflict in which at least 250 persons have been killed since May 2; Lebanese radio repts that com of Palestinian guerrillas and Lebanese authorities has been set up to see that measures agreed upon are carried out; measures that are involved were not announced by either side after 2 days of negotiations ended on May 16 between team of 3 Lebanese Army officers and reprs of 3 major guerrilla orgns, Al Fatah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Popular Democratic Front; Attalah Attalah, also known as Abu Zaim, mil commander of Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon, says that 'complete understanding' has been reached in negotiations, in which he took part; diplomatic sources say that guerrillas agreed to refrain from making illegal arrests; issue raised by Lebanese Army was removal from Palestinian refugee camps, which serve as bases for guerrillas, of heavy mortar and rockets; it is not clear what agreement was reached on this point; state of emergency has placed Lebanon under martial law and curfew remains in effect after dark; despite heavy bombing by tanks and air force jets, guerrillas remain entrenched in major refugee camps in Beirut, with no shortage of ammunition and supplies; Lebanese econ has suffered because of crisis

NYC City Council votes, 34 to 1, to repeal rent control law's controversial maximum base rent formula; landlord spokesmen warn that action could touch off widespread strike by bldg service employes; Lindsay denounces repeal bill, which he says is illegal under state law

Nixon campaign official R C Odle Jr, 1st witness to testify before nationally televised Sen Watergate Com hearings May 17, says that deputy dir of orgn J S Magruder ordered file that apprently contained pot intelligence removed from his desk hrs after Watergate burglary for 'security' reasons; says he did not read file but suspected that things 'which have no place in a pol campaign were in it'; says he returned file to Magruder upon his return to Washington 2 days later but so far as is known documents contained in it have never been found by investigators; Odle is questioned closely about Magruder's file, suggesting that com is attempting to develop evidence of high‐level involvement in cover‐up immediately after arrests; com's interest in file appears to stem in part from possibility that Nixon campaign aide moved almost immediately to safeguard and then to destroy or hide crucial documents; there have also been repts that folder held documents on wiretapping operations against Dems and possession of such material by Magruder would be highly incriminating; Odle says J N Mitchell took part in making pol decisions while he was still Atty Gen; testifies that 'decision memos' were sent to Mitchell at Justice Dept and that Mitchell was involved in 'major campaign decisions' as early as '71; B A Kehrli, special asst to Pres, testifies about White House structure using orgn charts; burden of organizational testimony is that many officials at Nixon com had gone there from White House and that White House retained over‐all direction of re‐election effort; final witness May 17 is Sgt P W Leeper, 1 of 3 men who apprehended Watergate burglars; illus of com members Gurney, Baker, Ervin, Talmadge and chief counsel S Dash; illus of R C Odle Jr

Atty Gen‐designate Richardson issues detailed set of guidelines May 17 for special Watergate prosecutor as yet unnamed; Richardson asserts, in lr to Sen Judiciary Com, that special prosecutor will be apptd by Atty Gen to serve within Justice Dept, and will be given 'full authority for investigating and prosecuting offenses against the US arising out of Watergate break‐in; says prosecutor will also handle 'all offenses arising out of '72 Pres election' as well as 'allegations involving the Pres, members of his staff, or Pres appointees and any other matters assigned to him by the Atty Gen'; concept of 'full' authority used in guidelines still does not meet insistence among some members of Cong that prosecutor be given 'final' authority; Justice W H Erickson, 1 of major candidates for job, counters Richardson's guidelines with set of his own but refuses to say what was in proposal he forwarded to Richardson; his only elaboration is that he made it clear to Richardson that prosecutor would have to be 'independent'; Richardson says prosecutor will have 'greatest degree of independence that is consistent with Atty Gen's statutory accountability for all matters falling within the jurisdiction of Justice Dept; White House press sec Ziegler says 'independence' problem 'is totally and completely in the hands of Mr Richardson' and that Richardson is Tree to grant total independence if he chose'; Sens Kennedy, Tunney and Burdick praise Richardson for agreeing to release guidelines for public inspection; Richardson's brother Dr E P Richardson says his brother was reluctant to take on task of Atty Gen but did so out of sense of service to US

May 18: NY Times survey on Palestinian Arabs notes that 25 yrs after creation of state of Israel, uprooted Palestinian Arabs not only are at war with Israel but are in conflict with Arab Govts and among themselves; notes loss of bases in Jordan during fighting in '70 and '71 between Jordanian King Hussein's army and guerrillas is recognized as severe setback to aspirations of Palestinians, who are believed to number 3 million; says they are determined to prevent repetition of '70 and '71 in Lebanon where cease‐fire between Lebanese Army and guerrillas was consolidated recently; notes Israeli retaliation at guerrilla bases in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria has resulted in curtailed guerrilla raids into Israel from Syria; holds now Lebanon is seeking to place stricter controls on armed guerrilla activities on its territory; notes that of approximately 3 million Palestinians, 1.5 million are registered refugees and 400,000 are displaced persons from '67 war; holds that although sentiment among rank and file is strong, 1 of weakest aspects of Palestinian struggle is lack of unified political leadership enjoying broad support; says Palestine Liberation Orgn, in which all major guerrilla groups and some Palestinian professionals and intellectuals are represented, is recognized by Arab League and its member govts as official voice of 'Palestinian entity'; notes Y Arafat, founding member of Al Fatah, largest guerrilla group, is chmn of Palestine Liberation Orgn; says Arafat shares leadership with other Fatah figures such as S Khalef and with leaders of more radical groups such as Dr G Habash of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and N Hawatmeh of Popular Dem Front, who is Maoist Marxist; illus