July 21, 1973

Gov Rockefeller on July 20 proposes to put $3.5-billion bond plan to voters this fall to finance new mass transit operations and hwys and to provide $183.8-million in state aid for subsidizing 35c NYC transit fare and commuter fares for next 2 yrs, news conf; proposal would require localities to provide matching funds, $150 million a yr for NYC, to avoid fare rise; bond money, if approved, would favor mass transit over hwys on 60-40 ratio, $2.1-billion for mass transit and $1.4-billion for hwys, but hwy allotment is seed money that would eventually be multiplied 10-fold through Fed grants; Rockefeller offers few details about how bulk of money will be spent throughout state for capital items but plan would peg all upstate regional authority bus fares at 35c, which would mean rollback in some areas, and would retain present commuter rates for 2 yrs, avoiding increases projected as high as 70%; plan would mark 1st direct fare subsidy offered by state; $183.8-million in aid would be continued annually but would not be enlarged after 2-yr fare-holding period; NYC Mayor Lindsay offers support for plan but says proposal is only short-term solution; NYC Controller Beame expresses opposition but says there is room for discussion; Repub legis leaders Duryea and Anderson await further details; MTA spokesman sys approval of bond proposal would basically mean raft of construction plans would be retrieved from planning limbo they have been in since '71 bond issue was rejected; illus of Rockefeller

WASHINGTON, July 20 — The Senate today overwhelm ingly approved legislation that would limit the power of the President to commit United States armed forces to future hostilities without Congres sional approval. The vote was 71 to 18.

Defense Dept spokesman J W Friedheim acknowledges, July 20, the dept knowingly provided Sen Armed Services Com with a false rept in June that did not reveal the secret Cambodian bombing; concedes he authorized the distribution of the rept, which he knew to be false, to newsmen who regularly rept on the dept; calls it 'a blunder of some magnitude'; says 'we weren't smart enought to foresee' H M Knight's testimony to the Sen com; says he knew at the time it was wrong and he is 'sorry'; later issues 'clarification' in which he says, upon further recall, he had not realized the B-52 bombing statistics were 'incomplete' until the rept was given to the Sen com; says dept top command was 'in a state of flux' May and June, when the decision was made to withhold information from the Sen and the press; gives impression he had been overruled at high levels when he tried to get the correct information to the press; Sen Hughes renews his call for resignations from the Defense Dept; Adm Moorer and Sen Symington reptdly meet in attempt to resolve deepening dispute; com reptdly decided tentatively to proceed with full-scale hearings into secret bombings; Sen Hughes says he filed objection to pending retirement at 4-star rank of USAF C/S Gen J D Ryan; controversy revd

Repr Nedzi discloses on July 20 that HR Armed Services subcom studying involvement of CIA in Watergate affair voted unanimously to cite Watergate conspirator G G Liddy for refusing to take oath as witness; says Liddy's atty P Maroulis presented 'detailed, lengthy, sophisticated and novel legal argument' attempting to justify his client's refusal to be sworn; if HR upholds subcom's citation matter will be turned over to US Atty for presentation to grand jury; past citations for contempt of Cong, which have been infrequent, noted; Nedzi describes confrontation between Liddy and subcom; says Maroulis's basic argument was that a defendant could refuse to take oath and to testify in his own ct trial and that he was equally within his const rights in refusing to take oath before Cong com; that to force him to take oath would violate his 5th Amendment rights and perhaps also 6th Amendment guarantee, which provides for speedy trials, right to be confronted with witnesses against a defendant and right to obtain witnesses in defendant's favor; illus

Japan Air Lines: Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 with 145 aboard on Amsterdam-Tokyo flight is commandeered on July 21 by hijackers who claim they are members of Al Fatah guerrilla orgn and 'the Japanese Red Army acting for the people of Palestine'; bandits make unsuccessful attempts to land in Basra, Iraq, and Bahrain, but finally force craft to land in Dubai, Persian Gulf, where United Arab Emirates Defense Min Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid is allowed aboard to negotiate; body of female hijacker, killed after grenade she was holding exploded, is removed from aircraft and crew member injured in blast is also released; police say no demands have been made; map of hijacked craft's route

Sen and HR conferees complete action on July 20 on Fed hwy bill that has been stalled for 10 wks by deadlock over whether to use part of Hwy Trust Fund for mass transit; deadlock was broken when conferees agreed upon compromise proposal that would keep trust fund intact for 1 yr before gradually opening it up to rail and bus expenditures; Repr Wright, conf chmn, predicts that 3-yr, $20-billion bill will be passed by Cong before Aug recess; bill would allow $200-million in urban hwy funds to be spent on buses in fiscal '75 and entire $800-million earmarked for urban rds could be spent on bus and rail systems in fiscal '76; compromise represents major concessions by both sides; amendment to Sen version, introduced by Sens Muskie and Baker, called for spending trust fund money on mass transit over entire 3 yrs of bill; in effort to avoid Pres veto, conferees dropped Sen provision that would have provided $800-million in operating subsidies for failing transit systems; Sen conferees also agreed to drop their version of interstate transfer provision which would have allowed states to cancel controversial sees of interstate hwy system and spend money on mass transit instead

Sen, 71-18, on July 20 approves legis that would limit to 30 days power of Pres to commit US armed forces to future hostilities without Cong approval; bill approved despite warnings of veto; vote indicates that Sen can muster 2/3 needed to override veto; Sen Griffin, Repub whip, votes against bill and tells Sen that veto by Pres Nixon is certain; Sen Scott, Repub minority leader, votes for bill; says he would vote to override veto; bill contains following provisions: in absence of declaration of war by Cong, Pres could commit forces to 'repel armed attack upon US, its territories and possessions, to take necessary and appropriate retaliatory actions and to forestall direct and imminent threat of such attack; Pres could also use forces to repel armed attack against Amer forces outside US and to protect Amer citizens being evacuated from another country because their lives were threatened; Pres would be required to rept to Cong 'promptly' on commitment of forces and their use would be limited to 30 days unless Cong was unable to meet as result of armed attack on US or unless Pres certified that 'unavoidable mil necessity' required use of forces in 'bringing about prompt disengagement from such hostilities'; Cong could terminate action before 30-day limit expired with bill or joint resolution which would be subject to veto; HR bill compared; Sen rejected Eagleton amendment which would have prevented 'secret' and 'proxy' wars by civilian employes of Govt or foreign troops paid by US; Sen Stennis, in lr to Sen Muskie, floor mgr of bill, warned against major changes; measure now goes to Cong conf

G Strachan, former aide to ex-White House chief of staff Haldeman, testifies on July 20 before Sen Watergate com that Haldeman was advised more than 2 mos before Watergate break-in that Pres Nixon's re-election com had set up 'a sophisticated political intelligence-gathering system'; says that 2 or 3 days after break-in, he destroyed memo informing Haldeman of intelligence system; says that after speaking to Haldeman he destroyed a sample intelligence rept and 'several other documents' that he feared might link burglars to White House; says he 'refused' to commit perjury when he appeared Apr 11 before Fed grand jury investigating Watergate cover-up; acknowleges that he was courier who transmitted $350,000 of White House 'polling' funds to others who used part of cash to pay off 7 original Watergate defendants; denies having been aware of intended use of money; disputes J S Magruder's statement that Strachan was kept informed of 3 meetings in early '72 at which Watergate conspirator G G Liddy's intelligence-gathering schemes were pared from $1-million to $250,000 and reluctantly approved by ex-Atty Gen Mitchell; tells Sens where to find 'documentary proof that it was not he but ex-White House counsel J W Dean 3d who was responsible for keeping Haldeman abreast of campaign intelligence matters; describes how he advised Haldeman when Magruder told him that intelligence plan was approved in Apr '72; says he showed memo to Haldeman titled 'Sedan Chair 2' which other witnesses have testified was code name of double-agent in Pres primary campaign of Sen Humphrey; says this memo was 1 he destroyed; com source says Stachan described, in private staff ints, an attempt to persuade him to commit perjury; says Magruder, who was installed at campaign com by Haldeman, was supposed to rept through Strachan but that he would often give 'full rept' either to Haldeman or Haldeman aide Higby; suggests Magruder's testimony that Strachan, and through him Haldeman and, by ultimate extension Nixon, had been kept abreast of Liddy plans for wiretapping, kidnapping, mugging and other methods of gaining information or disrupting pol opponents; says Magruder never gave him that information

Kissinger tells prominent Jewish leaders M M Fisher, J Stein and R Maas on July 20 that Brezhnev has assured Pres Nixon that large number of Soviet Jews who have repeatedly been denied permission to leave USSR would soon be allowed to emigrate to Israel, White House meeting; participants in meeting rept that Kissinger stressed his own personal belief that Soviet leadership is now moving to accommodate concern of US over problems faced by Soviet Jews; 1 participant repts that Kissinger produced written breakdown supplied by Brezhnev on fate of 738 'hardship' cases, Jews who repeatedly failed to obtain permission to leave; Soviet statement says 268 Soviet Jews recd permission to leave, 30 no longer live in USSR, 177 no longer want to leave, 80 are being cleared for permission to leave and 149 were denied permission; 34 are unaccounted for; spokesman for 3 leaders says they told Kissinger of their disappointment in the lack of visible results so far in release of more Soviet Jews; illus of Stein and Fisher

Labor Dept repts on July 20 that Consumer Price Index, led by increases in food, increased by 0.7%, or 0.6% after seasonal adjustments, in June; Council of Econ Advisers Chmn Stein holds that food prices accounted for 60% of rise in index during 1st half of '73; food prices in June rose 1.4%, less than in most earlier mos but still high by normal historical standards; food prices after seasonal adjustment rose 0.9%, smallest increase in '73; chart of food price increases in Consumer Price Index in US and NY-northeastern NJ area

White House officials on July 20 say that Pres Nixon's conversations with Shah of Iran, who is scheduled to arrive in US on July 24 for state visit, will not be recorded

Article on London exhibition honoring 400th anniversary of birth of architect I Jones notes that only 4 of Jones's bldgs still remain: Banqueting House, St Paul's Church, Queen's House at Greenwich and private chapel in St James's Palace; notes that Jones designed bldgs as part of total effect, always considering their settings, which has relevance to current planning and development ideas; map showing location of bldgs designed by Jones; Jones por; illus of back of St Paul's Church