January 10, 1975

Former US Repr Bertram L Podell receives 6‐mo sentence and is fined $5,000, Fed Dist Ct, NYC, for conspiracy and conflict of interest for accepting $41,350 in bribes to help defunct Fla Atlantic Airlines obtain route to Bahamas; co‐defendant William Miller receives 6‐mo sentence and is fined $10,000; sentence is imposed after ct rejects attempts of defense attys to withdraw guilty pleas on grounds that prosecution reneged on agreement not to recommend prison sentence; Podell illus (M)

US will sell Saudi Arabia 60 F‐5 jet fighters for $750‐million; sale is largest by US to Saudi Arabia in more than 2 decades; State Dept official says sale will contribute to 'the legitimate self‐defense needs' of Saudi Arabia; notes assertion of Sec Kissinger that planes may 'contribute to stability' in Middle East; F‐5 described; illus (L)

NYC Health Comr Lowell E Bellin announces that city will resume inspection of nursing homes, function taken away from it in '73 and given to NYS; says decision was made after spot check by city inspectors at 12 nursing homes and random sampling of records of 25 patients in each home appeared to confirm allegations of substandard conditions and poor quality of care in some homes; says city will have to pay for inspections; anticipates legal challenges to city's right to duplicate inspections by NYS; says he will order Medicaid payments stopped to homes that refuse to provide adequate care and publish lists of homes similar to lists of unclean food establishments published by his dept; Mayor Beame announces program developed by Health and Soc Services Depts to reduce alleged waste and fraud; spot inspection was directed by Dr John Gentry, exec dir of Medicaid for Health Dept; Met NY Nursing Home Assn exec dir Robert M Carr comments (M)

Mayor Beame seen getting more help with fiscal matters from Repub State Sen John Marchi than from Dem Gov Carey in light of Marchi's opposition to Carey's call for decreased state aid to localities (S)

Sources say officials of CIA's Counterintelligence Div unsuccessfully sought authority last fall to destroy illegal domestic files on nearly 10,000 Amer citizens because they feared newly liberalized Freedom of Information Act; say effort to gain official sanction for destruction of files was direct result of Cong's amending act to permit judicial rev of secret documents; Washington Post and columnist Jack Anderson rept that names of 9,000 Amers were submitted in '70 to CIA by Justice Dept's civil disturbance unit in effort to coordinate overseas surveillance of these persons, a legal activity; James Devine, then head of unit, comments; Justice Dept officials say they were informed the CIA had made no use of '70 files and had destroyed them; NY Times's sources reaffirm that CIA's counterintelligence div had maintained its own file system on Amer citizens separate from that of Justice Dept; say CIA request for permission to destroy domestic files was made by low‐echelon employe who had direct control over domestic file system; say request was made to CIA legal office, which revd matter and determined that files had to be maintained; 1 source says person Who initiated request did not do so on his own but had been told to find ways to destroy files; source close to James Angleton, former chief of counterintelligence whose retirement became known Dec 23, says whole question of files was examined late last yr because of concern about Information Act's amendment; legis discussed; Justice Dept officials confirm that Devine sent computerized printout to CIA in '70 but say printout contained between 10,000 and 12,000 names; official says he believes list supplied by Justice Dept in '70 is not same list that was being maintained amid great secrecy by CIA's counterintelligence unit; Devine acknolwedges that he has no factual basis for assuming that files he sent to CIA in '70 are same files that have emerged as focal point in current dispute over domestic CIA spying, telephone int; other sources say CIA's domestic dossiers apparently included number of FBI repts and documents from other domestic intelligence agencies; 1 source says some of files apparently have as many as 15 or more entries in them; says it is not clear in CIA Dir William E Colby's rept how much surveillance was done by CIA and how much by FBI and other agencies; Sen Foreign Relations Com Acting Chmn Sen J J Sparkman announces that com will question former CIA Dir Richard Helms about domestic spying allegations at closed hearing on Jan 22 (L)