Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1973-08-10

              Bugged Bragged Satire Safire of ire Restrains Res ah s Fury y i Tapping of Aides Outrageous eons By William Satire Safire WASHINGTON From mid 1969 to February of 1971 1471 at the direction of the President the FBI F BI tapped the home telephones of seventeen men four newsmen and thirteen government officials to to find firm out why classified information had ap ap- appeared appeared appeared in the press and to prevent future leaks I authorized this Uis entire program the President asserted on May 22 of this year The persons who were subject to these wiretaps were determined through coordination among the Director of the FBI my assistant for national security affairs and the Attorney General J. J Edgar Hoover Henry A. A Kissinger John N. N Mitchell How were the suspicious seventeen chosen Those wiretapped said the President were selected on the basis of access to the information leaked material in security files and evidence that developed as the inquiry proceeded That last category refers to people overheard talking to those being tapped and who woo subsequently were honored with a wiretap all aU their own WHO WERE THE SUSPICIOUS seventeen The government will not publicly say but tacitly admits that four were journalists Marvin Kalb Kaib of 0 the ire Columbia Broadcasting System Henry Brandon of the London Sunday Tunes Hedrick Smith of the New York Times now its Moscow correspondent and William Beecher of the New NewYork NewYork NewYork York Times now deputy assistant secretary of defense defEnS for public affairs Columnist Joseph Kraft was also bugged but not by an official FBI and so cannot claim mem mem- membership membership membership in the seventeen Of or the L thirteen government officials it had been assumed until recently that all aU were members of the Ule National Security Council staff stair Those named up to now were Winston Lord Helmut Daniel Davidson Anthony Lake Roger Morris and Murton Morton Halperin This morning mornin let me ire add two more names of I former men to the list of those whose home telephones were tapped Richard Moose now a consultant to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Laurence Lynn Jr now an assistant secretary of the interior A few days ago a New York Tunes Times reporter John M. M Crewdson dug up another name rename from his own federal law-enforcement law sources one ore William Safire former fonner special assistant to the President now a columnist for the New York Times Tunes who is writing today's ys y's exercise in restrained fury AND THEN TIlEN THERE WERE four as Agatha Christie might put it out it-out out of the seventeen taps the names nacres of four men still remain to be disclosed Who are they they include names of men perhaps still working as loyal lieutenants to the President who would be surprised chagrined and profoundly offended if they knew their longtime loyalty had been returned with mistrust suspicion and an un un- unconscionable unconscionable unconscionable conscionable invasion of their thir privacy Of course the men on the the staff who were tapped usually pretend that it does not bother them at t all when prodded plodded they will recite some litany about men who deal in secret matters having to expect constant nce Frankly men who expect 1 constant surveillance handling our national security betray a certain lack of understanding about our national traditions Only one of the Morton Halperin has expressed publicly his sense of outrage his lawsuit might force more disclosure The reporters tapped and their news organizations have been curiously supine perhaps they are holding their fire five until they build a factual I Lets Let's unless case hope so- so so they resist they cannot claim to have been raped A is approval al For myself J I cannot C go along with this fraternal silence of the suspicious seventeen I J Idid did not knock myself loose for Nixon in 1959 1459 and imd 1960 and then cast my lot with him through the thelong thelong long arid and comeback years of 1955 1355 through 1968 1868 to have him hum or a some lizard lidded paranoid acting in his name without his approval eavesdrop on my conversations NATIONAL SECURITY my eye eye during during the 37 31 days in July and am August of 1964 1960 that some agent in earphones was illegally Cas as the Supreme Court later found listening in to my every word I l was writing wring the sh Presidents President's message and speech on OIl welfare reform I still believe in the work ethic the New Federalism the Nixon Doctrine and the ab ab- absence absence ab- ab absence sence of Presidential involvement in Watergate but but I have been consistent t before during and nd after my White Wl te House days about the right to privacy There are questions that must be answered Who had the right to decide which White te House aides would be tapped Were other speech- speech writers tapped as well wen Did the President know when he was talking to an aide who was being tapped If U as I have reason to suspect the answer to that last question is no a further question presents itself Does the President realize that there are tapes and transcripts of his own conversations with aides now in the files of the FBI out of his control taken years before he began taping himself N. NY N. N Y Times Service