◆ SpookStack

| = ) Ou Tat RIGHT by te. QB sockiey _? -2- ror nelease GPearer 15, 1966 ad ®@ thereafter. , , Mr, Hoover is a weticulous man. It 1s his profession te safeguard evidence, How wery unlikely that he would be without the evidence to beck up his statement that Mr. Keonedy had been continuously aware of eavesdropping activities by the Berea. More Likely Me, Kennedy thomehr chet Me, Hoover hed the evidence, all. right, but that he would not use it, so covetous is he for the privacy of his files, But Mr. Hoover bad been maneuvered into an impossible situation, Unless he denied Mr. Kenuedy's public charge of last June that the FBI acted without. authority in bugging the Las Yagas boods, tha ¥BI wes acting in effect outside the law. It is difficult for a man whose profession has bean as chief lav- enforcer of the nation to accept lightly such « stiges. It ie strange that Mr. Kennedy didn't get his man; stranger still that he did not know hie san. => = «= ~ and, finally, the most interesting point of all. thy is Mr. Kennedy running eo heatedly for covert Congress has authorized the wiretap under certain circumstances, and inferentially che sicrophons, In the middle of President - Kannedy’s term, en assistant attorney general vrote to Senator Sequel Ervin stating thet 79 wiretaps were in use, and 67 bugs. le now know that they were being used with the explicit spproval of Mc. Eeunedy, indeed thet he was “pleased’ st Che knowledge that they were being used. Why now is he so ashamed? Preeumably because the ideological cbjection to eavesdropping ia fanatically construed in quarters whose good graces Mr. Kennedy seaks ardently to sue. There are people in the world whose opposition co eavesdropping sometimes seems so total that they would object to eavesdropping into a conversation that fore~ told an intention to launch Pearl Harbor. » Congress has made most of the relevant distinctions -- eavesdropping should be permitted under special suptrvision of che Attorney General to safeguard the national security and aid in the apprehension of major criminals, If the Attorney General abuses the right, let the Attorney General be criticized , or sacked; but gust the weapon, invaluable as a means of protecting society, be aachewed? A vigorous defense by Kennedy of the use of buge under certain circumstances - onder such circumstances as he authorized during his tenure - would have been bracing to the realista, but Mr. Kennedy -- the same Mr. Kennedy who began his tenure as Attorney General by asking for an even wider use of eavesdropping sechanisas -- has learned his Liberal catechises indalibiy, and ia, until the spell is broken, completely in thrall. (Dtecributed by the Washington Star Syndicate, Inc.) Released Exclusively Them Tue WasHINGTON Stark SYNDICATE, INC. 444 Madison Ava, New York, N. ¥, 10022 Tels 212-EL 53-7837