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ogg ~~ FBI director defends Abs‘am investigation’ WASHINGTON — Breaking along, settimposeat, Webster says bur silence, FBI Director William ra Webster has strongly y U eau we defended the FBI's controversial Abscam investigation ° a3) amd as made clear be would hesame mercer ~WOUIC Use tactics again - | in, if n ; : With firmness and pecasionaly some heat, Webster declared that “we will always follow our leads.” He would stick around it, except someone who wanted 'to dismissed th ceations that the investi ation, which Te- deal with sleazy people,” hesaid. - . in the conviction of seven members of Congress , investi on bribe d © Abscam did not set out toinvestigate members of cent men and other charges, somehow trapped inno- Congress but instead began as an attempt to catch at Durit 90-mi i jew in hi eves. As the inquiry developed, it moved into other : week witht Lo aneslen fee, epee ast areas and congressmen walked into the net. “We did not chief and former federal judge offered point-by-point Select any congressmen,” Webster said. “They were replies to criticism of Abscam by Sen. Alan Cranston (D- _S¢lf-selected. They found their way tous.” Calif.) and others. ; . rapid-fire order, he said that: © Anyone who listens to the FBI tapes of meetings between public officials and undercover’ agents will H * The FBI uses “con men” and others with crimi- _learn the extent of the corruption. nal records in such investigations because that is what it “If you hear those tapes, you get some idea of how takes tncatch the guilty. . blatantly corrupt those discussion were. There wasn’t “Abscam was purposely sleazy so that no one, 2nvthingcovaboutthem” = : 4 © Through letters, the public has let the FBI know that it wants the bureau to continue investigating cor- ruption in high places. “The message is: Don't let any- body stop you,” Webster said. * - In the Abscam probe, which resulted in the convic- tions of Sen. Harrison A. Williams, who resigned his seat March 11, six House members and 11 others, FBI agents posed as representatives of a fictitious Arab sheik who was willing to pay cash for legislative favors, including help in gaining permanent entry into the United States. Webster said he had been “necessarily constrain- ed” in discussing the extraordinary investigation. But with the completion of virtually all trials, and as House and Senate committees prepare for inquiries into the methods used in Abscam, he said he felt free to talk about how the bureau managed the probe. eee Webster hotly rejected Cranston’s contention that Abscam ran “totally out of contro).” He said the charge, which Cranston made during debate over Williams’ pro- posed expulsion from the Senate, was leveled “in a mo- ment of rhetoric and emotion . . . unsubstantiated by the actual facts.” . “No one ever said where it was out of control,” Webster said. He noted that U.S. District Judge Geor; H. Pratt of Brooklyn issued a 134-page opinion last July that upheld the conduct of FBI agents in Abscam. Tt was when he was asked whether the FBI would ever conduct another undercover investigation of con- gressmen that Webster said, “The answer is, we will always follow our leads. . “We always have some operations going where some public official's name is in the works. It may be pre pult on the part of some confidence man, or it may real.” ’ He added that the FBI has no investigation under way similar “to what happened in Abscam. Webster defended the role of a particularly contro-" versial Abscam figure, Mel Weinberg, a convicted “con artist” who helped undercover agents by introducing Political figures to the bogus Arab businessmen. _ “An undercover operation must have creditibility with thecriminals whom we are investigating,” Webster said. “It’s very, very difficult to develop that credibility overnight. And it is always difficult for men and women of the character of the FBI to be around someone long enough to convince them they are fellow criminals with- outsomehelp.” xm —!