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0-19 (Rev. 10:9:81) ' Hal Gulliver Exec AD Adm. __ Eve AD Ine, © duoc ABLES Avot, Dirt Adm, Serve, —_ Crim, Inv, teen Ing) Les, —___ Lege! Coun, OFF, Comp. & Public AHe. Directar's Sec'y — Abscam Probe Carefully Handled This gets around to Abscam and crooked members.of Congress and the handling of the FB] investigafion, but let us begin with Diogenes. « . Diogenes is no longer with us, alas. He was the first cynic. That is, he was the founder, in the fourth cen- tury B.C. of what came to be known as the sect of the Cynics. There are Bood Stories about him, some no doubt apocryphal. He sup- pee asked only one n of Alexander the Great, that the ruler of | much of the known world at the Ume please stand out of his light. He was sold into slavery once and was asked what his trade was. Governing men, was the reply. He got to Athens once and Aristotle made reference to him. His nickname was “The Dog.” He was known asa man of wit whose specialty was the espousing of conventional wisdoms, to the occasional discom- fort of the establishment of his day. The best known story about Diogenes, apocry- phal or not, was that be sometimes went abroad in the Jand even in daylight with a lantern in bis hand “in search of an bonest man.” . The FBI, with its Abscam operation, went in * the opposite direction, in search of dishonesty. ere was no lantern, but there was a phony sheik, an FBI informant, who seemed prepared to offer thousands of dollars to members of Congress for special favors. You can't swindle an honest fellow, the old saw goes, only someone who is greedy enough to think be is swindling you. . story of the FBI Ab- ‘That, in brief, is the ‘scam investigation. Tt comes to mind because of a couple of things. One judge bas overturned one of the Ab- scam convictions, on the basis that somebow the whole thing was improper. Two former staffers in the US. attorney's office in Newark, NJ. — Ed- ward Plaza and Robert Weir Jr. — testified to the House Judiciary subcommittee that they believed the FBI bad behaved improperly in pursuing members of Congress on that Abscam front. Now, there are a couple of things that need to be said. , First, a question of improper’ action by the FBI should be a proper arena of careful scrutiny. ‘The very notion, as the implication bas it, that any law-enforcement agency is somehow unscrupu- Jously trying to entrap anybody (memper of Coo- gress or not) is genuinely outrageous. Let the facts be known. The judge's decision in the one case will be examined carefully and po doubt appealed. Secon what we are actually talking about. Nembers of Congress are a pretty sophisti- cated bunch when it comes to political money. They also understand that there is a clear distine- tion between campaign costributions and funny- money pyoffs. Just about any member of Con- 3-7 9l/ - BSXCLOSURG d, let us also examine for a moment” gress willing to bold out his hand for a bribe. ; unhappily, can find someone willing to pay a bribe for this favor or that. Yet there is nothing ambiguous about the dif- fetence, say a campaign contribution from some- ooe who indeed may ask a favor and a straight payoff for some improper action. The FBI Abscam investigation was handled with careful regard for these considerations. No- body got a congressman drunk, or put a gun to anyone's bead, or anything remotely of that na- ture, in order to ask something improper. The members of Congress who offered to take the bucks did just that; they offered to take moneys in a clear context of being willing to do something - they otherwise would not do. Cash money, mind you, not anything likely to be reported for taxes or 0p any campaign list of contributions. What we are talking about is not a bard dis. tinction to make. US. District Judge George C Pratt, incidentally, examined the objections raised by Mr. Plaza and Mr. Weir when be upbeld seven Abscam convictions last year. The judge observed that these two bad acted almost to obstruct the investigation, that they were apparently “jealous,” to use the judge's word, of the people beading the federal strike force running Abscam. Let that be. The real point is that there is a differeoce’ between the crooks in public office and the great majority, the honest ones who probably bave their own money problems but don’t take bribes. It is a brutal cruelty even to pretend there is no distinction. ‘The Washington Post Daily News (New York) ‘The New York Times The Wall Street Journal The Chicago Tribune The Los Angeles Times The Christian Science Monitor STA iy, on 4 Date 6.4.9 : Pa 7 Page FerDOs