ENDANGERED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201190020-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: June 30, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/06: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201190020-8
NATIONAL AFFAIRS ground that if any Iranians near the site-
such as the passengers of the bus that had
pump, which weighed 13 pounds, was been stopped-were killed in the process,
marginal. the militants in Teheran might take repri-
With yet another helicopter out of action, sals against the hostages. It was the only
Vaught asked Kyle and commando leader time since planning for the mission had
Col. Charlie Beckwith to consider continu- begun that Washington had overruled a
ing the mission with just five choppers. military recommendation.
There were two ways of doing that: they In hindsight, it is easy to say that the
could leave behind some 6,000 pounds of mission planners should have sent ten hel-
men and materiel, or they could try to load icopters instead of eight, that they should,
everything onto the already overladen re- have known about the duration of haboobs
maining choppers. Neither alternative was and briefed the pilots accordingly, that they
acceptable, and Kyle and Beckwith decided should have trained for an abort, that they
the mission should be scrubbed. Their rec- should have taken an extra hydraulic pump
ommendation was accepted by President to Desert One. But with the exception of
Carter. But- the team hadn't rehearsed an the lack of planning for an abort, each of
abort-and the lack of training may have those decisions represented a reasonable
contributed to the final tragedy. "We had trade-off between the need for maximum
never practiced to abort and get.*on the flexibility on the one hand and speed and
C-130s," Beckwith said later. secrecy on the other. "There had to have
Two of the six C-130s had already taken been some mistakes made," concedes Chief
off when disaster struck. But before the of Naval Operations-Adm. Thomas Hay-
third could taxi to its takeoff position, a ward. But in the end, the mission was done
helicopter directly behind it had to be in at least as much by an incredible streak
moved. The chopper's pilot, Maj. James of bad luck.
Shaefer, was ordered to bank left and away A broader and more troubling question
from the C-130 and fly to a refueling po- is whether the mission should have been
sition behind another of the transport undertaken in the first place. Pentagon
planes. Shaefer acknowledged the order planners were never certain how many mili-
and started to bank left. Then he appar- tants the commandos were likely to en- Republicans have their best chance in
ently became disoriented. He reversed his counter at the embassy. The attack- force years of capturing the US. Senate. A ne
course, banked right and crashed into the had no secret weapons: the operation would shift of only ten seats in November cou C-130. Both craft burst into flames. almost certainly have involved a fierce give them control-and more than a dozer
Overruled. The intense heat thrown off shoot-out. The Pentagon estimated that Democratic senators face tough re-election
by the burning C-130 forced the crews of even if the commandos had made it to the campaigns. Conservatives have chosen five
the two helicopters nearest the crash to embassy compound undetected, as many liberals as special targets: Birch Rayh of
abandon ship. One crewman wanted to go as fifteen of the hostages-and up to 30 Indiana, Frank Church of Idaho, Alan
back to his chopper to retrieve classified ofthecommandos-wouldhavebeenkilled Cranston of California, John Culveroflowc
material that had been left behind, but Kyle or injured in the getaway. Thus, there was and George McGovern of South Dakota,
said no. When the last of the C-130s was a chance that only 38 hostages would have NEWSWEEK'S John J. Lindsay toured Ida
airborne, Kyle asked Vaught to send in been rescued safely-at a cost of 45 ca- ho to assess the odds against Church, an fighter planes to destroy the abandoned sualties. In a mission that involved a series Pamela Ellis Simons visited Iowa to scorn
choppers and their classified contents. But of uneasy compromises, that might have the campaign against Culver. Their reports.
Washington denied the request on the been the most disturbing trade-off of all.
Chopper pilot Schaefer arrives home for burn treatment: No evacuation plan
STAT
Church on the stump. Spiraling acumen
Endangere
rank Church and - his Republican op.
ponent, U.S. Rep. Steven Symms, came
breakfast near St. Anthony, Idaho-and
the soggy amiability of their encounter be.
lied the spiraling acrimony of this year's
Senate campaign. To Symms and his sym.
pathizers on the right, Church is an apostle
of "appeasement," a "dangerous man" and
a "liar." To Church, the New Right itself
is increasingly the issue-particularly the
campaign being waged against him by the
ABC (Anybody But Church) committee
and its Washington parent group, the Na-
tional Conservative Political Action Com-
mittee (NCPAC). "Symms and the ABC
and NCPAC have been linked to one com.
mon objective-to attack Frank Church,"
he complains. Slightly ahead in the polls
but on the defensive nonetheless, Church,
55, must hope that ABC's attacks will
boomerang; his fifth Senate term-and
chairmanship of the Foreign Relations
Committee-may depend on it.
ABC and NCPAC resolutely deny any
connection with the Symms campaign-
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 Symms's idea of a strong defense, says
ons system" regardless of cost or effective-
ness. Of his role in the Senate crackdo
he "m rely wanted the CIA to distinguish
be weep innocent Americans ... an t e
enemies o our country he has also
cn lcize mVs campaign contributions
from oilmen* ("Do we need a senator from'
Exxon?") and challenged his record in the
House. "Symms wants Idahoan to com-
pare my record with his? They'll have to
find his first," he says. "He has tried to
pass over 135 bills since he has been in
Congress, and his next one passed will be
In the end, Church's tenure in the Senate
may well depend on the bread-and-butter
issues that affect his constituents most. Ida
ho's lumber and mining industries are m?
a slump, and Symms and the ABC have
begun to sound recessionary themes. Citing
Church's support for, tougher restrictions
battle with the well-organized New Right
Liberals
a legalism that permits them, under Federal
election law, to spend as much as they can
raise to defeat Church. But NCPAC's di-
rector, John Dolan, candidly confirms
Church's contention that his group's strat-
egy at least dovetails with Symms's.
NCPAC, he says, "will concentrate on the
negative stuff," leaving Symms to campaign
above the fray. So far, ABC and NCPAC
have raised at least $130,000 (Church oper-
atives claim the total is' much higher) to
attack Church's record: one ABC-spon-
cored speaker, a former head of the Defense
In cTXg?ency, toured the state to g-
ingth CIA. u e e ate has some-
tunes boggeddown in personalities. "I had
never before called Church a liar," says
ABC's Don Todd. "But last summer he.
compared us to the Nazis, and that's, the
way it's been since."
Send Them a Signal: Symms himself
has been quick to take the offensive. "Cer-
tainly, Church has a lot of seniority, but
what's he done with it?" he says. "He's
weakened the CIA voted against the
B-1 bomber, the neutron warhead and a
healthy, two-ocean Navy." If Church is
re-elected, he asks, "what is there to signal
other liberals that their votes for deficit
financing, the division of wealth and less
spending on defense are wrong?" After four
terms in the House, Symms, 42, says he
is "a dove at heart-1 just want to be
the best-armed dove on the block."
Attacked by both Symms and ABC,
Church has spent much of his time fighting
off their charges. The B-I bomber, he ex-
plains, costs a lot, yet will not be able to
penetrate Soviet defenses by the mid-1980s;
he supports the cruise missile instead.
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on the use of Federal land, Todd says,
"That's seen as a jobs issue out here. When
lumbermen are out of work and miners
are looking for jobs, you can't keep shutting
off more and more land." The New Right's'
laissez-faire blitz, Church replies, forces
now "has a broad, strong and deep fol-
lowing," Smith says. In the June 3 Re-
publican primary, Grassley easily van-
quished moderate Tom Stoner, although
Stoner had Gov. Robert Ray's support and
a two-to-one advantage in spending. Just
as ominous for liberals, turnout in this
year's,GOP primary was 100,000. votes .
higher than two years ago-and turnout,
everyone agrees, is the key to victory in
Shadow Coalition: Grassley stands to
benefit from the state GOP's get-out-the-
vote drive, and he plans to spend heavily
on radio and television ads after Labor Day.
But his strength is at the grass roots-a
shadow coalition of single-issue groups mo-
him to convince the voters that "govern- -
ment is not an instrument of the devil"-
and that Frank Church is on the side of
the angels as well.
10 weaty and grinning as he harvested
Culver strode down the aisle at Veterans
Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines as
if his political life depended on it. Culver,
47, is seeking re-election in a state that
shocked liberals two years ago by booting
out Sen. Dick Clark in an election marked
by a bitter attack on Clark by anti-abortion ,
show Culver 9 points down, and he is plain-
ly running scared. "A new species of radical
conservatism has been spawned in recent
years-with new ideologies, new campaign and fund-raising techniques, and divisive;
up," he thundered from the podium in Des
Moines. "The most dangerous, well organ-
ized and lavishly financed of these is the
so-called `New Right' ... these negative
forces must not prevail."
But Iowa's New Right intends to prevail.
Culver's opponent in the November elec-
tion, three-term U.S. Rep. Charles Grass-
ley, 46, is a farm-bred, budget-balancing
conservative who is, according to Repub-
lican state committeewoman Mary Louise
Smith, "in tune with the good, old-fash-
ioned values." He has stumped the state
every weekend for more than a year and
'Symms has denied charges of unethical ties to Texas
oil and commodities magnate Nelson Bunker Hunt, a cam-
paign contributor. Symms said that he had speculated
in silver and commodities futures while a member of a
House subcommittee that regulates such trade. But when
questioned about it by a reporter, he said he was "not
going to waste my time with this kind of drivel, period."
Culver A gut fighter running scared
bilizing voters with precisely targeted di-
rect-mail campaigns. "In each county they
have representatives from each group-the
rifle types, the fundamentalist churches, the
pro-lifers;" says Jerry Mersener, an aide
in the Stoner primary campaign. "They can
send a message directly to National Rifle
Association members, and we have no
chance to respond until days later." Grass-
ley denies that his support is limited to
the New Right, and he will stress other
issues-from a constitutional amendment
to balance the budget to strengthening na-
tionaldefense. "No question that the New
Right groups have a lot of popular appeal,"
says state Republican chairman Steve Rob-
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NATIONAL AFFAIRS
erts, "but Grassley's appeal is larger than
the New Right."
Culver's counterattack, characteristical-
ly, has been frontal and total. "Sure, I'm
a liberal," he says. "But I believe I'm in
the mainstream on many issues." He is a
strong campaigner with a good organiza-
tion; he has strong labor support, and he
is claiming the middle .ground against
Grassley. Culver has spent $600,000 on ads
that will depict him as a hard-nosed pro-
gressive who can represent the state effec-
tively. According to The Des Moines Reg-
ister, he was effective in making sure that
farmers would get priority under the Carter
Administration's stand-by gas-rationing
plan. And when a fundamentalist group
gave him a zero rating on its "morality
index," Culver played hardball. Florida
Rep. Richard Kelly, he observed, scored
100 per cent on the morality index-al-
though Kelly has been implicated in the
ABSCAM bribery scandal. "He destroyed
their credibility," says union leader Charles
Gifford. "He's a gut fighter. That's John's
strong suit; and were relying on it."
The outlook for fall is a classic confron-
tation between New Right and Old Left
and despite Grassley's current lead; few
are predicting the outcome. Mersener calls
it "a political scientist's dream"-a clear-
cut struggle between the computerized con-
servative cadres and the traditional foot
soldiers of liberalism. "It's the New Right
versus the unions, environmentalists and
students," he says. "And both sides think
their candidate will save the world if
elected."
The Brilab Sting
Hits a Mafia Don
Carlos Marcello always told people he
made his living selling tomatoes. But to
the lawmen who have tracked him for the
past three decades, he is the godfather of
New Orleans, one of the most powerful
Mafia capos in the United States. Now 70,
the short, pudgy Marcello is said to rule
a vast underworld empire that nets more
than $1 billion a year. He has been charged
with crimes ranging from robbery to selling
narcotics but he has done little jail time.
Last week,, however, a Federal grand jury
in New Orleans indicted Marcello and three
others on charges of racketeering, con-
spiracy and fraud-and this time, the Feds
think they have an airtight case.
The indictment is part of the FBI's sting
operation code-named Brilab-for bribery-
labor-aimed at exposing corruption
among public officials,. labor organizations
and organized crime in the South and
Southwest. A fortnight ago, a Houston
grand jury indicted Billy Wayne Clayton,
speaker of the Texas House of Represent-
atives, and grand juries in Washington, Los
Angeles and Oklahoma City are conducting
similar Brilab probes. But Federal officials
are particularly pleased with the Marcello
indictment. It is the first time they have
strong evidence-based largely on tapes
from concealed recording devices worn by
undercover FBI agents-linking the reput-
ed New Orleans godfather to a major crime.
The FBI agents posed as California in-
surance brokers seeking to bribe public of-
ficials to win government insurance con-
tracts. Through FBI informer Joseph
Hauser and.Washington lobbyist I. Irving
Davidson, the agents contacted Marcello
last summer and offered him commissions-
for helping arrange the bribes. Accord-
ing to the indictment, Marcello_ directed
the team to make a $25,000 payment to
Charles E. Roemer II, then a powerful state
commissioner, and a $10,000 payment to
New Orleans lawyer Vincent Marinello,
who claimed he gave the money to then-
Lt. Gov. James Fitzmorris Jr.* Later, ac-
- *Davidson; Roemer and Marinello were indicted along
with Marcello. Fitzmorris, who denies receiving the bribe,
is still under grand jury investigation.
The ABSCAM Five alleged, Murphy and Thompson accepted separate $50,000
bribes from an FBI agent posing as a representative of Arab
Nearly five months after the ABSCAM scandal broke over businessmen. who needed help with immigration problems. The
er Howard
law
hia
ith Philadel
d
h
dl
Capitol Hill, a Federal grand jury in Brooklyn last week pro-
duced two more Congressional indictments. This time, the
targets were two Democratic barons of the House: Frank
Thompson Jr. of New Jersey, 61, who succeeded Wayne Hays
as chairman of the House Administration Committee, and
John M. Murphy of New York, 53,. chairman of the Merchant
'Marine and Fisheries Committee.. Both denied wrongdoing.
"Investigative agencies and disreputable hirelings in their em-
ploy can act in overzealous. or illegal ways," Thompson said..
In meetings filmed by the FBI last October, the indictment
y
.
p
w
are
y s
bribes were allege
L. Criden, who was also indicted, along with another mid-
dleman, New Jersey businessman. Joseph R. Silvestri.
The month-long series of indictments have ensnared three
other House members as well:. Michael Myers and Raymond
F. Lederer of Pennsylvania and John W. Jenrette Jr. of South
Carolina, all Democrats. The evidence against the last two
lawmakers named earlier in the scandal, Republican Rep. Rich-
and Kelly of Florida and Democratic Sen. Harrison Williams
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