EVENING STAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP71B00364R000500020003-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 18, 2001
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: May 29, 1969
• Content Type: NSPR

EVENING STAR DATE
Approved For Release 2002/05/06: CIA-RDP71 BO
PAGE
McCleHa~ Plans Bi 11 on Wiretap, Ruling
By MIRIAM OTTENBERG
Star Staff Writer
Sen. John L. McClellan,
D-Ark. said today that unless a
recent Supreme Court decision
is amended through legislation,
top-level criminals will escape
punishment for their crimes, the
national security will be endan-
gered and innocent people will
become targets for organized
crime.
In a speech prepared for Sen.
gate delivery, he announced he
was introducing a bill to "miti-
gate" what he termed theI experience has shown that pro-said fear has been expressed
not only to the "wasteful con-
sumption of manpower" but also
the danger to individuals.
Wilson told the senator that
court hearings stemming from
the Supreme Court decision
,,have resulted in the disclosure
of facts which,have been pieced
together by defendants in such a
way as to enable them to identi-
fy sensitively placed and ex-
tremely valuable government in-
formants, with resultant danger
to the informants' lives."
Wilson said the department's
"harmful effects" of the court's
ruling that where electronic sur-
veillance is used, the entire logs'
of the operation must be turned
over to the defense.
McClellen quoted Atty. Gen.
John N. Mitchell as saying that
the opinion covered all material,
rather than only material rele-
vant to the defense and "in some
of these instances, national secu-
rity is involved, and in some
other instances, the very life and
existence of witnesses are in-
volved."
Preparing for hearings on the
proposed legislatrion next week,
McClellan found that since the
Justice Department began
checking on electronic surveil-
lance in July 1965, it has made
6,750 inquiries and has partici-
pated in from 75 to 100 disclo-
sure hearings.
As a result of these, McClellan
was told, only two federal cases
and one state case were dis-
missed because of tainted evi-
dence-that is, evidence illegally
obtained.
McClellan said the Justice De-
partment is seriously concerned
at the amount of time being con-:
sumed by prosecutors and;
judges on a policy which has'
produced so_, little in terms of
tainted evidence.
He quoted Asst. Atty. Gen.
Will Wilson, in charge of the
Criminal Division, as objecting
tective orders have not been
effective.
To give the Senate some back-
ground on the defendants in-
volved in this particular deci-
sion, McClellan briefly sketched
the cases of Willie Israel Alder-
man and Felix (Milwaukee Phil)
Alderisio' who were convicted of
conspiring to transmit murder
threats in interstate commerce,
and of Igor A. Ivanov and John
William Butenko, who were con-
victed of espionage conspiracy.
McClellan identified Alderisio-
as a syndicate terrorist or 'en-
forcer" and high level Cosa Nos-
tra leader in the Chicago area.
Alderman, McClellan said, is a
"notorious hoodlum" who is said
to have been responsible for at
least 11 unsolved murders.
As for Butenko and Ivanov,
McClellan said that when they
were arrested, they were in pos-
session of top secret defense
papers, camouflaged microfilm
cameras and two-way radios. He
that national security interests
would be prejudiced by unneces-
sary revelation of details of
counterespionage activities.
The bill introduced by Mc-
Clellan with Sen. Roman Hrus-
ka, R-Kan., as a- cosponsor,
would require that only relevant
files would be turned over to the
defense. The courts d de.
cide on a case-by-case basis
mta-wo, __j'v Y - ' ng
The danger to informants. the
national interest anru
dice to innocents'
'The measure wou a so put a
five-year statute of. limitations
on the claim that tainted evi-
dence was used to make a subse-
quent case. The Supreme Court
had held that neither illegally
obtained ' evidence nor its fruits
could be used in trial.
McC1e11ancontendedthat
there can't be a relationship be-
tween an illegal act and subse
quent events when more than
five years intervenes.
Approved For Release 2002/05/06 : CIA-RDP71 BOO364ROOO5OOO2OOO3-8