the new YORK TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18 1976


.. I U £j I

p1 n„,rihes FsTS^es, Sayinl nTG>y‘ Appr^l

ZxH-4. 7 „ h\K flttomev and did not recall Mr. Gray’s

».• — ma that the practice had re- Stephen H. . u.vlne made any statement like


Cpiitinued From Page Col. 3

dence in sensitive intelligence
inv^gations.

Mr. Felt initially recalled that
Mrl Gray, who took over the
burden after the deato of J.
Edgar Hoover in May 19p, had
told a Washington conference
of tiie heads of the bureau s
59‘ficld offices that
approve these things ^“t
ti^ed the agents to ^
sure you get bureau approval

Gray.

who now lives in Stonmgton,
Conn., denied “condoning or

Told of Mr. Gray’s denial, Mr.
Felt conceded that his «collec-
tion of the drcumstances of
Grays* approval was h^.
and said that in any even^«
authorization h^..
cated on the belief that that
vros what he pdr. Gray] want-

One of the burglaries. Mr.
Felt said, was earned out
agents searching
formation Center in Dallas in
the fall of 1972 for dues to
the operation of Palestinian ter-
rorists in the Umted .

The second, he
tended to uncover leads to toe
whereabouts of members of the
Weather Underpound, a gue^
rilla group that has taken credit
for several bontoings in this
country.

Justice Dept Inquiry
A number of burglaries of
friends and associates of toe
Weather

out by F.B.I. agents in the
York city area in 1972 and
1973 and are now the ^9fus
an iuvestigaUon by
I^partment s dvd rights dlvt

“T Stanley Pottinger. who
heads that division, was In
York today for the empaneling
of a Federal grand that
will begin hearing evidence in
the .ease next week.

!b. Pottlngeris office, winch
U trrinK to trace knowledge
and approval of the ille gal bur*


A$$odiM Press

W. Mark Felt


glaries up through Mr. Gray’s
chain of command, is under-
stood to be investigating, in ad-
dition to Mr. Felt’s assertions,
Mr Gray’s attendance at a sec-
ond meeting at toe b^aujs
Quantico, Va.. training facility
in toe summerof 1972.

According to F.B.L sources
present on that occasion, a
number of bureau agents from
around the countiy participated
in a discussion of toe hunt for
toe Weather fugitives that in-
cluded mention of the use of
burglaries as an i«vesUgaUve
technique.

Mr. Gray and other top bu-
reau executives, including Ed-
ward S. Miller, then the head
of its intelligence division, at-
tended the conference, and Jus
tlce Department lawyers have
received some indications timt
they were present during the
discussion.

Resumption of Biuglarics
The bureau’s use of burglaries
to gather evidence was be-
lieved. until recently, to have
been halted by Mr. Hoover In
1966. Three months ago, it was
disclosed that I|/lr. Pottinger
had obtained documents snow-


ing that the practice had re
sumed in New Work City afterl
Mr. Hoover’s death on May 2,
1972.

Since then, some
sources here have chararter-,
[ized the New Work City offiM
as a “renegade” o"®
without the knowledge or *P-,
proval of bureau offldds ml
Wwngton, an
is said to have

Work agents and strengthened
their determination _ to show
that they were actmg under

^^Mr’ pottinger’s investigationl
Is known to be °?i

the assumption that
break-ins, none of which wot
accompanied by ww

rante, constitate a
the Federal civil ^ts stotnws
in cases where the targets hM
“o foreign inttlUgence connec-

^°The burglary of fte

fonnation Jor

is not imderstMd to

ject of the Justice Depart®e"“

inquiry. The New York Times

liTi^rted that Mr. Gray a^
proved that operation, mid he
Eas reportedly told friends t^,
he beUeved it to 1« legal
cause a foreign espionage mat-
ter was involved.

Altoough Mr. Felt ^^ok re-
sponsibiUty today for having
authorized that
said in the interview that he
^Ueved he had later advls^
Mr. Gray of his action In that
case and also in _


[Stephen H. Sachs, his attorney,
that he had never approved
“surreptitious entries In the in-
vestigations of Weathermen
fugutives.” ,

According to records pre-
pared by the Watergate special
^secutoris office, ^hidi in-
vestigated toe possibiUg that
Mr. Gray had ^rjnred himself
during his 1973 continw^n
hearings, Mr. Gray did a^d
a meeting of the neads of to
bureau’s field office in May 10,
1972, two weeks after he re-
pUced Mr. Hoover.

That, he said, was the only
such meeting he attended m
Washington, and he has told
‘associates that he does not re -
Icedl any discussions of surrepu-
tious entries.

Charies W. Bates, now the
head of the F.B.I.’s San Francis-
co office. said in a telephone
interview today that he was
present at toe May 18 meeting


and did not recall Mr. Gra^s
having made any statement like
that described by Mr. Felt.

Mr. Felt said, however, that
the meeting he recollected 4n
a “hazy” way had taken Pjace
later in the summer of 1972—
on Aug. 29, he believed.

But according to records or
Mr. Gra/s activities, that was
to penod during v^ch to
conference on Wcatocr fugi-
tives was taking place at Quan-
tico and in Washington.

In a related development, Eu-
gene V. Walsh, who had been
assistant director in .ch^ge of
toe bureau’s administrative di-
vision, retired from toe bureau

?^^e^^admlnistrative division
has been the subject of a sepa-
rate investigation by the I^-
partment of Justice, but no m-
dication was forthcoming that
Mr. Walsh’s departure bore any
relationshhip to that inquiry,


1150 U1

;^th Jiis approval of the Weatb-
er fugitive burglary.

No Previous Comment
But he said that Mr. Gray,
who was immer^

F.B.I.’s Watergate investigMon
and, later, in Ws own »bo^;je
confirmation hearings, didn t
even know what was being said
to him, he was so busy.

Mr Gray, who left the bureau
in aM 1973 after his nomtaa-
tion as Its director was wtto-
drawn by president
until now not commented pub-
Ucly on his year-long tenure.
But he said today throuj^


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