WIRETAPPING Support For F. 8.1. Chief

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32020, 21 June 1969, Page 13

WIRETAPPING Support For F. 8.1. Chief

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, June 20.

President Nixon has fully supported the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Mr J. Edgar Hoover) in the controversy over who authorised a wire-tapping investigation of the late Dr Martin Luther King.

He confirmed at a press conference that the former Attorney-General (Senator Robert Kennedy) authorised the investigation, which was apparently carried out over an 18-month period until 1965.

Dr King was murdered in April last year in Memphis, Tennessee. Senator Kennedy was assassinated two months later in Los Angeles. President Nixon was questioned at a press conference about a newspaper report in which Mr Hoover said that Mr Kennedy had proposed, and then authorised, the F. 8.1. wire-tap on Dr King, evidently on the basis of alleged Marxist connections. “I checked personally into this

matter to see if electronic surveillance had been conducted by the F.B.L by itself,

or whether it had always been approved by the Attor-ney-General,” Mr Nixon said. “I found that it had always been authorised by the Attorney-General." Mr Nixon said the Administration’s attitude towards electronic surveillance was that it should be used “very sparingly, very carefully, having in mind the rights of those who might be involved, but very effectively to protect the internal and external security of the United States.”

In answer to another question, the President replied: “Mr Hoover does enjoy my complete confidence, and there has been no discussion about his tenure (as F. 8.1. chief).” Mr Hoover, who is 74, has been head of the F. 8.1. since it was founded 45 years ago.