Bomb found in Carter’s staff offices

Press, 8 December 1976, Page 9

Bomb found in Carter’s staff offices

International

NZPA Washington A bomb has been found in the offices being used by President-elect Jimmy Carter’s transitional staff, and dismantled successfully.

j Dr Brown is a nuclear I physicist, and has been a jmember of the United [States’ Strategic Arms Limitations Talks negotiating [team since soon after he left )the Pentagon in 1969. Mr Michael Blumenthal, [chairman and. chief executive officer of the Bendix [Corporation, and a former [Defence Secretary, Mr James [Schlesinger, have also been 'mentioned as being under serious consideration for the ! Defence Secretaryship. . Mr Thomas (“Tip”) O’Neill the burly Masachusetts Democrat who has promised strong leadership, has been appointed, unopposed, as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, to sue-1 ceed Mr Carl Albert, who has retired. j Mr O’Neill, who will cele-i Ibrate his sixty-fourth birthday on Thursday, thus be|comes the third-ranking nat|ional official, directly behind [the Vice-President in terms [of succession to the Presidency. ! In 1948, Mr O’Neill became the first Democrat to be elected Speaker of the House of the Massachusetts Legislature. Then, in 1952, he replaced John F. Kennedy in the House of Representatives when the future President made a successful bid for a Senate seat. Mr' O’Neill went on to become the Democratic Whip in 1971, and became Majority Leader two years later. He is a devout Roman Catholic and has been married for 35 years. There are five children, one of whom, also named Thomas, is Lieu-tenant-Governor of Massachusetts. ! The Speaker's salary is i $65,600 a year, and that of [the Majority and Minority [Leaders, $52,000. Other i members of the House are [paid $44,600. ' The party caucus has cho- i sen Mr James Wright, of [Texas, over Mr Philip Burlton, of California, as Major- ; ity Leader, the No. 2 posi- 1 tion, by 148 votes to 147. i

The bomb was in a pack-) age found in the mail-room' in the fifth-floor offices ini the Department of Health,' Education, and Welfare! building occupied by Mr! Carter’s team. Members of the staff, using an X-ray device, noted! what looked like a battery [ and wires inside the pack-! age, and called the police,! who defused the bomb and! handed it to the Federal! Bureau of Investigation. Between 300 and 4001 people left the building as a! safety precaution. Last week, the offices were evacuated briefly after a bomb threat: the authorities removed an unidentified package which was later found to contain only dolls. Carters choice NZPA-Reuter reports that! Mr Carter, who has so far' chosen only two of his sen-| ior Administration officials/ is due to begin interviewing I the other candidates later! todav: after sifting through! detailed files on 70 people.) he announced that he would go to Atlanta to meet them — in the mansion he once occupied as Governor of Georgia. He will continue meeting candidates after he flies to Washington tomorrow. At the week-end Mr Carter announced that he had chosen Mr Cyrus Vance as his Secretary of State, and an Atlanta banker, Mr ; Thomas (Bert) Lance, as Director of the Office ofi Management and Budget. Dr Harold Brown, aged 49, the President of the California Institute of Technology, is believed to be favourite ; for the post of Defence Secretary. |; “I’m not trying to conceal!: anything, but I don’t know)] anything,’’ Dr Brown, a for- h mer Air Force Secretary and!] Director of Defence Re-! search in the Johnson Admi-p nistration, replied when!' asked by reporters about theji possibility of the appoint-[i ment. ’ It