News stories from Sunday February 18, 1979

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

A substantial increase in United States military involvement in the Middle East is urged by Defense Secretary Harold Brown. He has decided, American officials said, to press President Carter to sell more arms to pro-Western Arab nations, especially Egypt, and to expand American naval forces in the Middle East. [New York Times] Televised House sessions in Washington will begin when it meets at noon tomorrow. Initially, they will be limited to broadcasts transmitted only to television sets in offices of House members, but in a few weeks the House-operated system will provide coverage, free of charge, to commercial, public and cable television for live airing or taping. [New York Times] Most American whites favor affirmative action programs for blacks in industry and in educational institutions since the Supreme Court's Bakke decision rejected "the concept of rigid quotas," according to a survey by Louis Harris and Associates. [New York Times] Rules for intelligence agencies that would protect Americans living abroad from certain kinds of intrusive surveillance by American agencies have been suggested by Attorney General Griffin Bell. Mr. Bell said he was proposing a law that would require a federal judge to approve certain kinds of eavesdropping when national security requires it. [New York Times] The F.B.I. was warned in an anonymous telephone call that Lee Harvey Oswald would be killed while being transferred from the Dallas city jail on Nov. 23, 1963, according to a retired F.B.I. agent, James Hosty. Mr. Hosty, who was assigned to investigate Mr. Oswald before the assassination of President Kennedy, was quoted by a newspaper as saying that the Dallas police ignored the warning. [New York Times] The Lufthansa robbery inquiry is focusing on one or more airline employees suspected of having planned the $5.8 million theft at Kennedy International Airport in December. Investigators believe that the suspects were helped by outsiders with ties to organized crime. [New York Times] The Soviet Union demanded China's immediate withdrawal from Vietnam "before it is too late," and said, as a loyal ally, it would come to Hanoi's aid.Vietnam said it was "checking" China's attack along their border, reporting that its forces had destroyed 60 Chinese tanks and killed hundreds of Chinese soldiers. Further information about the fighting from both sides was extremely sketchy. The United States will not become involved in the fighting between Communist nations in Asia but will instead concentrate its diplomatic efforts on ending the fighting between China and Vietnam while persuading the Soviet Union to stay out of it, administration officials emphasized. [New York Times] An exultant Yasser Arafat said in Teheran that the revolution in Iran had "turned upside down" the balance of power in the Middle East and that every Iranian freedom fighter represented the Palestinian struggle. The leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who flew to Teheran from Beirut, held a news conference in the office of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan. He declared support for Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic revolution, who, unlike the Shah, has backed the Palestinian movement. Israel's former diplomatic mission in Teheran has been given to the Palestinian movement.Arrests in Iran of former government officials, military officers and business leaders continued. More than a score of well-known persons were arrested in Teheran and other parts of the country. In addition to the arrests ordered by the Bazargan government, many detentions are being made by citizen vigilantes, who have been prohibited now by Ayatollah Khomeini from taking people into custody. [New York Times] The body of Ambassador Adolph Dubs was returned to the United States from Afghanistan, where he was killed last week in a battle between the police and terrorists. President Carter and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance met the plane. [New York Times]