News stories from Saturday August 25, 1973

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

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has directed all of its 18,500 employees to sign a written statement recognizing that the work of the bureau is confidential and that unauthorized disclosures of investigative information may result in criminal prosecution. An F.B.I. spokesman said that the printed statements, which have been distributed to the bureau's supervisory personnel, were simply a revised version of the bureau's traditional employment agreement, "which indicated that the work of the F.B.I. is confidential" and that information was not to be disclosed except through normal channels. [New York Times] Martha Mitchell says she read a book written by President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman that she hinted included plans for Watergate-style operations. She said the Senate Watergate committee should call her to testify. Mrs. Mitchell also said that Mr. Nixon's denial at his recent news conference that her husband, former Attorney General John Mitchell, had told him the details of Watergate was a "damned lie." [New York Times] With parades, rallies, religious services and rounds of speeches, tens of thousands of women across the country observed the 53rd anniversary of the enactment of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. The anniversary is tomorrow, but representatives of women's groups started their activities today because, as Anita Murray of the National Organization of Women put it, "There's so much we have to fight for and a one-day anniversary simply isn't enough." Miss Murray's organization, which claims a national membership of 30,000, held a rally at Battery Park in New York City where speaker after speaker hammered on the theme of [making abortions legal]. [New York Times] One hundred and twenty religious leaders, philosophers, scientists, writers and social scientists have signed a document criticizing religious dogmatism and stressing that humans alone must solve the problems that threaten their existence on earth. Its signers included Andrei Sakharov, the dissident Soviet physicist; B.F. Skinner, the Harvard psychologist; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus at New York University, and Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, founder of the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement. The 4,000-word document, titled Humanist Manifesto II, attempts to update a 1933 document -- Humanist Manifesto I -- whose signed included John Dewey, the philosopher. [New York Times] Intense fighting between North Vietnamese and Cambodian Communist troops has been reported by refugees coming into Kompong Trach, a remote area in Cambodia along the South Vietnamese border. The refugees say the fighting was initiated by the Cambodian Communists after a conflict over scarce rice supplies and territorial control and has resulted in hundreds of casualties for the North Vietnamese and Cambodians. [New York Times] Fighting was reported at five points within 50 miles of Phnom Penh. Communist-led Cambodian insurgents shelled two airports, including Pochentong, Phnom Penh's military and international airport, cut the country's rice road to the northwest and attacked government positions defending two provincial capitals. Government officials expect the rebel forces to attempt another assault on Phnom Penh. [New York Times] Two men were injured -- one critically -- when a letter bomb exploded in the Bank of England. Prime Minister Heath ordered an alert of all government departments because of the wave of bomb incidents, now officially blamed on elements of the Irish Republican Army. The explosion occurred shortly before another bomb, which failed to explode, was found in a women's clothing shop on Oxford Street. A total of 29 explosive devices, mailed or planted, was found in London last week. [New York Times] Secretary of State Rogers criticized the White House-sanctioned wiretapping of three high-ranking Foreign Service officers under a 1969-71 program that President Nixon has defended as necessary "to find and stop national security leaks." Paul J. Hare, the acting State Department spokesman, said that Mr. Rogers had told him that he was never informed by the White House about the wiretaps and "would not have approved them." Mr. Rogers' views were his most explicit criticism of any action that had been approved by Mr. Nixon. [New York Times]