News stories from Saturday June 22, 1974

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

Evidence gathered for the Senate Watergate committee indicates that former Attorney General John Mitchell bypassed the Justice Department's Antitrust Division four years ago in giving the Howard Hughes organization approval to purchase a Las Vegas casino-hotel. The committee's staff said in a report that Mr. Mitchell's decision was without analysis by or of the knowledge of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. It was, the report said, "a classic case of governmental decision-making for friends" of the Nixon administration. The report also said that negotiations with Mr. Mitchell regarding the proposed purchase of the Dunes Hotel were conducted by Richard Danner of the Hughes organization, who delivered $100,000 in Hughes funds to Bebe Rebozo, President Nixon's close friend. [New York Times] The issue of impeachment and alleged inaction in Washington on domestic programs were the principal topics at the opening of the 42nd annual convention of the United States Conference of Mayors in San Diego, which is meeting jointly with its sister organization, the National League of Cities. Many members were divided on whether the convention should go on record for impeachment. Mayor Roy Martin of Norfolk, Va., president of the mayors conference, and other municipal officials urged Congress to move quickly on impeachment proceedings. [New York Times] The United States told Israel on Friday that it had no plans to sell military arms to either Egypt or Syria, according to State Department officials. They said that Secretary of State Kissinger gave the assurances in a meeting at the State Department with Simcha Dinitz, Israel's Ambassador. Mr. Dinitz told Mr. Kissinger of growing apprehension in the Israeli press about the decision by the United States to negotiate the sale of a nuclear power reactor to Egypt, and the announcement that a team of American military officers was going to Egypt at the invitation of the Defense Ministry. Mr. Kissinger, his aides said, asserted that no sale of arms was contemplated to either Egypt or Syria, and that no military mission that had anything to do with arms is going to Egypt. [New York Times] Israel's air strikes against Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon are viewed by officials in Cairo as a systematic effort to disrupt the negotiating process for peace that was begun by Secretary of State Kissinger and dramatized by President Nixon. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt appealed to President Nixon in an urgent personal message to use American influence to stop the air strikes and the Cairo papers reported that Mr. Nixon had answered immediately. But the nature of the reply was not disclosed. Many Arab diplomats are convinced that Israel is seriously planning an invasion of southern Lebanon by her ground forces. The possibility of such an invasion is also taken seriously by some Western diplomats. [New York Times] While the United States is gradually reducing its commitments in Asia, it is rapidly expanding its interests as it seeks a new role in the region. The themes that justified the American position in Asia for two decades appear to have been played out in the aftermath of the Vietnam war. But, if American intentions and assumptions are obscure now, American power is not. On the contrary, the solidity of the American presence -- as seen in 10 Asian nations -- makes a striking contrast to the tentativeness of American attitudes. [New York Times]