News stories from Saturday July 31, 1976

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

The White House, officially confirming what President Ford told the Mississippi delegation to the Republican National Convention Friday, said that Mr. Ford would undertake a straw poll of about 5,000 convention delegates and alternates as well as Republican members of Congress, governors, mayors and other officeholders and leaders of his party to find out their preferences for a running mate on the Ford ticket. In scope at least, the mail survey would be unlike anything before in national politics. [New York Times] Some of the documents stolen three weeks ago from the headquarters of the Socialist Workers Party in Denver were among the files that the Denver office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has made public in compliance with a court order. Federal District Court Judge Thomas Griesa ordered the F.B.I. on Friday to turn certain files over to the party, which then made them available to reporters. The party's papers were included in nearly 2,000 pages of files relating to Timothy Redfearn, a paid F.B.I. informer who has admitted burglarizing the party's offices. Their presence appeared to contradict assertions by John Almon, the F.B.I. agent to whom Mr. Redfearn reported, that he had refused to accept the stolen documents when they were offered to him last July 7. The F.B.I.'s files on Mr. Redfearn provide the first detailed picture of the nature and scope of the intelligence collected by the F.B.I. on radical political organizations in this country. [New York Times] Viking 1 has detected an unexpected abundance of oxygen and chemical activity in the soil of Mars. Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said this could be either the first evidence of life on Mars or a sign of unusually active oxidation processes, or the soil tests might have triggered the release of oxygen trapped in the soil and caused chemical reactions that "mimic" biological activity. The discovery, nevertheless, was called "exciting, interesting and surprising." [New York Times] A man described by neighbors as a disabled veteran threw buckets of lye, drain cleaners, ammonia and gasoline on policemen who had gone to his Harlem (New York City) apartment to arrest him on a charge of stabbing a neighbor. Sixteen policemen were burned, five of them seriously; and several were said to be in danger of losing their eyesight. Their assailant, identified as Calvin Haywood, was shot and killed. The battle began when five police officers broke into the apartment at 12 Convent Avenue, near West 128th Street, which had been barricaded by the occupant. The five officers were the most seriously injured. The other policemen were hurt when they moved in to help. [New York Times] Administration officials in Washington said that Jordan had decided not to buy an air defense system from the Soviet Union, as Washington was virtually certain it would, and is close to buying it from the United States for $540 million. The officials were said to be clearly relieved at King Hussein's decision to retain the United States as his prime supplier of arms. The purchase from the United States could be vetoed by Congress, but this is not expected. The purchase would be financed by Saudi Arabia. Hussein changed his mind, the administration officials said, mainly because of the willingness of Saudi Arabia to pay as much as $540 million for the air defense system after refusing for four months to give Jordan more than $300 million. [New York Times] The Ford administration has decided to sell a new generation of missiles and so-called "smart" bombs to Saudi Arabia as part of a continuing effort to develop that country's armed forces. Administration officials said the sale would include Maverick air-to-surface missiles, "TOW" -- tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided missiles -- and an early version of the "smart" bombs, so called because they are guided by laser beams to their targets. The officials emphasized that these are not as sophisticated as the "smart" bombs the United States had supplied to Israel. [New York Times] President Tito of Yugoslavia denounced the United States Ambassador, Laurence Silberman, and said that he had initiated a campaign against Yugoslavia and was trying to upset Yugoslavia's relations with other non-aligned nations. Tension between Mr. Silberman and his staff and the Yugoslav government has been growing in the past year, partly because of Yugoslavia's imprisonment of Laszlo Toth, an American citizen who had been accused of spying. Mr. Toth was recently released. President Tito's remarks were made in an interview with the Yugoslav national news agency, Tanjug. It was the first time in memory that President Tito had denounced a foreign diplomat by name and there was speculation that Mr. Silberman might be declared persona non grata. [New York Times] The International Red Cross, which had sought to evacuate the first of about 4,000 wounded civilians, mainly women and children, from the besieged Palestinian camp of Tell Zaatar on the outskirts of Beirut were refused entry by extremist right-wing Christian commanders. The evacuation had previously been postponed repeatedly by Christian leaders. Tell Zaatar has been under siege for nearly a month, and is being constantly pounded by mortar shells and antiaircraft guns. Two Swedish physicians serving as volunteers in the camp told a Swedish journalist by radio that there were 30,000 civilians in the defense perimeter, about half of them children. He said many were dying of dehydration, dysentery and a lack of medicine. [New York Times]