News stories from Saturday April 28, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The financing of President Carter's 1976 primary campaign is being questioned by the trustee in charge of the business interests of Gerald Rafshoon while Mr. Rafshoon serves as Mr. Carter's media adviser. In question are hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit advanced by the Rafshoon advertising agency in buying ads for the Carter campaign in key primary states. [New York Times]
- A federal official may have lied when he testified before Congress about the disappearance in the 1960's from a plant in Pennsylvania of highly enriched uranium sufficient for 10 nuclear bombs, according to the Inspector General's Office of the Energy Department. The allegedly false testimony was made by Robert Fri, former deputy director of the Energy Research and Development Administration before the House subcommittee on energy and power. [New York Times]
- Delight and disbelief overcame the five dissidents, exchanged by the Soviet Union for two convicted Soviet spies held in the United States, at being released from prison. They described at a news conference in New York how they were transported to Moscow early Friday and informed about their imminent release. They were stripped of Soviet citizenship, and their personal belongings were confiscated. It was not until they had arrived in New York Friday afternoon that the five were told they had been part of a complicated prisoner exchange.
The Soviet prisoner exchange was finally arranged by Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, and Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. They agreed over lunch in Washington earlier this month that it was time to conclude the drawn-out negotiations. The Soviet Union had wanted the swap of the five dissidents and the two spies to take place at Checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall, but the United States insisted on the easier exchange that took place in New York.
[New York Times] - American spies told to Soviet intelligence agents details of several secret satellite systems that the United States expects to use to help verify Soviet compliance with the proposed strategic arms treaty. This has never been made public by the administration. [New York Times]
- A draft of Iran's new Constitution suggests that the Shiite Moslems intend to exercise overwhelming influence over the legislative and electoral processes. A newspaper published a draft of part of the new Constitution. [New York Times]
- An international inquiry commission to determine the fairness of the election last week in Rhodesia was demanded by the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, whose party was badly beaten. He charged that there had been voting irregularities and said that his party would not join the incoming black-majority government until the question of fairness was settled. [New York Times]