Watergate interrogator SEN. LOWELL WEICKER. R-Conn, questions Frederick Laßue, former special assistant in the White House and John Mitchell's “right-hand-man" of the Com mittee for the Re-election of the President, as part of yesterday’s Senate Watergate Hearings. Distributor calls shortage 're^r Editor’s note: following is the second part of a series examining the gasoline shortage. By PATRICIA STEWART Collegian Editor | One local distributor contends the current gasoline shortage is part of a larger, more serious fuel oil shortage ana could become critical if ignored. ! "The energy crisis is very real. It’s not Galen Dreibelbis, president of Nittany Gas and Oil|in State College, told the Daily Collegian. “One of the worst things that can happen is if we don't believe it.” } . ' Dreibelbis, an independent distributor dealing mainly with City Service Oil Company in Baltimore, admits he is not a friend of the major oil companies. He does admit, however, that those-companies have a real problem with the public’s skeptical view of the gasoline shortage. Dreibelbis said he believes the fuel shortage has resulted from several major problems: —unrealistic government restraints in the past; —natural gas shortage; —extensive use of oil to run electrical generators; —affluence of American society; and ; —devaluation and instability of the American dollar. The present gasoline shortage, "Dreibelbis said, was “precipitated by a fuel shortage last winter.” The major oil companies knew the shortage was coming, he said, but the crisis came more quickly than they had expected, placing the Midwest in a critical situation. He explained the companies do not have the refining capacity to produce all the heating fuel and gasoline necessary and turned to producing fuel because of the crisis last winter. . Normally, Dreibelbis said, reserves for fuel are stockpiled in the fall and reserves for gasoline are stockpiled in the spring. “When you break that chain of reserves, yo.u’re in trouble,” he said. Dreibelbis said he feel£ the shortage problem goes much deeper than last winter. He said he believes government controls have contributed to the problem, citing the freezing'of natural gas well-head prices as much as 20 years ago. “Natural gas is a very important part of our Prices rise despite Gov't to enforce Phase 4 WASHINGTON (AP)—Phase 4 economic controls will be enforced by government accountants —not con sumers who will have few clues as to whether price increases are legal. Unlike the Phase 3 freeze, there is no requirement for merchants to provide customers with legal price ceilings, except at the gas pump after Aug. 12, and the meat counter, where ceiling on beef prices remains until Sept. 12. The new regulations, announced Wednesday allow nearly all manufac turing and service companies to pass on dollar-for-dollar their cost increases since Jan. 1. They cannot, however, increase their percentage of profit. It will be up. to the Cost of Living Council and the Internal Revenue Service, augmented by 1,200 more employes, to see to it that the rules are enforced. Spokesmen for the IRS and the Cost of Living Council yesterday said enforcing Collegian the daily energy smorgasboard,” Dreibelbis said. He said the price freeze had a “double detrimental effect”—it caused a shortage of supply while creating an ar tifically low price for a quality product, thus in creasing the demand. “The affluence of . our society” is also a major contributor to the energy crisis, Dreibelbis said. “We don’t mind taking a drive on Sunday afternoon and burning 20 gallons of gas.” Because of 1 the short supply of natural gas, Dreibelbis explained, “fuel nil, coal and electricity had wh |g n he joined the be a hoax telephone call which at first Nixon campaign as a. political coor fooled committee chairman Sam J. dinator. ! - Ervin Jr., D-N.C., into thinking In a prepared statement at the start of President Nixon had agreed to provide ,bis testimony, Mardian said he was told White House tape recordings. the morning of the' June 17, 1972 The areas of contradiction between Watergate break-in about the event. Mardian and others included whether i * pnn'imittpp- burning of papers was suggested Hamilton, asked; “Was there’discussion whether he asked for FBI reports and that afternoon about a budget that had whether he advised that Nixon com- been approved for dirty tricks and'black mittee cash be whisked out of the advance?’.’ ! campaign. “Yes, I believe that was told>to me by AP wirephoto But gas prices see rollback WASHINGTON (AP)—President Nixon’s new Phase 4 price rules will force rollbacks of gasoline prices in some parts of the nation, the Cost of Living Council said yesterday. But administration officials said Americans shoulcLexpecTprices on just about everything else to rise again soon, although not as much as they might without the tough ancT'complex price control system set to go into effect Aug. 12. A day after the administration outlined Phase 4 and exempted the food and health industries from the 60-day price freeze, Treasury Secretary George P. Shultz sounded an optimistic note about the future of the U.S. economy. “We are going to do better on in flation,” Shultz promised. He told a group of foreign newsmen the new economic measures will significantly strengthen the dollar abroad and im prove the U.S. economic picture. think we can get out of it,” he said, adding that the United States must watch its reserves and plan ahead for shortages. Nittany Gas and Oil now supplies 11 stations in Centre and Clearfield counties, Dreibelbis said. The is supplied on a percentage of the amount purchased in the same month in 1972—80 per cent for March, ApriTand May; 90 per cent for June; and 100 per cent for July. s. “One hundred per cent sounds like We have; all we want, which iS'not true,” Dreibelbis said. He! added { that the company has been able “to find enough products on the open market to keep'from putting restraints.” He said the company has been able to give its stations all the gasoline they needed and the managers could hold the prices down, i . “We’re in business to make an honest dollar,” he said. “We don’t want to do it at the expense of the consumer.” < A spokesman at the State Gas and Oil Company of State College also said the company has received all the gasoline it’s needed. He said the company has dealt with Exxon out of Pittsburgh since 1938 and received more than enough gasoline to supply the 22 Centre County stations it services. He said that Exxon had not enforced any sort of quota or percentage system and had not given any indication that the “shortage” would get worse in the future. 1 A spokesman at the third local distributor—Centre Oil and Gas Company in Bellefonte—said he does not like to make statements to the press because they always get “misconstrued, misconcepted and a few other mis-es.” He did say that he deals with the Texaco office in Pittsburgh. j * Thomas Yeale, of the main office of Atlantic- Richfield in Philadelphia, said he feels the shortages this summer were “spot shortages resulting from the driving patterns in a particular area.” He said his company is distributing gasoline on the basis of 104 per cent'of the total volume last year. economic controls George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO, issued a statement saying Phase 4.“ spells more had news for the - housewife and consumer.” Meany said wages remain under control, the cost of living is continuing up, interest rates have soared and profits “are out of sight.” • Shortly after Shultz spoke, the Cost of Living Council released a mass of proposed regulations [that will govern price increases in Phase 4. The oil industry was put under a complicated and detailed set of new price ceilings that eould mean lower gasoline prices at the pump in some areas. Gasoline, home heating oil and diesel fuel were put under a ceiling that limits prices to the Aug. 12 price plus the Jan. 10 price markup used by the seller. The markup is the difference between what He paid for the gasoline ?nd what he charges. Forcing use [of a markup six ijionths ago instead of la current higher one is expected to force some price rollbacks, said Walker. In addition, crude domestic oil was put under a price ceiling of May 15 levels. In an extremely complex pove, the council set up a system under which oil producers can escape tne ceiling in some cases by expanding thjeir production. The idea [of the systep is to encourage more domestic production of oil and help relieve the current fuel shortage. dirty tricks' cou nte C BIHDING DEPT. PATTEB LIBRARY CAMPUS j lift COPIES i ' | Friday, July 20, 1973 ; University Park Pennsylvania Vol. 74, No. 13 6 pages Published by Students of The Pennsylvania State University s Mitchell Mr. Magruder at the Airporter Hotel,” said Mardian. i Q. Did Magruder tell you who had approved the budget for dirty tricks and black advance? A. He told me the budget had been approved by Mr. Mitchell. Mitchell has' steadfastly denied he approved any bugging! operation. Frederick C! Laßue, another cam paign aide, wound up his second day of Palestinian attacks Israeli airline office By PHILIP POPOULOS Associated! Press Writer ATHENS, GREECE (AP) A. sub machinegun-waving Palestinian seized 17 persons in ’: a hotel lobby here yesterday after failing in an attempt to shoot up an Israeli airline office. He threatened to kill the hostages including four Americans; but let them go 'after being promised safe conduct to the Middle East, j The gunman was escorted to Athens Airport by the ambassadors, of Egypt, Iraq and Libya and left aboard a flight to Kuwait. I i The hostages; held more than five hours, were two young sisters from Texas, a couple from Davenport, lowa, a priest, two -Greek policemen and employes of the! hotel. “I am not afraid to die,” the gunman told this correspondent in the hotel lobby. He kept Waving his submachine gun with one hand and held a grenade in another.- j “I have no desire to live,” he said. “After I shoot these people I will pull the plug on a hand grenade and kill myself and everyone else around. “You pass this on to the Greeks: If the deputy premier does not come to the hotel I will shoot the Americans first and then the priest.;’ The Palestinian spoke through an Arab-Eriglish interpreter' who came after the gunman asked to talk to a foreign news! correspondent. He demanded that Deputy- Premier 1 Stylianos Patakos escort him to the airport for safe conduct out of ■ the country. But Patakos refused. “I won’t negotiate with every bum around,” he said. It was after this that the three Arab ambassadors entered the picture. : : The gunman,; a slender, bony-faced man in his late !20s, declined to identify himself but said he came from “oc cupied Palestine,” meaning former Arab land that is now part of Israel. In addition to! his submachine gun, a. < grenade in his hand and another in his pocket, the gunman had two revolvers, apparently taken from the Greek policemen. j As he left the hotel with the am bassadors, the j gunman looked slowly around him, stared hard at the crowd gathered outside and then got into the car of the Iraqi’} ambassador. The hostages, inside the hotel im mediately scattered. Sharon and Diane Lewis, 20 and 18 years of age, j from Sherman, Tex., emerged from the hotel. “He demanded in halting English that we keep our hands up high,” Sharon said. “My sister and I who are guests at the hotel, were simply terrified. I’ve' read about many persons being held hostage, and my first impression was Butz on farm bill ' I ! SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE Earl L. Butz ta Washington yesterday spoke out against House action to ban food stamps for strikers, an amendment to the farm bill. The Jbill also wopl<}- eliminate billions of dollars currently going for subsidy|aynjepts to farmers'. " U.S. POSTAGE STATE COLLEGE PA. 16801 PBRJfTT NO. 10 testimony before Mardian took the stand and again recounted how at a meeting in Florida March 30, Mitchell deferred action on the bugging plan. Mitchell has testified he rejected the plan at that meeting and Magruder has said Mitchell approved it. , ' Laßue has pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiring to obstruct justice in the cover-up plot and is awaiting sen tencing. not always to give in to their demands. “I didn’t think he would really want to shoot anyone, despite his threats. He was a pure coward.” But during the conversation between this correspondent and the Palestinian under a marble stairway inside the hotel, the gunman seemed to be most menacing toward the couple from Davenport, lowa, Christian and Anne Sweetman. Sweetman, 50, pointed out to the gunman that he was a pilot for an American oil company in Saudi Arabia. But this apparently did not prompt the gunman to ease up. The drama began a few minutes before noon at the El A 1 office in central Constitution Square. An EI.AI security guard noticed a man with a "submachine gun enter the outer door of-the office. The guard triggered an automatic lock on an inner glass door. The man then tried to batter in the door, but it held and he raced away down a side street into the Amalia Hotel. There he rounded up 40 hostages, but soon let all but 17 go. Police surrounded the hotel, placed sharpshooters in strategic locations and then tried to negotiate with him, but failed because of language problems. The gunman then asked to speak to a foreign newsman, and this correspond ent was invited in. We talked through a hotel employe who spoke both English and Arabic. But first the employe searched me for weapons at the Palestinian’s request.- Flashing a nervous smile the gunman began to berate Israel and American support of Israel, and displayed fury that he had been barred from entering the El A 1 office; While he talked the gunman kept waving his submachine gun around, generally pointed toward the hostages, but once or twice held it steady at me. After our conversation, I took a cautious step away and said I would inform police of the gunman’s demands. He didn’t react so I walked out. I looked back from the door and the Palestinian was still waving his gun. A short while later the three Arab ambassadors arrived at the hotel and after a long conversation left for the airport with the Palestinian. A previous attack on the El A 1 office took place Nov. 27, 1969. Two gunmen blew up the office, killing a 2-year-old boy. Several other persons were wounded. Weather Increasing cloudiness and warm today with showers developing this afternoon; high of 83. Cloudy with showers tonight and tomorrow. Low tonight of 65; high tomorrow of 76. Mostly cloudy and cool Sunday with a chance of showers; high of 76. Ap wireohoto