European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 23, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday september 23, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 7 Small car fuel tank study set Washington a the transportation department announced wednesday it has launched a major investigation of fuel tank fires in All subcompact cars sold Inthis country. The action follows charges by Ralph Nader and others that in past models of the Ford Pinto the gasoline tanks were located in a hazardous position. The department s National Highway traffic safety administration said it has begun a crash test program to measure the possible fire Hazard of Small car fuel tanks. Agency administrator Joan Claybrook said full sized autos also will be tested for comparative purposes. Because automobile fires Are among the most terrifying safety hazards anyone can encounter we intend to pursue this matter quickly said Claybrook. We will find out whether a safety defect exists and if so what we can do to Correct  the Agency said that an initial Survey revealed that since 1975 a total of 26 pintos have been involved in fatal fires claiming 35 lives. The charges that triggered the investigation claimed that 500 persons had died in Pinto fires since the car first came out in 1970. But Agency officials say they have no figures to substantiate  charges were made in the septem Ber october Issue of Mother Jones a West coast based Magazine with 150,000 sub scribers. The article s author Mark Dowie claimed Ford president Lee Iacocca was in a Rush to Start producing the Pinto in 1970. Dowie said the company ignored tests showing the tank was susceptible to Gas leakage after an Accident because it was too close to the rear bumper. Consumer advocate Nader backed the article s charges claiming this is corporate callousness at the highest level of Ford motor  he said Ford should recall All three million pintos with Vulner Able fuel tanks. The article said that Ford had modified 1977 Pinto models and they would not be subject to recall. Claybrook emphasized that  Agency has made no determination that one make or Model of car is More fire prone than any other. She said the investigation is to identify such problems. Fuel tank Caps to be replaced on Ford Granadas Detroit up the Ford motor co. Wednesday said it will replace the fuel tank filler Caps on 322,000 of its 1977 Grana Das because of possible gasoline leakage if the cars Are involved in rear end Colli  said it was not recalling the affected cars but will mail new Gas tank Caps to owners beginning next month. Supply plans Call for owners to receive re placement Caps by the end of the year. The fuel tank filler Caps must be re placed on 290,000 base Model Granadas in this country 30,000 in Canada and 2,000 inexpert markets Ford said. Ford said it was notified by the National Highway traffic safety administration that the affected Granadas did not meet Federal safety standards for fuel tank integrity. Similar tests by the automaker revealed fuel leakage from the filler Cap after the vehicle was struck in the rear at 30 Miles per hour and overturned by a moving bar Rier a spokesman said. Excia scientist defends mind control experiments Washington up a former Cia mind control expert testified wednesday that foreign agents May have targeted . Presidents for Covert action at least twice and actually disoriented members of one of Richard Nixon s overseas travel ing parties. Hidden from View in a closed Senate antechamber talking by Loudspeaker to the hearing room or. Sidney Gottlieb cited these enemy threats As typical justification for the extremely urgent cold War drug experiments his own super secret team carried out from 1952 until the Early 1970s. Gottlieb the mysterious and Seldom seen former Boss of Cia mind control projects testified under a Grant of immunity from prosecution and under secretive conditions that had a cloak and Dagger flavor. He closeted himself with his Senate interrogators in a Small room off the Senate health subcommittee s hearing chamber and spoke through a microphone to the main gallery. Committee spokesmen said Gottlieb re Quested the cloistered arrangement for undisclosed health reasons. An intelligence official said the elderly White haired scientist May have feared the pres sure of Public testimony would bring out his tendency to stutter. But Gottlieb testified in a firm Clear voice throughout on the cold War Back ground to the mind control project known As Multra which included the use of Ltd and other drugs on unsuspecting per sons and led to at least one suicide. I would like this committee to know that i considered All this work ,. To be extremely unpleasant extremely difficult extremely sensitive but above All to be extremely urgent and important he said in a prepared statement. Claiming the Cia might have been criticized by Congress had it not tried to match and counteract communist uses of behaviour control he cited two dramatic but vague examples of skulduggery aimed directly at . Presidents. On at least two occasions in the past he said he and an assistant advised the president of the United states of possible Covert activities against  without saying which president or presi dents or elaborating further he continued not too Long ago in the course of a presidential visit to a potential hostile country the president when he came Back described some unusual feeling he and others had and asked if the assistant and i were Able to  under questioning Gottlieb said the year of this incident was approximately 1971 when Nixon was in office and drugs May have been involved. He described the symptoms As a disorientation unusual in terms of previous Normal behaviour but added it did not include the president himself. It specifically included his physician and  records indicate Nixon made no Over seas trips in 1971, but visited China the soviet Union and Poland Early in 1972. Gottlieb also said he resented being victimized by the Cia As the master mind of the Agency s drug project now that it has become subject to controversy and investigation. But he maintained the project was indispensable at the time. The context in which this investigation was started about 1952," he said was hundreds flee blast Mansfield Ohio up the explosion of a Container of cyanide during a fire at the Mansfield plating co. Forced the evacuation of a five Block area police re  said hundreds of persons were moved from their Homes on the City s East Side but were allowed to return about two hours later. No injuries were reported. That of the height of the cold War. With the Cia organizing its resources to liberate Eastern Europe by paramilitary Means. There was tangible evidence that both the soviets and the red chinese might be using techniques of altering human behaviour which were not understood by the United states and which would have implications of National  sharing the Bike Vincent Howard left gets a rear window View As Jerry Howard does the imprisoned water gaters steering and peddling on the Way to school in Miami Fla. A photo Sirica to hear pleas on reduced sentences Washington a the Only three men still in prison for watergate crimes once Richard Nixon s closest aides will have hearings next month on petitions for reduced sentences. . District court judge John j. Sirica set an oct. 4 hearing wednesday for former atty. Gen. John n. Mitchell former White House chief of staff . Haldeman and John d. Ehrlichman who was Nixon s chief Domestic adviser. All three said in their petitions that they were sorry for past offences had suffered considerably already and wanted a Chance to become useful members of society. Mitchell also said he needed treatment for severe arthritis and faces surgery to replace a diseased hip an operation he said could not be performed while he is in prison. The three former Nixon aides serving terms of 30 months to eight years in Feder Al prison Camps for watergate cover up convictions Are asking for sentence reductions to time already served. Sirica who received his first watergate Case five years ago has the authority to order the immediate release of the three. He has granted sentence reductions in the past to such watergate figures As John Dean Jeb Magruder James Mccord and Herbert Kalmbach. With the watergate special prosecutor s office now closed and no known pending watergate cases being pursued by other authorities Sirica s disposition of these latest petitions could be the end of the watergate Era at the Federal courthouse. Haldeman 50, entered a prison Camp at Lompoc calif., on june 21. One Day later the 64-year-old Mitchell entered a prison Camp at Maxwell air Force base Ala. Both men waited until a Long string of appeals was exhausted before surrendering to Federal authorities. Ehrlichman deciding not to wait to the end of the appeals process entered prison at Safford ariz., last oct. 28. In addition to his watergate sentence Ehrlichman is serving a concurrent sen tence in connection with a break in at the office of a psychiatrist who had treated Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg made Public the Pentagon papers. Under the terms of the prison sentences they received Ehrlichman cannot be paroled until june 1979, and Mitchell and Hal deman must remain in prison until december 1979 before becoming eligible for parole