Both houses of Congress adopted identical resolutions today calling on the civilized world to ostracize nations and peoples who aid and abet such acts as the murder of 11 members of the Israeli Olympic squad. The resolutions were adopted unanimously. The tally in the Senate was 82-0 and in the House 346-0. Both chambers directed that their resolutions be presented to Secretary of State William P. Rogers “for appropriate transmittal.”
President Nixon this morning directed Secretary Rogers to “consult other governments on an urgent basis as to what collective measures by the international community can be brought to bear on the problem of terrorism.” Nixon’s move came during a 75-minute meeting held at the White House with Rogers and the President’s National Security Advisor Dr. Henry Kissinger to review the events in Munich. The announcement of the meeting was made by White House Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler. He gave no indication what activities the Nixon administration might take to meet the terrorist acts.
The President cabled Premier Golda Meir today extending the sympathy of the American people for what he described as “a tragedy for all the people and all the nations of the world.”
The resolution condemning the Munich bloodbath was Informed in the Senate by Democratic Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana on behalf of himself and the Republican Minority Leader, Sen. Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania. The House resolution was introduced by Rep. Emanuel Celler (D.N.Y.), dean of the House and chairman of its Judiciary Committee.
SECURITY MEASURES STRENGTHENED AT MISSIONS
After expressing “deep sorrow” and “alarm” at the terrorism in Munich and sympathy for the families of the victims, both resolutions stated: “It be further resolved that all means be sought by which the civilized world may cut off from contact with civilized mankind any peoples in any nation giving sanctuary, support, sympathy, aid or comfort to acts of murder and barbarism such as those just witnessed in Munich.”
Shortly after his meeting with the President, Rogers met with a half dozen top-ranking State Department officials who he asked for creative ideas on halting terrorism. Rogers also telephoned the Israel Ambassador, Yitzhak Rabin, and arranged to meet with him at the State Department late this afternoon. Discussing the developments stemming from the Munich murders, State Department spokesman Charles Bray described terrorism as “obviously a very complex, difficult and perhaps protracted problem.”
Bray told newsmen that the US had moved to strengthen security measures at the Israeli, German and Arab missions in Washington by the Executive Protective Service, a special federal police force established to guard foreign installations. Bray said that in New York the US Ambassador to the United Nations, George Bush, received the whole-hearted cooperation of the New York City police in protecting the installations of those same countries. He said similar police cooperation had been extended in a dozen other major cities where foreign legations are located.
Bray said the State Department was coordinating security measures for the protection of Israelis in the US which President Nixon pledged yesterday. Regarding threats against Arab diplomats, he said “regardless of one’s feelings, and for most of us they are intense in the wake of yesterday’s tragedy in Munich, further violence directed against diplomats to whom we have obligations as people is clearly no solution.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
