The State Department today bitterly denounced as “unwarranted” a newspaper charge that the Department last Sept. concocted “a deliberate deception” to influence the Jewish vote in the Presidential election. In an editorial page article yesterday the Washington Post declared that Department spokesman Charles Bray said a U.S. development loan of $3 million to Uganda was held up as a result of American displeasure over Ugandan President Idi Amin’s “sympathetic mention” of Hitler’s method of dealing with Jews.
“Then the Department cabled U.S. Ambassador Thomas Patrick Melady in Kampala that Bray was misinterpreted,” the Post said, adding that Melady also was told to assure Amin that technical delays on the loan had no connection” with Amin’s views of Hitler. Asked by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to comment on the Post’s charges, Bray told a news conference that “the facts don’t support” them. He said the thrust of the Post article was that the Department committed “a deliberate deception.”
Recalling the “strong exception” he had made to Amin’s statement at the time, Bray said that the statement about Hitler and the Jews, the treatment of American citizens in Uganda and the expulsion of 42,000 Asians from that country by Amin were the reasons the State Department had cut off future aid to Uganda. “We intend to continue technical assistance in the pipeline” to Uganda, amounting to about $2 million. Bray said, “but we did not intend then or now to undertake new assistance programs.”
This is “a policy which we have confirmed to the Uganda government,” Bray continued. He said that two weeks after he had made his own remarks, also in response to a JTA inquiry, a “senior” American official told a “senior” Ugandan official, who was in Washington on financial matters, of the American attitude. This confrontation was a U.S. initiative, Bray said. Bray said that “at this point it is not possible to predict” when the $3 million loan to Uganda might be made, observing that the situation “is not entirely in the U.S.’ control.”
Premier Golda Meir cabled congratulations today to Chancellor Willy Brandt for his victory in yesterday’s West German elections. Mrs. Meir said she looked forward to cooperating with him, Brandt is due to visit Israel during the latter half of 1973. No date has been announced.
About 100 persons attended a rally Sunday at the Isaiah Wall opposite the UN in support of Iraqi Jews. The rally was sponsored by the American Committee for the Rescue and Resettlement of Iraqi Jews (AMCOR).
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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.
