Two Radicals Appear Before Senate Hearing

Michael Ansara '68, a former SDS leader and one of the founders of the Old Mole, appeared Friday before the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security. Ansara was originally subpoenaed to testify before the subcommittee over a year ago.

David L. Landau, a Cambridge radical who has also been involved in various movement activities, appeared with Ansara before the subcommittee, which is chaired by Sen. James O. Eastland (D-Miss.).

Both Ansara and Landau flew to Washington last Tuesday, as the subpoena stipulated. However, their lawyers were unable to appear and testimony was rescheduled for Friday.

In February of last year, the subcommittee-which has held hearings in the past on student radicalism-subpoenaed the records of Cambridge Iron and Steel, a dummy corporation started by Ansara and Landau whichchanneled money into the movement. At the same time the subcommittee acquired the financial records of New York SDS, Liberation News Service, and two other radical groups.

At Friday's hearing, the only Senate member of the subcommittee present was Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), who, according to Landau, "wanted the thing over with. He wished he were somewhere else."

The subcommittee asked Ansara and Landau to present all SDS documents they had, and records of their other radical activities.

Ansara and Landau were reluctant to give over the documents, believing that they would lose their right to plead the Fifth Amendment in subsequent questioning. A law made during the McCarthy era states that once a person answers the first question in a "line of questioning," he must continue to answer all following questions.

The subcommittee ruled that Ansara and Landau would retain their right to use the Fifth Amendment. They then surrendered the financial records-which are identical to those which the subcommittee subpoenaed last February.

At this point, Thurmond asked that the hearing recess. April 22 has been set as the date for continuation of the testimony.