Any station, he said, which stayed on the air without shifting to the two designated frequencies, would provide a navigational aid to enemy aircraft. An operator of a transmitter who stayed on the air could also give intelligence information to the enemy or transmit subversive information to the listening public. He also said that, at the present time, a Communist who transmitted a signal after the CONELRAD system had gone into effect could adversely affect this country's defense system. When asked if he was apprehensive concerning Communist attempts to penetrate communications facilities, Mr. Lee replied: "I certainly am *** and always have been." Frank M. Kratokvil, Assistant Chief of the Field Engineering and Monitoring Bureau, FCC, testified that Murray Goldberg, Philip Douglas Boothroyd, Harold O. Townsend, Stanley Blumenthal, David Jay Gould, and Wayne P. Paschal-all witnesses subpenaed to testify in the hearing-had recently held, or had applied for renewals of, licenses to operate transmitting equipment through which the CONELRAD warning system could be adversely affected. Mr. Lee said that under the decision in the Borrow case, the FCC now has power to deny an operator's license to any applicant who refuses to answer questions about Communist Party membership. However, he pointed out that this ruling did not give the FCC the power to deny a license in the event an applicant admitted Communist Party membership (in which case a hearing would have to be held), nor to deny a license if an applicant lied and said he was not a Communist Party member when the FCC had a witness who had identified him as such. He also pointed out that this court ruling did not give the FCC the power to revoke the license of a person who joined the Communist Party after obtaining a license. The FCC, he said, sometimes receives confidential derogatory information from another Government agency concerning a current license holder. When the time comes for renewal of this person's license, the FCC has to consider whether or not it will be able to prove its case against the licensee in the hearing which must be granted prior to denial of a license renewal. Often, for security reasons, a witness cannot be produced for this hearing. The FCC then has no choice but to renew the license. Mr. Lee said that, in spite of the ruling in the Borrow case, the FCC has no specific legal authorization for sending a questionnaire concerning Communist Party activity to persons who apply for renewal of their licenses and that the FCC has been able to deny renewals in only a few instances. It was his personal judgment, he said, that H.R. 12852 would be “a useful tool" in attempting to preclude Communists from access to communications facilities. Michael Mignon, a representative of the AFL-CIO Communications Workers of America who had once been a member of the Communist Party and had previously appeared before the committee as a cooperative witness, testified that, in his opinion, a Communist Party member who had access to communications facilities "would not hesitate at all" to sabotage CONELRAD. "I have no doubt in my mind," he said, that any member of the Communist Party, in the event of war or an attack on the United States, "would do all possible to aid the enemy of our country." He also testified that it was the belief of his union and his personal belief that "there is no room for a member of the Communist Party in the communications industry." He stated that, while a member of the Communist Party, he had known Philip D. Boothroyd as a Communist. Philip D. Boothroyd, of Sparta, New Jersey, testified that he held a temporary FCC permit to operate shipboard and broadcasting equip ment, pending action on renewal of his expired first-class radio-telephone broadcast license. Boothroyd invoked the fifth amendment in refusing to say where he had worked in the broadcasting industry, where he is now employed, and whether or not he was presently a member of the Communist Party. He admitted having known Michael Mignon, but again invoked the fifth amendment in refusing to state whether Mignon's identification of him as a member of the Communist Party was correct or in error. Wayne P. Paschal, of Issaquah, Washington, testified that he had been a radio and TV repairman for 6 years, had held first- and secondclass radio-telegraph operator's licenses and also an amateur radio license in the past, now operates an amateur radio station which has a normal range of about 300 miles, and is licensed by the FCC to operate any type of radio-telegraph equipment. He invoked the fifth amendment when asked if he was presently a member of the Communist Party, if previous identification of him as such by Barbara Hartle in 1954 was correct or in error, and if he had revealed present or past Communist Party membership to the FCC when he had obtained his license. Stanley Blumenthal, of Brooklyn, New York, invoked the fifth amendment when asked his occupation, how long he had been engaged in it, if he had ever applied to the FCC for a radio operator's license, if he was now a member of the Communist Party, and if he would give any information concerning the Communist Party to the committee. Harold O. Townsend, of Bay Shore, New York, invoked the fifth amendment when questioned concerning his occupation and present employment and when asked if he held an FCC radio operator's license and whether he was a Communist Party member at "this in stant." Murray Goldberg, of Syracuse, New York, invoked the fifth amendment when asked his occupation, whether or not he held a radio operator's license, and if he was "this instant" a member of the Communist Party. David Jay Gould, of West Hempstead, New York, testified that he was an audio engineer employed by the National Broadcasting Company, but that he did not presently have an FCC license nor access to transmitting equipment—although he had had both in the past. He invoked the fifth amendment when asked if he was presently or had ever in the past been a member of the Communist Party, if he had information on Communist Party activities to give to the committee, and if members of his union were Communist Party members. Major Dow E. Evelyn, of the Office of Directorate of Operations, Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, testified that the Air Force considered 60500-60-pt. 1- -2 CONELRAD as "important" in denying navigational aid to enemy aircraft and/or air-breathing missiles which require an outside reference point to locate their position. He said that in the event of enemy attack, a Communist with access to transmitting equipment "could continue to broadcast either in a normal manner, identifying himself by call letters or location, or he could issue specific instructions to that attack force." Major Evelyn also stated that if a Communist possessed certain type equipment, he could adversely affect not only CONELRAD, but this country's defense radar operation and certain other electronic defense mechanisms. Based on his own knowledge of these electronic systems, radar, and CONELRAD, he said that Communists with operators' licenses "could wreak havoc on the defense system if they were so inclined." In response to questioning, he pointed out that they could do this because radar can be blinded by the transmission of "false or spurious or masking signals" and that the same applied to other electronic devices. He said that any person who did not obey CONELRAD and shift to the predesignated frequencies on signal would "give aid to an enemy by the very fact that he remained on the air; more so, if he identified himself, his geographical location, or his call letters." Another danger, Major Evelyn pointed out, was that such a person "could give false or misleading instructions to the civil populace, thereby causing panic." He testified that the Air Force had no power to cause the removal of Communists who had access to radio transmitters. Wilson McMakin, vice president, director of industrial relations, and personnel security officer of the Mackay Radio and Telegraph Company, the Commercial Cable Company, All America Cables and Radio, Inc., and Globe Wireless, Ltd.-all of which are subsidiaries of American Cable and Radio Corporation-was the next witness. Mr. McMakin testified that these four companies operate radiotelegraph and submarine cable telegraph circuits to and from most countries of the world, including the Soviet Union and other nations behind the Iron Curtain. He said that international traffic of all kinds goes over these lines, the circuits being used by the Armed Forces, the Department of State, and firms with defense contracts, and that technicians working on these transmitters have access to all types of information and can copy coded messages. In addition, he stated, the four companies operate public coastal radio stations on the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific Coasts, which are in constant communication with all ships at sea. Operators handling the messages at these stations know the location of every ship on every ocean. It is easy, he said, to see the danger posed by a subversive holding such a position in time of a national emergency. Mr. McMakin stated that it was his belief that the possibility of sabotage in the communications area was the "greatest danger to national defense”: Trained saboteurs planted throughout the communications It would be a simple matter for such employees to cripple He said that his companies endorsed H.R. 12852 as an important means to help prevent the deliberate place- Joseph F. Keating, vice president in charge of programs and operations of the Mutual Broadcasting System, testified that that system served 440 radio stations in the United States, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. After stating that the president of the Mutual System, Robert F. Hurleigh, had seen and approved his statement, Mr. Keating testified: *** it seems obvious to us that Communist agents or He also testified to * the need, in our opinion, of practical and effective legislation |