The Michigan Daily
Vol. XC, No. 52-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Saturday, August 2, 1980 Ten Cents Sixteen Pages
Bill received cable

Disclosure
contradicts
statements
released
Thursday
From,,AP and UPI
WASHINGTON - President Carter
sent a confidential State Department
cable to his brother regarding Billy
Carter's 1978 trip to Libya, the White
House acknowledged last night. Earlier
in the day, Billy Carter acknowledged
he was given - possibly by someone in
the White House - a cable on his trip.
Both the White House and Billy Car-
ter had said Thursday there were no in-
dications the president's younger
brother had been given any State
Department cables on the trip.
BUT SHORTLY before 9 p.m. yester-
day, presidential spokesman Jody
Powell released a copy of the confiden-
tial cable which bore a handwritten
note from the president: "To Billy: You
did a good job under the 'dry' circum-
stances. Jimmy".
Powell, at a briefing for reporters,
said, "Late this afternoon, after exten-
sive effort, we determined that Billy
Carter had received a copy of one of the
cables we released to you yesterday.
We've also determined that he received
a copy by mail from the president."
The cable was sent from William
Eagletos, charge d'affaires at the U.S.
Embassy in Tripoli, to the State Depar-
tment. It summarized Billy Carter's
visit to Libya, saying that "there has
been no negative fallout" from the trip,
which was rated "a very positive
event." It was one of seven cables
released Thursday by the White House.
POWELL SAID his statement was
cleared by the president, who left
yesterday evening for the Camp David,
Md., presidential retreat.
On Thursday, the White ' House
released seven cables on Billy Carter's
visit to Libya. At that time, Powell
sought to discount any suggestion that
the president gave his brother sensitive
government information.
And he said Thursday that had the
president given the cables to his
brother, "it wouldn't have amounted to
a hill of beans."
BUT EARLIER yesterday, Billy Car-
ter acknowledged in Plains, Ga., that
he was given a State Department cable
concerning his trip. He said it was a
memo from an American diplomat
saying his visit had been helpful. On
Thursday, he had denied having any
State Department cables.
See PRESIDENT, Page 2 -

BILLY CARTER RELAXES with the morning paper yesterday before he spoke with reporters in Plains, Ga. Carter said
he had been given a State Department cable describing his trip to Libya in 1978.
Carter blasts move ent
tow ard open convention

From AP and UPI
WASHINGTON-President Carter, resisting pressure to
release his committed delegates, criticized yesterday efforts
to turn the Democratic National Convention into a
"brokered; horse-traded, smoke-filled-room convention.
"It's almost incomprehensible," Carter said, how such a
convention "can be called open, and a decision made by 20
million Democrats in open primaries and caucuses can be
called closed."
THE PRESIDENT'S COMMENTS about the efforts to
relax a Democratic Party rule binding the delegates on the
first presidential ballot at the convention were his most for-
ceful so far in a public setting.
His audience-several hundred delegates pledged to sup-
port him-was wildly enthusiastic, chanting his name and
reviving the shout of "Four More Years" used when Richard
Nixon ran for re-election in 1972.
Carter also held an emotional White House meeting
yesterday with 80 Denocratic members of Congress, and
was visibly moved by their renewed pledges of support.
ONE MEMBER OF the group, Rep. Mary Rose Oakar (D-

Ohio) said Carter appeared "a little bit choked up" when he
thanked the members of Congress for their support.
"The president was, I think very moved by the fact that
when he walked in, there was a standing ovation," the
congresswoman said.
"It was very spontaneous. At the end, he said, 'I want to
thank you all for being very, very loyal to me and I won't
forget it.' And he couldn't go on. I think he was a little bit
choked up."
REP. WILLIAM ALEXANDER of Arkansas told repor-
ters the president said he would "absolutely not" release the
1,900 convention delegates committed to him.
The president said allowing the delegates to vote their
preference would violate their oath to support the candidate
to whom, they were pledged when chosen to participate in
the convention.
"To violate that oath and commitment and promise would
be a travesty," the president said to the partisans who were
invited to the White House for the pep rally.
See CARTER, Page 9