Harrisburg Defendants Condemn War

Neil McLaughlin and Joseph Wenderoth, two Baltimore, Md., priests under indictment with Philip Berrigan and three others for allegedly conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger '50 and blow up Washington heating tunnels, spoke to a Lowell Lecture Hall audience of about 60 people last night about their feelings on the war and on poverty in the inner city.

McLaughlin urged the audience to consider "what the indictments mean in terms of the war."

Weak Case

At a press conference which the two gave at Emmanuel College in Boston yesterday afternoon, Wenderoth said that recent government moves in Harrisburg are "proof of the fact that the case is weak-weak as hell."

William S. Lynch, the U.S. Antorney now in charge of the Grand Jury investigation in Harrisburg, was quoted in yesterday's New York Times as say-that the Grand Jury may issue new indictments "superseding" the original indictments issued in Harrisburg over two months ago.

Additional Defendants

Lynch said that the indictments might involve "additional matters" and "possibly additional defendants," the Times reported.

"This is designed to create the illusion that there's a widespread dangerous element working in our society," McLaughlin said at the press conference yesterday. "It's a way out of the present indictment, making it look like this is a bigger thing," he added.

30 Subpoenas

This Friday in Harrisburg Judge R. Dixon Herman will consider a motion to quash the subpoenas to testify in Harrisburg which were recently served on about 30 people. He denied motions yesterday to force the government to disclose evidence it had obtained about the witnesses through electronic surveillance.

Three Boston residents-Paul Couming, Anne Walsh, and Ckaude??e Piper-are among those who received subpoenas. Couming and Piper have"taken responsibility" for draft board actions in Boston, and Walsh has avowed responsibility for actions in New York.

Wenderath and McLaughlin discussed the Harrisburg case only in passing last night, and concentrated in their speeches on their own personal experiences working as priests with poor people in Baltimore and opposing the war.

Wenderoth noted that the U.S. is using parachutes to improve the accuracy of 15.000 pound bombs, which it is now dropping on North Vietnamese troops for the first time. "Getting out of the war doesn't stop the whole problem," Wenderoth said. "The problem is the so-called American mentality," which he added, involves our unwillingness to examine our own responsibility.