Clinics Weren’t Seen as Needing U.S. Protection

WASHINGTON â€”  After the killing of a Florida abortion clinic doctor and his escort last summer raised fears of a nationwide conspiracy, U.S. deputy marshals were dispatched to protect dozens of clinics in cities around the nation.

But the clinics in Brookline, Mass., where two women were shot to death Friday, were not among them because there was “no perceived threat� there, a Marshals Service spokesman said, even though clinics in the Boston suburb were frequent targets of protesters.

“There are a limited number of marshals to respond to all the demands made on them,� U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said Friday. Although the Justice Department initially dispatched deputy marshals to 24 clinics in 18 cities last August, about half of them have been removed, leaving deputies at 12 clinics in 10 cities, the Marshals Service said.

“There are fewer (marshals) on the scene now,� Reno said. “What we want to try to do is to continue with the resources we have, to deploy them as effectively as we possibly can.�

Reno was asked Friday whether she could assure American women that they are safe to go to any abortion clinic.

“One of the concerns that all Americans have with violence across the nation, whether it be at abortion clinics or elsewhere, is the feeling that they are not safe, and obviously we cannot ensure that people will be safe either driving their car--when we look at the violence that is occurring,� she said.

Reno declined comment on the investigation by the special task force she ordered formed last summer, after two murders at a Pensacola, Fla., clinic, to determine if any connections exist among violent attacks against abortion providers around the country.

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But, federal sources confirmed, the task force working with a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., subpoenaed an attorney connected to the anti-abortion movement for questioning Dec. 20. However, the individual, whose name could not be learned, did not appear before the grand jury after indicating he would invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. Instead, he was questioned by department attorneys, the sources said.

The 2,100 operational deputies in the Marshals Service have a wide range of responsibilities and protecting the estimated 1,500 facilities that provide abortions is a small part of their job. The decision to send a two-person team to a specific clinic is made after consultation with local law enforcement and clinic officials to determine whether the addition of federal deputy marshals is needed to augment available local forces in providing security.

“In each instance, we have tried to take the information throughout the country when threats have been received and, working with all concerned, make an assessment of what needs to be done,� Reno said.

“I’m not aware of any requests for marshals at the (Brookline) clinics,� Reno said.

But Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, contended Friday that Mark Munger, volunteer president of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Brookline, “had met with Justice Department officials in recent weeks about the increased threats to the clinic.�

Carl Stern, Reno’s chief spokesman, said that Munger had complained to Reno recently about security at the clinic. Following that discussion, a meeting was held with clinic directors and FBI and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms bureau officials, and Brookline police where the procedures for asking for protection were explained, he said.

The clinic, however, did not request deputy marshals for protection, Stern reiterated. Additional investigative steps, which Stern would not detail, were taken, he said.

Looking unusually grim and tired at a press conference Friday, Reno said she had spent the afternoon conferring about the Brookline slayings with the directors of the FBI and Marshals Service, the U.S. attorney in Boston, the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division and of the task force previously formed to determine whether any conspiracy was directing the clinic violence.

She said she was “trying to make sure that we do everything possible to identify who was responsible for today’s attacks and to do whatever we can to prevent a recurrence.�

Federal officials were already discussing the possibility of charging the person or persons apprehended for the killings with one of the 47 federal crimes added to the death penalty list in this year’s crime bill because Massachusetts has no capital punishment, a government source said.

One charge under consideration is murder with a firearm in the course of federal violent crime, according to the source.

This would be the reverse of what took place in the case of Paul J. Hill, sentenced to die in the electric chair for his conviction in Florida state court for the Pensacola slayings in July of an abortion doctor and his bodyguard.

Hill first was convicted for the crimes under the new federal clinic protection law and sentenced to life in prison without parole, the maximum punishment under that statute. But the crime bill had not been passed then.