Without Johnson and Kennedy, former Vice-President Richard NIxon finally
managed to become the 37th President of the United States, with no serious
opposition. After taking office Nixon discussed the Warren Re****t with
aides H.R. Haldeman and Charles Colson and said, "It was the greatest hoax
that has ever been perpetuated."
The new Preident soon created a "dirty tricks" department to harass
politcal opponents that included CIA veterans E. Howard Hunt, Frank
Fiorini Sturgis, Bernard Barker, James McCord, G. Gordon Liddy, and many
anti-Castro Cubans from Miami. Their job was to create situations and
fabricate documents to embarrass and humiliate those who opposed Nixon and
his policies. Their targets were the most pominent democratic leaders of
the late 1960's and included Senator Edward Kennedy, and Presidentail
hopefuls Edmund Muskie and George McGovern.
By early 1970 the war in Vietnam continued to divide the country and
haunted Nixon as it had President Johnson before him. In Febrary National
Security advisor Henry Kissinger began secret one-on-one meetings with
North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho outside of Paris, and by the end of
the year the Nixon administration ordered large numbers of troops were
withdrawn from combat. As increasing numbers of troops were withdrawn and
peace negotiations with the North Vietnamese dragged on, Nixon began to
pursue detente with both communist China and the Soviet Union. He was
eager to end the war in Vietnam and win back the sup****t of the public
before the election in the fall of 1972. But like Presidents Kennedy and
Johnson before him, Nixon earned the animosity of the military industrial
establishment as he tried to end their war in Vietnam.
As Nixon and his political machine geared up to run for a second term, the
Committee to RE-Elect the President was formed. Known as "CREEP" the
committeee was comprised mostly of CIA agents and was funded by the Mullen
Company, a notorious CIA front. On June 17, 1972 members of CREEP,
including Frank Sturgis, Bernard L. Barker, Virgllio R. Gonzales, Eugenio
R. Martinez, and James W. McCord, broke into the Democratic National
Headquarters at the Watergate apartment-office complex in Wa****ngton.
These people had access to the most sophisticated electronic and burglary
tools in the world, yet they used an ordinary piece of tape to keep the
latch on the door unlocked.
A security guard, Frank Wills, noticed the tape and called the Wa****ngton,
D.C. police. When the police arrived at 2:30 A.M. and the men were
arrested, and had in their possession a walkie-talkie, 40 rolls of
unexposed film, two 35 mm cameras, lock picks, pencil-sized teargas guns,
and bugging devices. Their tools made it appear that they though they
were going to "bug" the Democratic National headquarters, but most
political analysts agree that their efforts were unnecessary. President
Nixon was so far ahead of his opponents in the polls that to most
political observers the "Watergate break-in" didn't make any sense.
In jail the veteran intelligence agents said nothing, but the police found
E. Howard Hunt's telephone number on one of the men. The following day
the police learned that one of the men worked for the Committee to
Re-Elect the President, which soon led investigators to the White House.
The FBI soon began an investigation.
(According to E. Howard Hunt, the burglars were trying to learn what
information the Democrats had concerning President Kennedy's
assassination. Frank Sturgis(Fiorini) said, "The reason we burglarized
the Watergate was because Nixon was interested in stopping news leaking
related to the photos of *our role* in the assassination of President John
F. Kennedy." OUR ROLE IN THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY??? Hunt
and Sturgis' accusations made it appear as though Nixon was involved in
the assassination of President Kennedy, which would have destroyed his
political career.)
Less than a week after the break-in, and long before the Watergate
burglary made national headlines, Nixon and his Chief of Staff, H.R.
Halderman, discussed how to stop the FBI investigation. Nixon told
Haldeman to ask CIA Director Richard Helms to pressure FBI Director L.
Patrick Gray into curtailing the FBI's investigation. Helms refused,
perhaps because he may have been part of the plot to destroy Nixon
politically.
Two months later veteran CIA agent E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy were
arrested as co-conspirators and indictments were issued on September 15,
1972. Within a month it became clear that all of the men involved in the
Watergate break-in were linked to the CIA and to the Committee to Re-Elect
the President (CREEP).
(Hunt, while in jail, attempted to blackmail the President by threatening
to expose many of Nixon's "secrets." White House Chief of Staff John
Ehlichman responded by ordering FBI Director L. Patrick Gray to remove the
contents of Hunt's safe and "deep six" them. On December 8, 1972 Hunt's
wife, former CIA agent Dorothy Wetzel Hunt, was carrying a large amount of
cash and was killed when United Airlines flight #553 crashed prior to
landing at Chicago's Midway Air****t. Her death ended Hunt's threats to
reveal Nixon's "dirty secrets."
After CIA Director Richard Helms refused Nixon's requests to pressure the
FBI into curtailing their investigation, Nixon fired him on February 2,
1973. Five days later, on February 7, 1973, the Senate Watergate
Committee was formed as public interest in the affair grew. (Helms was
replaced by 53-old William Colby, a lawyer and OSS veteran from WWII.)
After firing the Director of the CIA President Nixon's days in the White
House were numbered, just as Kennedy's days were numbered after he fired
CIA Director Allen Dulles. Six weeks after Helms was fired his close
friend James McCord, who had worked for the CIA in the Security Research
Staff, wrote a letter to Watergate Special Prosecutor Judge John Sirica
and said that he and other defendants had been under pressure by the White
House to remain silent about the Watergate break-in.
From March 25-29 McCord testified before the committee and named Nixon's
former Attorney General, John Mitchell, as their "overall boss" and said
that John Dean and Jeb Magruder were also involved. He also claimed that
E. Howard Hunt had promised him an executive (Presidential) pardon if he
would plead guilty. CIA -asset James McCord's revelations were the
beginning of the end for Nixon's term as President.
On June 25 White House counsel John Dean testified before the committee
and further inplicated the President. He said that Nixon proposed to
raise $1,000,000 to pay the Watergate burglars for their silence. He also
told the committee that for the past 4 years the Nixon White House had
used the powers of the Presidency to attack political enemies by harassing
those who disagreed with his policies. Dean's testimony was sup****ted by
Donald Segretti who also told the committee about Nixon's "dirty tricks."
While Nixon continued to deny any knowledge of involvement in the
Watergate affair one of his aides, Alexander Butterfield, told the
Watergate committee on July 13 that Nixon had secretly recorded all
conversations to and from the Oval Office. On July 17, 1973 the Senate
Committee requested that President Nixon turn over the secretly recorded
White House Tapes. Nixon, who feared exposing the contents of the tapes,
refused and soon an 18-minute segment in one of the reels was erased.
One of the recorded conversations, in which the President was talking with
H.R.Haldeman, shows that Nixon was very concerned that E. Howard Hunt's
involvement in the "Bay of Pigs Thing" would be exposed:
"....Hunt, you will-that will uncover a lot of things. You open that scab
there's a hell of a lot of things and that we just feel that it would be
very detrimental to have this thing go any further....This involves these
Cubans, Hunt, and a lot of hanky-panky...the problem is that this will
open up the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing...Just say....very bad to
have this fellow Hunt, ah, he knows too damned much, if he was
involved....If it gets out that this is all involved, the Cuba thing, it
would be a fiasco. It would make the CIA look bad, it's going to make
Hunt look bad, and it's going to blow the whole *Bay of Pigs thing* which
we think would be unfortunate-both for the CIA and the country....."
(According to Haldeman, Nixon always used code words when talking abut
President Kennedy's assassination. Haldeman wrote in his book, "The Ends
of Power," that whenever Nixon referred to the "Bay of Pigs thing," he was
referring to President Kennedy's assassination. If Haldeman is correct,
then during their conversation President Nixon was very concerned that E.
Howard Hunt would expose the CIA's involvement in the assassination of
President Kennedy.)
(During the same conversation Nixon also referred to the "Cubans."
(Felix Rodriguez, Bernard Barker, Eugenio Martinez, etc.) and the "Texans"
(George H.W. Bush, Robert Mosbacher, and James Baker.).
Amid the political turmoil of Watergate Nixon's Vice President, Spiro T.
Agnew, resigned on October 10 after pleading "nolo contendere" (no
contest) to charges of tax evasion. Two days later, On October 12, 1973,
Nixon nominated Gerald Ford as the new Vice-President a man described by
Newsweek as the CIA's "best friend in Congress."
As members of Nixon's staff continued to implicte him in the Watergate
affair he continued to deny any involvement and on November 17, 1973 told
the nation in a nationally televised speech, "I'm not a crook."
On April 30, 1974 the Nixon White House released more than 1200 pages of
edited transcripts to the House Judiciary Committee, but refused to
release the tapes. The Committee then sought help from the Supreme Court
who, on July 24, ruled unanimously that President Nixon had to turn over
the tape recordings of 64 White House conversations, rejecting the
President's claims of executive privilege.
In late July 1974 the House Judiciary Committee recommended that President
Nixon be impeached on three charges: 1) Obstruction of justice, 2) Abuse
of Presidential power, 3) trying to impede the impeachment process by
defying committee subpoenas. These charges stemmed mainly from Nixon's
refusual to turn over the secret White House tapes to the Watergate
Committee. We know that on one of the tapes Nixon discussed E. Howard
Hunt's involvement in the "Bay of Pigs Thing" and we know that an
18-minute segement on one of the tapes was erased. We also know that fter
Congress heard some of these recordings they went into secret session, and
only *12 hours* of more than 4000 hours of recordings were ever released
to the public.
On August 7, 1974 oilman, CIA agent, and Republican National Committee
chairman George Herbert Walker Bush publicly called for the President
Nixon's resignation. The following day (August 8) Nixon resigned and
former Warren Commission member Gerald Ford (the CIA's best friend in
Congress) became the 38th President. A month later, on September 6, the
new President granted Nixon "a full, free and absolute pardon....for all
offenses against the United States which he ..... has committed or may
have committed or taken part of while President." President Ford
protected the secretly recorded (White House) tapes and soon nominated New
York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as Vice-President.
The public learned from nationally televised Watergate hearings about
Nixon's abuse of Presidential power, and also learned that former CIA
operatives were involved. As public attention began to focus on CIA
involvement in Watergate, and their abuse of power, some members of
congress suggested the Agency should be dissolved. President Ford quickly
interceded on the CIA's behalf and established the "Rockefeller
Commission" to conduct yet another investigation. He appointed former
Warren Commission counsel David Belin and other like- minded individuals
to investigate the alleged CIA abuses, *which virtually guaranteed a
political "whitewash."
Incidentals. Nelson Rockefeller was the brain-child of the CIA agency
after WW!!. Bernard Barker was identified as the 'SA' who was brandi****ng
a badge on the Grassy Knoll by Dallas Sheriff Weitzman, right after the
final headshot that killed President John F. Kennedy. CREEP, how apt a
name for Nixon's committee and the folks behind the dirty tricks of the
CIA and the murderers of John F. Kennedy.
CJ
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