WATERGATE: Nixon Warned Grand Jury on Pentagon Spy Ring

FoxNews.com ^ | November 10, 2011 | James Rosen

[Hunton Peck]

Newly unsealed grand jury testimony by ex-President Richard Nixon shows he warned prosecutors and grand jurors not to probe an episode from 1971, when he discovered that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been spying on him and national security adviser Henry Kissinger.

“Don’t open that can of worms,” Nixon told his interrogators in June 1975, when he spent roughly eleven hours over two days’ time fielding – and sometimes deflecting – questions put to him by lawyers for the Watergate Special Prosecution Force and two grand jurors flown in from Washington.

***

And he confided what his predecessor in the Oval Office, Lyndon B. Johnson, lamented during their closed-door meeting at the White House in December 1968, during the transition between their administrations. “He told me, very emotionally, that the greatest mistake he made was after his election in his own right in ’64, in not firing all of the people or virtually all of the people whom he had inherited from the [Kennedy] administration and getting his own people in.”

***

The Archives also unsealed an undated recording from the spring of 1973 by Haldeman aide Gordon Strachan. Talking with fellow Haldeman staffer Lawrence Higby, Strachan can be heard discussing the role of White House Counsel John Dean in the disbursement of “hush money” to the men arrested at Watergate. The conduits Dean used included Strachan and Nixon campaign aide Fred LaRue. “I took 40 [thousand] to LaRue, because Dean told me to take 40 [thousand] to LaRue,” Strachan said. “It would be, you know, the same night that Dean told me to do it.”

[sten]

well of course. all the agencies with the means are keeping close tabs on the current president

all they need is a single paned piece of glass they can bounce a laser off to listen in.

you can also get a good vibration off some metals

like those found in golf carts...

[Pelham]

The excellent book “Silent Coup: the Removal of a President)” by Colodny and Gettlin begins with the Pentagon’s spy in the White House, a junior officer who manned a communications office IIRC.

The senior military had noticed back-channel communications going on between Red China and someone in the White House. This was while we were busy fighting China’s ally North Vietnam and the military were concerned that they might have discovered a traitor. So they spied on these communications.

This led to a discussion of some select young military officers who acted as liasons between the White House and the Pentagon. One such Naval officer was Bob Woodward. Among the White House officials Woodward briefed was Alexander Haig.

Woodward then left the Navy and went to work at the Washington Post, teamed with Carl Bernstein. And then came Watergate and fame for one-time Naval officer and White House briefer Bob Woodward.

[Pelham]

Spying on the White House:

http://www.nixonera.com/etexts/silentcoup/major02.asp

Colodny and Gettlin’s “Silent Coup” online:

http://www.nixonera.com/etexts/silentcoup/contents.asp

[miele man]

Yes, it was an excellent book chock full of many details and revelations.

[Hunton Peck]

Extremely interesting posts. Thanks and bookmark.

[21twelve]

There was an Admiral Moorer in that book - I think he had Woodward under his wing. In the book he is quoted as saying something like “It is ridiculous - unimaginable that we would be spying on the White House...”

It was many years later that I read an article (U.S. News - 1990’s??) where Admiral Moorer was caught up in some scandal where they posed as military museums and got stuff from the military at a discount, but sold a lot of it back off to foreign countries - perhaps even enemies. In that article hes is quoted as saying “It is ridiculous - unimaginable that we would be selling arms....”

Seriously - it was almost verbatium from his quote of 20-30 years earlier! So much so that even with my bad memory I was able to find the quote in the book and put the mag article in there as a bookmark. (Hmmm - now where is that, I know it is around here SOMEWHERE!)

I always wondered what Nixon meant when he was trying to protect the breakin guys (Cubans) and can be heard on the tapes (write before the silent part IIRC) saying something like “...that could open up that whole Cuban thing...” I always wondered if they were involved in the Bay of Pigs, and Nixon was trying to protect that (and Kennedy).

In spite of his problems, Nixon really had a passion for keeping the dirty secrets of the government secret - regardless whether they were his secrets or not. (The Pentagon Papers were created under LBJ and supposed to be secret). And the State and Military going against the Presidency which it sounds like here he wanted to keep quiet. Both things if he had spun them the other way may have helped him.

[Pelham]

We must be the two who read it!

What is fascinating is that the two authors are, or were, political liberals. And they began their task of creating a “harmony of the Watergate memoirs” with John Dean helping them.

But as time wore on and they began asking Dean about some inconsistencies in his account, Dean became unhelpful if not outright hostile.

And the authors began to conclude that the Watergate break in had been a scheme concocted by John Dean alone, to retrieve a book with his wife Maureen’s picture in it. The book was a list of high-priced call girls being run out of a desk in the DNC’s Watergate office, and that was what Maureen Biner had been when John Dean began dating her.

[Pelham]

Admiral Thomas Moorer was Bob Woodward’s boss. Moorer was one of the four sources who told the authors that Woodward had been briefing Alexander Haig, something that Woodward had been denying in public.

Nixon had thought that Atty Gen’l John Mitchell had planned the break in. But Nixon never asked Mitchell. Mitchell thought Nixon must have planned it. But Mitchell never asked Nixon. Both men thought they were protecting the other.

Nixon selected his own investigator inside the White House to learn what had happened. He picked John Dean. Very bad luck for Nixon.

Dean was able to control and direct the flow of information concerning Watergate. When Dean saw that the Senate investigators were closing in and about to discover his role he ran to the Senate and said “I can give you the President”.

[miele man]

Well, there are at least three of us who’ve read the book! It seems like I read it 100 years ago, but your take is spot on. I always thought the book was political dynamite and wondered why it didn’t “take” on the general public, at least those who read and who cared about this nation. Why Dean is still trotted out by the libs on occasion is beyond me, other than he sounded like a leftist last time I saw him on the tube. He still is a filthy vermin, IMO.

Thanks for posting this article.

[patriot preacher]

It never ceases to amaze me that, even after Nixon has been dead for years, still they dribble out some tapes and/or transcripts, every so often, so that they Leftist media might once again relive those glorious days when they overthrew a sitting American President. They so relish the fact that they can still find small ways to drag his name through the mud. Remind people why history ought to remember him as “tricky Dick,” and why he is to be despised and villified at every opportunity.

I’m no great fan of Nixon. He was an old line Republican, not a Conservative. He was a control-freak. He would destroy his political enemies if they got in his way. But the News Media LOVES Liberals who are EXACTLY like that. The reason they hated Richard Nixon, and ALWAYS wanted to destroy him, was because back in the late 1940’s, during the McCarthy era, it was Nixon who, as a member of the House UnAmerican Affairs Committee, chaired the sub-committee that exposed the hero of Democrats and the Media, Alger Hiss, as a Communist Agent, with the testimony of former Communist Whittaker Chambers. It proved to be a major embarrassment to President Truman, who has tried to force HUAC to back off Hiss. In 1952, Truman would not run for re-election in part for this debacle, and in part for his firing of popular war-hero and Commander of American forces in the Korean Conflict, General Douglass MacArthur.

Alger Hiss eventually was convicted of Perjury and spent 3-1/2 years in prison. But the media NEVER forgot that Nixon pressed the case against Hiss, even when the others on the HUAC would have let it go. The Media and the Democrats swore to destroy Nixon, and at every opportunity, they sabotaged him.

In 1960, when he ran for President against JFK, the TV debate is a veritable lesson in camera-work for presenting one candidate in a very positive light (JFK) and another in a very negative light (Nixon). Whereas Kennedy was generally shown from the waist up, and usually when he looked at ease, most of Nixon’s shots were tight close-up’s of his face — so close one could see the sweat glistening — and they usually cut to these tight face-shots when Nixon has a frown or nervous scowl. It was an artful use of propaganda.

Even then, Nixon came within 100,000 popular votes or so of winning the election. The closest state was — Illinois. There, in Cook County (Chicago) there were tens of thousands of fraudulent votes in the largely democrat precincts. There was enough that Nixon could have legally forced a 2000-like Supreme Court showdown had he wanted to. Nixon, however, dismissed the thought. He didn’t want to cause such a division in the country. A shame Al Gore didn’t learn that lesson, isn’t it?

Of course, the Media got their chance to bring Nixon down with the dirty political operation of the Watergate break-in, and the cover-up. When he resigned in August, 1974, I remember how upset my Dad was. He said the Media had finally gotten what they wanted. And he was right. So they “dig up” ol’ Nixon every now and again, just to spit in his face one more time, to revisit old victories. And they live in hopes that they can recapture old glories and destroy new hated figures today.

They seem to be doing pretty well....

[Hunton Peck]

Good synopsis of the situation. I thought this Fox article is actually pretty evenhanded in its treatment of the story.

For a contrast, take a look at this AP hatchet job on the same release, complete with incendiary qualifiers and dinosaur-media spin: Nixon defended his legacy in grand jury tape. Just for a teaser, here's the lede:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Feisty and cagey, ex-President Richard Nixon defended his shredded legacy and shady Watergate-era actions in grand jury testimony that he thought would never come out. On Thursday, it did.

[infowarrior]

Strachan can be heard discussing the role of White House Counsel John Dean in the disbursement of “hush money” to the men arrested at Watergate. The conduits Dean used included Strachan and Nixon campaign aide Fred LaRue. “I took 40 [thousand] to LaRue, because Dean told me to take 40 [thousand] to LaRue,” Strachan said. “It would be, you know, the same night that Dean told me to do it.”

The entire problem was Dean's mess. The true beneficiary of the actual break-in was none other than John Dean. Nixon's 'crime', other than being universally hated by the rabid left, was in giving loyalty to a man (the self-same John Dean), which in the final analysis, deserved none...

the infowarrior

[21twelve]

“And they live in hopes that they can recapture old glories and destroy new hated figures today.”

I seem to recall something in the last election - something to do with Nixon. But brought up some portion of history, scandal, etc. And not sure if it was the same article, but perhaps - or at least in the same time frame, some story about McCain that would have been somehow related.

I’m thinking something to do with statements regarding Vietnam?

Hmm - I wonder when the media will be asking for the tapes regarding Cain’s recollections of the bimbo’s lawsuits etc.? “What did he known, and when did he know it?”

[Hunton Peck]

As I read that paragraph I thought of Gordon Liddy’s evisceration of the weasely Mr. Dean, and his allegation that the real object of the break-in was to retrieve embarrassing pictures of Dean’s wife, or something to that effect.

[infowarrior]

As I read that paragraph I thought of Gordon Liddy’s evisceration of the weasely Mr. Dean, and his allegation that the real object of the break-in was to retrieve embarrassing pictures of Dean’s wife, or something to that effect.

Yup. John Dean had married a known DC prostitute, and the Mc Govern campaign knew it. Retrieving *THAT* evidence was what the break in was all about, from jump. Prime beneficiary Nixon? Hardly. Prime beneficiary Dean, from the start. Nixon thought Mitchell was involved, and Mitchell thought Nixon was involved, but neither were directly involved. It was all Dean...

the infowarrior

[ETL]

"Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is a former American military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation who precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of government decision-making about the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg
_____________________________________________________________

"As a response to the leaks, the Nixon administration began a campaign against further leaks and against Ellsberg personally. Aides Egil Krogh and David Young under John Ehrlichman's supervision created the 'White House Plumbers,' which would later lead to the Watergate burglaries."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#Fallout
_____________________________________________________________

So what is Daniel Ellsberg up to these days? Well, for one thing, he is an endorser of the Revolutionary Communist Party's "World Can't Wait" movement...

Click on the 'World Can't Wait' link just below and see: "Endorsers of the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime Include" You may recognize a few other names as well, including the democrat chair of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers Jr. Conyers' name appears right after Ward Churchill's.
http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2538&Itemid=2
_____________________________________________________________

Endorsers of the [World Can't Wait] Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime Include:

James Abourezk, Aris Anagnos, Rocky Anderson, Anti-Flag, Edward Asner, Russell Banks, Ed Begley Jr., Harry Belafonte, St. Clair Bourne, Gabriel Byrne, Margaret Cho, Ward Churchill, Paulette Cole, US Rep John Conyers Jr., John Densmore, Jesse Diaz Jr., Michael Eric Dyson, Steve Earle, Niles Eldredge, Daniel Ellsberg, Eve Ensler, Laura Flanders, Jane Fonda, Martin Garbus, Senator Mike Gravel, Andre Gregory, Sam Hamill, Suheir Hammad, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Jr., Mumia Abu-Jamal, Rickie Lee Jones, Sarah Jones, Brig. Gen. (Ret) Janis Karpinski, Jonathan Kozol, Rabbi Michael Lerner, US Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Robin Meyers, Mark Crispin Miller, Tom Morello, Viggo Mortensen, John Nichols, US Rep. Major Owens, Grace Paley, Harvey Pekar, Sean Penn, Michelle Phillips, Harold Pinter, Michael Ratner, Mark Ruffalo, US Rep. Bobby Rush, Susan Sarandon, Richard Serra, Jeff Sharlet, Rev. Al Sharpton, Cindy Sheehan, Martin Sheen, Nancy Spero, Gloria Steinem, Lynne Stewart, Serj Tankian, Sunsara Taylor, Studs Terkel, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut, Alice Walker, Naomi Wallace, US Rep. Maxine Waters, Cornel West, Ann Wright, Howard Zinn, and thousands more who have already joined us.

http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2538&Itemid=2
_____________________________________________________________

World Can't Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime is a Maoist-revolutionary movement organized by the Revolutionary Communist Party. (scroll down the list that appears (after clicking link) to find the World Can't Wait organization --rwor.org is the website of the Revolutionary Communist Party):
http://rwor.org/a/rwlink/links.htm
_____________________________________________________________

From David Horowitz's FrontpageMag.com /DiscoverTheNetworks.org:
Profile: World Can't Wait (WCW)

*Revolutionary communist movement that stages protests against the Bush administration

*Organizes college and high-school students

*Founded in June 2005 by Charles Clark Kissinger, a longtime leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7213
_____________________________________________________________

The RCP calls for the armed overthrow of the U.S. government...

From the website of the Revolutionary Communist Party (revcom.us or rwor.org) :

"Create Public Opinion, Seize Power: We are preparing minds and organizing forces for the time when there is a major crack in the system, whenever it comes and wherever it comes from: an opening that makes it possible to bring the future Revolutionary Army of the Proletariat (R.A.P.) into the field and wage a revolutionary armed struggle that actually has a chance of winning.

And we have said that building our party itself is the most important part of organizing forces for revolution. This is true now, and it is true looking forward to the creation of that future R.A.P. and the waging of that armed struggle.":

http://revcom.us/a/v20/1000-1009/1000/barw.htm

[ntnychik]

Count me as the fourth reader of Silent Coup. Still on my bookshelf for occasional reference. Dean is lucky that G. Gordon Liddy has a slight bit of self control.

[Verginius Rufus]

Whether Nixon or Kennedy had more popular votes is debatable (of course the point doesn't matter constitutionally, only who had more electoral votes). Apart from the possibility that the fraudulent votes for Kennedy in Texas, Illinois, and elsewhere outnumbered the supposed margin of victory for Kennedy (118,574), there is the problem of Alabama.

They list Alabama as having 324,050 votes for Kennedy and 237,981 votes for Nixon, but Harry F. Byrd received the majority of the electoral votes. When the voters went to the polls, who did they think they were voting for--Kennedy or Byrd? Did the ballot list a name that the electors were pledged to vote for? If the Democratic electors just said "Democrat," who is to say how many of the voters intended to vote for Kennedy?

Any FReepers who were living in Alabama in 1960 and old enough to vote in that election?

[Pelham]

Well the Byrds are one of the founding families of Virginia and Harry Byrd Sr. was a Senator from Virginia at that time.

Lister Hill and John Sparkman would have been the US Senators from Alabama during the 1960 election.