Kerry, Watergate: DNC Links Caused Break-In? (Kerry lied! He was still with VVAW JUNE 1972)

US Newswire ^ | 2/9/2004 | Bob Weiner

[sully777]

ping

you'll find this a tad fascinating

[jennyp]

Connection: Watergate break-in by CREEPS to foil assasination attempt (?).

Always a question in mind of Americans WHY Nixon sought minor break-in when polls indicated he would have landslide against McGovern.

Did Nixon ever come clean on the reason for the break-in? Or any of the other principals?

[Fedora]

From Mark Riebling, Wedge, 1994 edition, pp. 295-297:

"There's a report," Hunt broke in, "that Castro's been getting money to the Democrats. The idea is to photograph the list of contributors the Democrats are required to keep. Once we have those lists, we can have them checked to determine whether the contributors are bona fide or merely fronts for Castro or Hanoi money". . .Robert Maheu, who had been the CIA's go-between for [LA mob boss Johnny] Rosselli and [Florida mob boss Santos] Trafficante [contracted by the CIA to kill Castro but later suspected of being a double-agent for Castro], was a close friend of Democratic National Committee chairman Lawrence O'Brian [a Kennedy associate]. The Cuban security service must have good evidence of attempts against their leader's life, and Castro himself would probably do all he could to help the progressive McGovern, including pass evidence of anti-Castro plots undertaken on Nixon's watch. . .As burglar Frank Sturgis later explained, "One of the things we were looking for in the Democratic National Committee's files, and in some other Washington file cabinets, too, was a thick secret memorandum from the Castro government addressed confidentially to the Democrats' platform committee. The Cubans were providing an itemized list of all the [CIA] abuses. The complaints were especially bitter about various attempts to assassinate the Castro brothers.

[what's up]

Bob Weiner was in the news for his 15 minutes of fame in the 90's during the Clinton scandals, although I can't remember in what connection. Linda Tripp?

Seems that some Democrats (Hillary) are getting nervous that these Kerry revelation's about Cambodia and false smears against Nixon might be making her seat a bit hot.

Will the whole Nixon/Vietnam/Watergate thing be opened up to the public thru the Swiftvets' work?

[Fedora]

I don't know if Kerry himself was in on the Pentagon Papers theft, but he may have been a few degrees removed from it:

Tom Wells, Wild Man : The Life and Times of Daniel Ellsberg, 461-462

The White House did not believe that Ellsberg had acted alone. In fact, the first "suspected villain" had been Leslie Gelb (just as Gelb had worried). Morton Halperin and Paul Warnke were also suspect. . .Even the staunch cold warrior Paul Nitze attracted suspicion. "He's a co-conspirator with Gelb and Halperin," Ehrlichman reported to Nixon on September 10. "Paul Nitze is?" Nixon responded, incredulously. "I'm quite sure. Quite sure that he's the guy," replied Ehrlichman. . .

Wells goes on to discount Nitze as a suspect, but IMO he's a plausible suspect. Since 1950 he had been the chief political ally of Dean Acheson, a long-time enemy of Nixon who resented being squeezed out of influence after Nixon was elected in 1968. During the last years of the LBJ administration Nitze led a "dove cabal" opposed to the Vietnam War, along with Clark Clifford and the above-mentioned Paul Warnke. Morton Halperin, mentioned above, was a Warnke hiree. Ellsberg claimed he had been Nitze's assistant at one time. During the Nixon administration Nitze worked to undermine the administration's policies. In any case he was on Ehrlichman's list of suspects, along with Gelb, Halperin, and Warnke.

Also: When Ellsberg was deciding where to leak the Papers, he initially approached the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a Marxist think-tank linked to the Soviets and Cuba. Ellsberg allowed IPS to make a copy of the Papers, and in September 1970, months prior to Ellsberg leaking the Papers to the New York Times, IPS held a conference, "US Strategy in Asia", featuring Ellsberg, Halperin, and Gelb as speakers.

Finally, Ellsberg also approached Senator George McGovern before leaking to the Times. McGovern was supporting the VVAW's Winter Soldier investigation (held in late 1970) around this time (cf. Douglas Brinkley, Tour of Duty, 356). If there's a VVAW link to the Pentagon Papers, my guess is it would involve some type of coordinaton between the Papers leakers, the Winter Soldier investigation (which like the Papers was intended to discredit the military), and the McGovern campaign.

[Fedora]

PS: Another note: Kerry's political ally Robert Drinan was the Congressman who introduced the resolution calling for Nixon's impeachment.

[stockpirate]

I have never seen this information before. I have been reading the FBI reports on VVAW and they were getting money from a communist party of a country in Europe, the Communist Party of America, and from dealing drugs. Also VVAW was getting directions from the NV Government.

[Ann Archy]

I NEED FREEPER'S HELP!!....When Kerry was supposed to be sleeping on the steps of the Capital when they were protesting, he was picked up in an expensive car by someone and taken to hs home....Kerry said it was someone high up in the Pentagon. Does anyone remember that story?? He talked about having a cognac in the study.....HELP!!

[Fedora]

I've not seen the information discussed much, just mentioned in passing like in the passage I quote. I suspect a thorough combing of the Watergate tapes and related material would shed additional light.

[Ann Archy]

Was Hurley at the meeng where they dscussed ASSASSINATINg Senators and took a VOTE ON IT??? Did he VOTE...How did he vote?

[Fedora]

I had heard he slept elsewhere, but not the part about a Pentagon official picking him up. If you find the answer to your question, please ping me.

[stockpirate]

Did ya know that Frank Sturgis was in Cuba with Castro during the Revolution?

And Howard Hunt may have been one of the three tramps arrested from behind the grassy knoll in Dealy Plaza oh so many years ago? He actually sued someone for making that claim and it was proved that he was there.

Thay found the three tramps in a boxcar that the man in the control tower pointed out to the police saying that he saw three guys go to the boxcar from behind the fence. There was a fourth person behind that fence he told the police, but he put something long intothe trunk of his car and drove away and these three guys got into the boxcar. Photos of the three tramps show that two of them look alot like Frank Sturgis and Hunt, both tramps, if you look at the pictures have polised shoes on that any military person will recognize.

What is "smoke pouring outof a boxcar door." quote from Bob Dylyn

[stockpirate]

It is in the FBI files. $$$$$ Communist $$$$$

[Ann Archy]

I read it here about him sleeping at a Pentagon official home.

[Fedora]

I hadn't heard about Sturgis being with Castro--thought he was one of the guys trying to kill Castro? I have read the allegations about Hunt being one of the tramps, but didn't find them convincing. That main proponent of that allegation is, curiously enough, Mark Lane, a longtime Communist lawyer who was involved in the VVAW Winter Soldier investigation. Lane represented the defendant in the Hunt lawsuit you mention, Liberty Lobby, and later wrote a book about the trial called Plausible Denial. For a critique of Lane's book, see "Implausible Assertions".

[Eva]

I saw a post about a picture of Kerry and Ted Kennedy. The poster said that the caption under the picture stated that the two were discussing whether or not Kerry should risk sleeping in the park and getting arrested. I guess he decided not to, and Kennedy probably helped him out.

[stockpirate]

The book I remember was called "Coup d'etat in America". It used a technique that used clear acetate photos of the three tramps taken at about the same angle as in the pictures when the police were leading them for questioning. The theory is that all heads and nose's etc aren't the same. I found the matchup to be perfect for all three of these men. All three were IMHO involved in the WG burglery.

[Fedora]

I've seen the photo of Kerry and Kennedy at the event, but not any mention of what they were discussing. I do remember that Ramsey Clark, the protestors' lawyer, had legally advised them not to sleep in the park.

[HAL9000]

That's not a bad theory - but I believe that Nixon was aware of the sacks of illegal cash DNC chairman Larry O'Brien was laundering, and the wiretaps were installed to gather evidence about it.

[Fedora]

Yeah, that was another book on that, originally published in the 70s and re-released in the early 90s. In the late 80s, after that book was originally published, the tramps were identified from arrest records as Harold Doyle, John Forester Gedney, and Gus W. Abrams. Interviews with Doyle, Gedney, and Abrams' sister confirmed this in the early 90s. There's some info here if you scroll down towards the bottom:

The Three Tramps