1973 Watergate Hearings; 1973-09-24; Part 1 of 5

it's b or have good evening i'm sitting james chairman of the board of the public television outlet and washing of which impact as a division of one of hundreds of interested citizens layman and blame women who volunteered to serve on the governing boards of public television stations throughout the country in the first thirty seven days of this historic event public television brought in more than two hundred hours of gavel to gavel coverage an average of five and one am hours a night and now we're making a fresh commitment we will continue our same basic format a brief introduction the unabridged proceedings from beginning to end with interruptions

only for a station identification and finally some common their public television's decision to carry these hearings have gavel to gavel is based on a demonstrated at best and are doing so we have received hundreds of thousands of letters and phone calls here in washington and a public television stations across the country the message was very clear you thanked us for bringing the proceedings to you in full in the evening hours when you were appalled many of you sent in checks and gratitude we thank you again for that you told us you haven't learned a great deal about your government and about how valuable it was to eye witness an event of such great moment and you told us to please continue that's the decision to do so was one in which all of us interested in public television is including you and the public television station you are now tuned

and now let's go to today's hearing i want to emphasize that at the time of the watergate operation i considered my participation as a duty to my country i thought it was an unwise operation but i viewed my view but whatever that outcome i deeply regret that i had any part in this affair i think it was an unfortunate use of executive power and i'm sorry that i did not have the wisdom to withdraw in the senate of the united states a resolution to establish a select committee of the senate to conduct an investigation and study of the extended family which illegal improper or unethical activities were engaged in by any person acting individually or in combination with others in the presidential election of nineteen seventy or any campaign and there's another activity related to run washington and by ranger gavel to

gavel videotape coverage of today's hearings by the senate select committee on presidential campaign activities designed by correspondent jim lehrer good evening and welcome back to watergate in our hot water gets on his number one super spy was the late awkwardness today as the senate watergate committee but its controversy your show back on america's center stage the fifty five year old hot is in the spy terminology he learned firsthand as a cia agent for twenty one years and a lot of fascinating inside stuff detail to what the committee and everyone else already knew about the watergate melbourne break ins general intelligence gathering for the nixon campaign and other operations connected with his part time work at the white house and reelection campaign operative what makes it clear that his close relationship with former white house aid charles colson has deteriorated noting for the first time publicly that he believes colson had prior knowledge of the overall daily intelligence plan but not

necessarily the specifics including the watergate break in a quiet meticulous man also recited the personal tragedies which of the following him since watergate including the death of this why the plane crashed all this happened today of course and it occurred in the context of this day rather than when the committee wrote for its summer recess in august that there has been a flurry of activity since then particularly at the white house that began with a presidential television address and was followed by two televised news conferences the president continued to maintain he was not aware of any watergate activities he also chide congress for not getting more done and sent them a new agenda as a sort of mini state of the union message what is tonight is use it to observe the presidency for time magazine that is it looks as if mr nickson has been on the offensive just for as work defined it seems to me that what we have observed here is white house theater more than

commitment to national leadership perhaps will be proven wrong in the days ahead perhaps there is something more that once again we have all the stage props the press conference is the meetings that right things have been done but indeed we have in the country a frightening number of forces there luce unfettered inflation the price of food the energy crisis and yet it seems to me that they they don't devoted their time to the watergate problem and it's still the same problems those same format and indeed we lack a clear choice a clear person in which the country has confidence the last gallup poll shows that mr nixon's popularity or the confidence in him has declined our answer as nixon courses also been standing firm on the white house tapes on august ninth the senate committee that the court for an order directing this connection to release them for weeks later jones director ruled on a similar subpoena and special prosecutor cox of the judge should listen to the tapes and his chambers on september six the white house appealed the decision a week later the appeals court suggested the

prosecutor got to the white house work out a compromise but that also was turned down in addition to what watergate figures jeb magruder and honestly ready pleaded guilty in federal court and are now awaiting sentencing and four former white house staff members john ehrlichman it will grow david young and gordon liddy had been invited in los angeles in connection with a break in at the opposite dr daniel ellsberg's psychiatrist our guest tonight is jack murphy of georgetown university law center with markets a visit the courts have taken over some aspects of the watergate scandal as mr nick symmonds requested so legally where are we now well we have been sharply drawn the issue of power of the president to withhold information versus the power of the courts to administer the criminal justice system an apology has a senate implements with islam and it is a critical constitutional question was the result of course by the president would announce when i cannot but i think it's clear that as with other constitutional litigation in the past the decision will be on a practical basis the court will examine this matter

and decide whether or not any circumstances the presidency can survive intrusion into privacy of his office for purposes such as the ministry of justice or for the purpose of the sun and into management how it will come out of the project but that's it back in the day now with your carry on capitol hill say the same for e howard hunt and the senate committee in light of the developments that occur over the summer recess watergate round two on its first day was something of an anti climax two months ago he howard hunt testimony would've been fascinating but at this point in time it seems to been overshadowed by other events indictment of john ehrlichman and others in the ellsberg break in case the continuing battle over those white house tapes and of course a separate scandal involving vice presidents no i do not know a lot of all this there was a feeling in the caucus room today that house testimony about the watergate a melbourne break ins and other white house horrors

seems to be out of date though you'll hear new details new details about possible involvement a former white house special counsel charles colson testimony buttressed by memos and by transcripts of phone conversations and one of those memos contained of franz liszt to go with that famous white house enemies list and francis consisted of sympathetic newsman columnist such as william f buckley william white raf the taliban or jake unloads jones and stuart and joseph alsop newsman clock ran out of pies beach inward edwards whose executives neal freedman and abcs bill gale i this is intriguing but hardly sensational and even details of the famous howard hughes keeper in las vegas will disturb the committee the press or the galleries i mean mr if they could substitute howard hughes for howard dean rip and i'll be back to talk further with a mistress idea mr murphy at the close of the broadcast and as we've been done each night through we replay these hearings here's an hour by our

rundown of the testimony and the first r e howard hunt says that he believed he was acting on authority that was within the power of the president when he took part in the watergate break in and also says it was white house aid charles colson who asked him to fabricate cable linking the kennedy administration to the assassination of president diem now number two on tales al gordon liddy recruited him saying that attorney general mitchell wanted an intelligence operation and also testified that he recruited a spy called penetration agents work inside the muskie campaign despite was to supply campaign schedules and contributor less was later transferred to them about in offices and the third hour and admits telling a crp attorney he had performed see any activities for the white house but denied that it was a threat to get money to provide for his family also an hour and says he told gordon liddy let's jump on record discovered that they'd been removed from the basement dollars in the watergate building he says his advice to scrub the operation was it no and a fourth our mother's breast further about charles colson has knowledge against operation and draw the line

when it's an active participation also an hour and says that when he sought this guy doesn't believe that the government and the cia know in their objective now to senator evan of the caucus room the old senate office building i am the company

in this case my name is i'm here today to answer questions i have been informed that it is permissible for me to make a preliminary statement and i want to take advantage of that opportunity i'll describe my personal background my relationship to the watergate entering and events which of the following since that day i was born in nineteen eighteen in hamburg new york my father was a lawyer and judge my mother a

pianist and house where i was educated and in the public schools in florida and new york and a nineteen forty graduated from brown university six weeks later i volunteered to serve in the armed forces while a destroyer armstrong north atlantic convoy around before pearl harbor i was injured and medically discharged later i volunteered and became an airforce intelligence officer in nineteen forty four i volunteered for the office of strategic services the forerunner of the cia and was sent to china where i was engaged in partisan warfare until the end of world war two in nineteen forty nine i joined the central intelligence agency from which i retired army first nineteen seventy having earned two commendation for outstanding contributions to operations ordered by the national security council

during the twenty one years i spent in the cia i was engaged in intelligence court action and counterintelligence operations i was trained in the techniques of physical and electronic surveillance photography back into forgery and served dishes entries into god promises for photography and installation of electronic devices i participated in the end at the responsibility for a number of such injuries and i have knowledge of many more to put an unmistakably i was an intelligence service or a spy for the government of the united states there have been occasions as one might expect when corn operations by the united states or other nations have been exposed to such episodes have not been uncommon one such mishaps have occurred that has been universally the practice

for the operation that they disavow and covered up usually this has been done by official intervention with law enforcement authorities in addition employing governments have a little offense freeze salaries and family living expenses have been continued former cia director helms has testified before this committee in regard to some aspects of this practice after retiring from cia i was employed by a firm whose officials maintain a relationship with the cia some months after i joined the firm was approached by charles w colson special counsel to the president to become a consultant to the executive office of the president was because the white house had a need for the kind of intelligence background pretty new i possessed this was the basic reason for my employment which i understood at the time was approved by john b ehrlichman and now i understand was approved also write a column

in both assistance to the president of the united states from the time i began working at the white house until june seventeenth nineteen seventy two day every second watergate injury i engaged in essentially the same kind of work as it performed for cia i became a member of the special interest investigations unit later known as the plumbers which the president had created to undertake specific national security tasks for what's the traditional invested investigative agencies were deemed by the president can be inadequate and this connection to classified information these investigations led to an empty by the cameras into the opposite direction was filming dr daniel ellsberg's psychiatrist the entry was authorized by mr neidl quo deputy the journal

is considered necessary because of the belief that dr albert or his associates were provided classified information to this idea the operation was carried out with my assistants under the direction of g gordon liddy a lawyer from fbi agent a member of the plumbers him the feeling injury occurred in september nineteen seventy one the late november i was told by mr levy that attorney general jonathan mitchell proposed the establishment of a live snail intelligence and counterintelligence program with mr libby as its chief yesterday it and i designed by different categories of activities to be carried out in this program which came to be known as jam still it was my understanding that the program had been approved by masters is jeb stuart magruder recent white house aide and that had been thirty hours later i learned that child of recalls of special counsel the

president has approved two in nineteen seventy two that we would be undertaken he said he had information the source of which i understood to be a government agency that the cuban government was supplying funds to the democratic party campaign investigators reportedly serves as a century of democratic national headquarters of the watergate was made and make twenty seven nineteen seventy two and the second entry on june seventeenth the second entry was accomplished by a group too of whose members have been among those who accomplished feeling operation i was indicted for my partner watergate entry following indictment and prior to my guilty plea a court ordered the government to produce all material taken from my white house aides and other evidence senator clinton has been significant internal

because the government had withheld evidence i knew there was no chance of proving my defenses in addition my wife had been killed in an accident in december and i was deeply depressed and anxious to devote myself as quickly as possible to the law for my children accordingly i have no alternative but to concede that i was wrong and so i pleaded guilty of infomercial treatment by the court instead on march twenty third of this year i was provisionally sentenced to prison for more than thirty years requested that my cooperation of the grand jury and with this committee would be considered in determining the final seconds since being sentenced ivan watson underway for more than twenty five occasions often for many hours sometimes for an entire day i've answered thousands of questions by innumerable investigators prosecutors grand jurors and staff members of this committee i am informed such

intensive and repeated interrogations the most extraordinary procedure and of dubious legality even so urged by the quote cooperate fully i have not contested the procedure in fact i've answered all questions even those which involved confidential communications between mutterings in myself after my playing i learned of obstruction of justice by government officials i learned a woeful destruction of evidence and perjury and seven asian perjury before watergate grand jury this official misconduct by an eleven which would have supported my position that at my participation in watergate was an activity often live within the power of the president of the united states and b if my participation was not so i justify we believe that it was within the past few days there for i have asked the court to permit me to withdraw my plea of guilty and tradition as the proceedings against

me i believe that it should be dismissed because based on revelations made public since my plea evidence is now available to prove that my participation was not unlawful and because they're judged on when you dismiss charges in the ellsberg case the totality of the circumstances of this case or find a sense of justice that was on events have incurable infected the prosecution of this case unquote yet that alleges that i demanded clemency and money for my family and for those who help in the watergate angie i did not ask for clemency mr liddy showed me that in accordance with established practice in such cases funds would be made available i did seek such findings but i'm a conference now i find myself and find under a sentence which may keep me in which may keep me in

prison for the rest of my life i've been incarcerated for six months from the time i was in solitary confinement i had been physically attacked and robbed in jail i've suffered a stroke i've been transferred from place to place medical and chained hand and ford i am isolated for my for mahler was told the funds provided me another to participate in the bacon long since been exhausted i'm faced with an enormous financial burden in defending myself against a criminal charges and numerous civil suits the handlers i'm crushed by the failure of my government to protect me and my family as in the past has always done for its clandestine actions in conclusion i want to emphasize that at the time of the watergate operation i considered my participation as a duty to my country i thought it was an unwise operation but i viewed as you know i hope the court will sustain my view but

whatever that outcome i deeply regret that i had any part in this affair i think it was an unfortunate use of executive power and i'm sorry that i did not have the wisdom to withdraw at the same time i can escape failing at the congress or for my entire life and what's collected me to carry out the watergate it is punishing him for doing the very thing trained and directed me to do mr chairman members of the committee i thank you for your attention in your patients i will not undertake answer your questions to the best of my ability it is and your state is going to raise questions in nineteen

seventy one they view this possibility of your tank position of the white house idea and then you have a telephone conversation with mr golson and who initiated the conversation i said yes on july second nineteen seventy eight do you want more of that conversation i know

in that and that conversation as well as mr paulson question you concerning here is concerning the pentagon papers we do that was a question let me ask you this question you think are the right resources and that this thing could be turned into a major publication and co conspirators question mark on pork management was as follows yes i do like you've established a qualification here and i don't know whether to be met

i'm checking out some of the people next to them oh yes they should be part of the set that was it was that i remember the committee in yourself mr thompson and we you know oh i think in to the question that you understand by the way on the conversation despite his years

in the white house and i think given the eight years that company repurchases of the qualifications can you repeat that we want to be in that a few qualifications to the position for politicians the fact that i have an investigative background of some years and also that the collection operations now you interviewed by anyone besides us was that matters and european generations of his position on immigration the question is going to become a white

house resident expert on the origins of the end of the vietnam war at the same time i have a responsibility for coming classified information which needs of the pentagon papers mr golson yes what was to be done with this information it would be made available to members of the media did you want like a list of certain media representatives who might be interested in such material and how did you develop the information on this album are following

the assignment to receive a mystical <unk> intensive study of the report's foundation by the federal bureau of investigation there an element here are serving over materials it here and the government has now maternity coverage in the us house there's something here are you saying other special investigations unit that was receiving information on a frequent basis for investigations and other government agencies such as defense of the state national security agency the immigration and naturalization service

and sell so the sources of information i'm melissa block at the time the central intelligence agency will throw in that un that the train together in service in families and in fact we have to shut up and china together and work in china because i go to i've seen frequently during the intervening year the lead define the relationship it was nineteen seventy

one is it possible to write just a few feet from us and clicking their cameras could be asked to remove themselves and some more distant place so that there would be less distractions it's been

as bleak you know it's been the peak oh yeah and conversation i mean a recording of their conversation was minimal according to note the question is just a i

telephoned him and to reconstruct the inaudible portion of the title of the record a conversation prior day mr carlson at the same time there was another extension introduced himself to me as unfair trials and took them on a private conversation and so between consuming myself dozens of teens he's been right what mr paulson wanted a lot of the conversation

and then why they tell me that two questions you want to be a part of the conversations thousands of to ask a specific question whatever specific questions might occur to him as relevant to the subject of our conversation of an effect to give himself a firsthand report after being connected you know thirty seven intelligence agency in vietnam

and losers nineteen fifty for company know and a high degree of intimacy with its senior officials of these tribal governments south vietnam and he was also a military officer he spoke french cheese vietnamese some extent he was intimately familiar to leave this gets to the crux of your question would the events leading up to the crew that resulted in the deaths of feminism and the law and was he was the interview supposed to be directed towards that to india underlying causes of the film the assassination of them than it was you're welcome

it's better now we're also fair to say that the water purposes of the conversation with the good information from something which might be brought against them yes or no it's b and you see the ad and you say that they're

getting very curious about that guy and wireless connections and then the bottle updates for usc and i think that that is correct mr paul risser an investigation for the record blues are closing mr b and annie so there was a policeman the

us you know is the committee he's been its beak the joint interested and the circumstances that led up to the assassination of the president and only the female south vietnam we thought that somehow there should be an instructive record of exchanges between washington's saigon we knew also that really sell channels could have been

utilized in addition to the manhunt state department communications i'm saying goes the normal sale communication channel with its stationed in saigon the back channel communications studies from the organizations there are communications i was in there one of the main innovations minister whether or not the kennedy administration was related in any way to have to

learn everything the committee answer a few questions that will follow the questions that are now asking which also wants to cause them to try to discredit the administration and therefore the democratic party during the election related to the assassination oh yeah with a democratic president and the assassination of aid that they're going to have a national

security leaks of you on it so we won't consolation i can't see how that can possibly relate to it in nineteen seventy two your questions there is no objection

tony robbins i do oh conversation is a messenger not go well and to pursue this a recent years that the council committee centers that's the actual situation and it made the stage the narrative form a sentence or the conclusion on the basis of each question that after all is about finding mission on the committee i dont want him lawrence was making strict rules of evidence and a master organist that's back to new conclusions lead

anyway this is the question is it i like questions center baker that will demonstrate the fact that the conclusions that they can talk about natural conclusions and in the region and visionary or maybe oh yes but my my statement concerning conclusions was in response to a question as to why and therefore it was necessary

listen now powerful forces rate to accept that recommendation vice chairman rejected or were there in search of german mayor also made this observation actually material where you're talking about your question about what we had before the committee in one form or another these are applications that i really think what we ought to do we get along good committee businesses to get to something new and mercury has something all this isn't really a problem not seeking to know or a testimonial evidence we've heard before when travelers to get some new fox i would just

suggest that falling but the suggestion possibly can they get this shot explanation of the council was putting it in the record and then get onto this and that's true i think perhaps it makes moltz be the question with our adversary has a lot to draw inferences mile over twenty years

you have a the assassination out why didn't have access to it because i had requested such access in the end than once yeah the period immediately leading up to the assassination of the former south vietnam you know i showed them copies of those inner calm market was just there you were again consenting i told him that the construction i placed upon the absence of certain cables wasn't an abstract it from the files

dj motive and that every reason to believe on the basis of the accumulated evidence of a cable back and they say that the kennedy administration was implicitly if not explicitly responsible for the assassination of salman is brother in law that there was no hard evidence such as a cable emanating from the white house or why coming from the site and saigon embassy years later denise he suggested i might be able to improve me to create to fabricate the cables

could substitute for the hills you in fact that the president of a relationship of the kennedy administration and the assassination and to show the fall and the war was his response he indicated to me that day he would be probably getting in touch with a member of the media of the first two two new job cables and that way that i was it was that mr ryan lambert of life magazine the relationship and to show mr lambert the cables in the context of the other internet cables and it acquired from the department of state and to promote job was reluctant to handicap be the texts of the

fabricated cables but the eye having worn mr carson previously the cables are not technically capable of withstanding a professional scrutiny that mr lambert was not to move against the forefront having purpose is not to my knowledge yes sir i believe it is by mr white the chorus in at least some of his colleagues to demonstrate that a catholic the united states administration that conspired in the assassination of her catholic catholic to state in another

country worried i get the scenes prior to i may i mean nbc tv network special concern in vietnam and the news that is information in his program fb other terms for that is that i've shown at that broader context of the tales a legitimate kills in an interview room and without specific pressures that families they reinforced and there have been the complicity by the kennedy administration in the events leading up to the assassination of self image

from there i know but the ashes of all i that i was a suggestion of indicated that in libya that information to members eugene o'donnell is in washington but for the second half it is

you're right patients fill in their numbers i did

these events so the psychological necessity i was having i think that's right one is that nobody really could comprehend why have done what he did which was to take possession of the episodes that you must have the highest classification sensitivity we knew that some have been made available to the savvy warning to other

personally stated justification for having performed these acts was not comprehensible to many of us in the white house who are determining his motivation and the mavericks i believe it was my initial recommendations we attempt to know that your mind by means of a covert psychological assessment we have no idea information that might be analyst my pleasure today as an independent candidate to

discover us now you know new recommendations we continue to be collected psychological assessment and

we did now the pope as gemma i saw her in believe will receive the main stadium is empty the obvious question

i have it's been it's been i mean i know i think the polls we will be successful you understand

based on the fact that mr liddy and as of that date would just to return from the national reconnaissance about different profession promises of wales and then live events of innovative feasibility study and that that is the obvious you're welcome mm hmm

i do this or more specifically i think is to lose that cooperation hitting the cooperation of mrs mccain has invaded the war mr barton says today during the cia sponsored effort which can of unknowns of the operation you know that's right now you began

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