FINALLY, THE TRUTH ABOUT WATERGATE'?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650012-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: January 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650012-5
7
HUMAN EVENTS
26 January 1985
Finally, the Truth About `Watergate'?
By JEFFREY HART
murky
Now comes .Jim-:_Hougan; the
Washington editor' of. Harper's with
Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat
and the CIA,` a book that is both start-
The possibility of CIA involvement Democrats and Fidel Castro. On July 9-the Washington Star carte
in the Watergate affair is not a new Nothing like that, According to Tied a story-about a "Capitol Hill Call-
idea. Sen. Howard Baker touched on it Hougan, Hunt and James McCord Girl Ring" in connection with whichar
in his Ervin Committee minority never really retired from the CIA, rests had been made. The White House
report. Minority Counsel FredThomp which continued to provide them with a "Was able to view much of the evidence,
son and H. R. Haldeman raised the broad range of -"institutional sup- including address books.
possibility to a probability in their port." The offices of the Democratic One -female White House attorney"
books on Watergate. But the nature of Committee were never bugged. The had. posed for sexually explicit photon.
such CIA involvement remained CIA hnwever" was interested in a call- graphs, "and was fired. It was an elec-~
ling and persuasive.
His case is largely circumstantial and
based upon inference and it might not
stand up in a, court of law. After all,
much of the evidence-was immediately
destroyed, Nixon being just about the
only person involved who did not resort
to destroying his tapes. But Mr.,
Hougan has built a formidable, case
nevertheless.
He has thrown a whole new light on
Watergate. He is also a virtual Balzac
of the raunchier aspects of Washington
life, the sex both straight and kinky, the
multiple spy rings both government and
private, the pervasive corruption.
Until Hougan, _ the reason -for the .
Watergate break-in, or break-ins, has
never been very clear..To the question
of why anyone would want to ' bug
Lan-y O'Brien or the Democratic Na-
tional Committee, the answer was
never very clear.
It has been vaguely assumed that-Lid-
dy,,--Hunt and the rest were after
"political intelligence," or perhaps
-after-- something linking-., Nixon.-to
Howard. Hughes, or,.maybe evidence of
a connection of some sort between the
the. wnite riouse
girl ring operating out of the Columbia tion "year, and.
?I.- T-.......-~~n .v sus
- -
and b
gged its
l
a
r_
..
,
Hole
1 laz
u
This. call-girl ring had many important' in a position to spring a sex scandal. on
-clients from' both political parties, -the- "Sil_ent Majority:". Jeb Magruder
foreign. political figures including ordered Gordon Liddy to find out
Koreans, and so forth. what, if anything, was in O'Brien's files
Just why the CIA was interested in all at the DNC. `...
of this sexual activity is not altogether As it turned out, this White House.'
clear, though one section of the CIA . Political operation ran head-on into-the.
was involved in constructing "psycho- o
a~ding Cthe intelligence Columbia
g
.logical profiles of important people. plaza Hotel. The CIA operation was
Presumably these profiles would allow
highly sensitive, at "the very least, and
the agency to ektimate or predict modes
of political behavior. Who knows? Probably illegal.:
They could even be used for blackmail In Hougan's account, the decision.
purposes. was. made to subvert the White House
operation in order to ? protect the CIA
According to Hougan, the posi- -,. cover. Gordon Liddy, he believes, was:
lions in the While House of Mc- essentially the falkguy in an operation-.
Cord and Hunt were a cover for deliberately blown by Hunt and Mc-
their more -fundamental CIA ac- Cord_ The entire :break-in was,.
tivities.. deliberately, a Marx-brothers comedy
In the offices of the Democratic: of errors-, including -evidence planted
National Committee at the Watergate that would link the break-in directly to,
there was a private telephone that did the White House.
not go through the regular switch- - The CIA had little affection for the
board. In Hougan's account, this was Nixon Administration: Its estab_
in the office of an official named lishment was furious that Director
Spencer Oliver, whose duties frequent- Richard Helms was being replaced and
ly drew him out of town. In his absence, reassigned to. Teheran. -But the CIA
this phone was"used to contact the call- [could not anticipate the disastrous
girl ring 'at-the Columbia Plaza, for the `.'coverup" that would eventually burst
purpose of :pioviding entertainment for into the headlines and bring Nixon
Democratic" ==-politicians, visiting down.
dignitaries, and so-forth.-The CIA bug- Hougan shows :convincingly that
gers picked up this traffic. both the Democrats" on the Ervin Corn-
By _ coincidence,.. the Nixon White " 'mittee and the media, notably Wood-
House became alarmed during the sum- ward and Bernstein, had powerful
mer "of 1972 that some of its employes motives for ignoring"the pervasive CIA
might be involved in scandalous sexual presence.
activities
Continued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650012-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650012-5
-The Democrats wanted to keep the
focus on-the misdeeds of the hated Nix-
on and not complicate matters by mak-
ing Nixon look, at leastrn part, like_ the
victim of a larger plot. The CIA was
very useful to Woodward and Bern-
stein, feeding them information that was
useful in their Wafergate coverage, but
steering them away from -the sensitive
areas. Hougan believes that part of.the
tacit bargain was that - Woodward
would leave the CIA out of it.
Other dark corners in this affair in-
clude the sudden deaths, by "heart at-
tack,'.' of a couple of key witnesses just
before they were to testify..One of them
believed that a prescription had been
tampered.with.
,2
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402650012-5