'72 DATA SHOW F.B.I. QUESTIONED IF BURGLARS BUGGED THE WATERGATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201180026-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: November 6, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: Cl
ARTICLE EARED
ON PAG --
NEW YORK TIMES
6 November 1984
'72 data ,Dhow t .tf.t. Questioned the Justice Department 's Mo. S
bert said that the bureau's doubts
ts
about the bugging were developed to shield the fact that its investigators
If Burglars Bugged the Watergate failed to find the tap on the Oliver tele-
phone until three months after the June
17 break-in. The bug on the Oliver tele-
By PHILIP TAUBMAN phone?was discovered on Sept. 13, 1972.
specttl to The New York Timm Memorandum on Bugging
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 - The Feed-' "Alfred Baldwin's testimony that he In a Sept. 28, 1972, memorandum to
eral Bureau of Investigation ques- listened to telephone conversations Henry E. Petersen, an Assistant Attor-
tioned in 1972 whether the offices of the from the D.N.C. headquarters was ney General, Mr. Silbert said: 'I cannot
Democratic National Commmittee never contested by anyone, including, imagine anyone planting a device in
were actually bugged by the Watergate the defense at trial," Mr. Silbert said. the Democratic headquarters after
burglars, according to Justice Depart- Alfred C. Baldwin 3d, an alleged par- Watergate. It is too ludicruous."
ment documents and a new book on the ticipant in the bugging scheme who
case. Pan8gin8 He added, "I believe that the bureau
The documents and the book, "Secret was granted immunity from prosecu- 'goofed' on this one."
lion in return for his cooperation with Mr. Silbert, however,
Agenda" by Jim Hougan, challenge the Government, testified at the break- some concern about how to handle the
one of the basic elements of the case in trial that through the use of a tap on bureau's findings. "Obviously," he
that led to the resignation of President the telephone of Spencer Oliver, a top wrote Mr. Petersen, "we do not want to
be publi week ixon insh74 nhe book is by Random Democratic official, he had monitored be put in the position of challenging
N
House. 200 telephone calls at the Watergate such testimony of the F.B.I., particu-
from a surveillance post at the Howard larly its lab, while at the same time
One of the documents, an F.B.I. Johnson motel across the street. relying so heavily on the F.B.I. in gen-
memorandum datt. 2,1972, doubted The F.B.I. memorandum said, "No eral and the lab in particular for other
laboratory . facts known to us at present support the important aspects of our proof."
that telephone taps found at the Water- presence of a listening device on Oli- The bureau memorandum and Mr.
gate complex in Washington were com- ver's telephone at time of the security Silbert's note to Mr. Petersen were ob-
patible with eavesdropping receivers check" immediately after the break-in. tained from the Justice De artment b
used by the the defendants. P y
It also shows that bureau technicians the the. Heededom declined fof Information nareAunder
and investigators believed a bug found Mr. Silbert oo Act.
on the telephone of a top Democratic comment on
party official three months after the whether the Government t had provided
break-in was probably not installed or copies of the bureau memorandum to
used by the burglars and might have defense se attorneys.
been put in place by the Democrats to Defense attorneys and journalists
strengthen the case against the Water- who followed the Watergate case
gate defendants. closely said that the F.B.I. memoran-
Silbert Firm on Stand dum and the bureau's questions about
The Watergate prosecutor, Earl J. the bugging were not mentioned at the
trial.
who strenuously challenged the . Mr. F.B.I.'s conclusions in private in 1972, the a calls lls on the it the book that
said today that he remained confident Oliver telephone that
the Watergate burglars bugged the were overheard Oliveheard by Mr. Baldwin were
Democratic headquarters. intercepted by a bug planted on a tole-
Mr. Silbert said that no one, includ- phone in another nearby building, the i
ing the two defendants who went to Columbia Plaza Apartments, used by
trial for the break-in and were con- an elite prostitution ring. He reports
victed in 1973, James W. Mccord Jr. that a secretary at the Democratic
and G. Gordon Liddy, ever questioned headquarters used the Oliver telephone
testimony that taps had been installed of the p us visiting Democrats to one
at the Democratic headquarters and of the prostitutes.
that conversations had been moni- The prostitution ring, acco to
tored. The five other defendants M%--Hougan, mdolved a num ; o
pleaded guilty. high-level political--a-rid- Government
leaders and was conneciedio?a coven
operation run by-the Central Intelli-
gence Agency.
"Watergate," Mr. Hougan concludes
in his book, "was iiif so niu h a_ parti-
san political scandal as it was, secret-
ly, a sex scandal, the 'unprt-dictable
outcome of a C.I.A. operation .that, in_
the simplest of terms, tripped on. its
own shoelaces."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201180026-1