THE STORY OF THE BIG COVER-UP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700090048-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 13, 2005
• Sequence Number: 48
• Publication Date: March 11, 1974
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Last week's indictment touched only NEWS1gMK
briefly on the cntang1Atp } et 1=&,iRelease RoA&/ P IA-RDP91-00901 R0
tral Intelligence Agency and the Fed eral
Bureau of Investigation in the web of
Watergate. And it was remarkable as
much for what it left out as for what it
included. Foremost among the omissions,,
in fact, were the factors that apparently
led to the involvement of the espionage
agency in the first place.
On June 20, the indictment noted,
Mardian and LaRue met with Liddy at
LaRue's apartment. It was at this meet-
ing that Liddy allegedly talked about
certain "commitments" that had been
made to him and others involved in the
Watergate operation. As described to
the Ervin committee, these were appar-
ently reassurances that the undercover
operatives would be taken care of if
caught. Liddy's claim apparently was the
basis for all subsequent efforts to obtain
money or clemency for the defendants.
What the indictment avoided mention-
ing, however, was Liddy's implicit threat
at that meeting; according to testimony
before the Watergate, committee, he said
he and others on the Watergate team
had taken on earlier iitelligence opera-
tions for the White House itself-includ-
ing the Ellsberg break-in-and that they
had obtained some assistance in their
cloak-and-daggering from the CIA.
That information was potentially more
damaging to Mr. Nixon's re-election cam-
paign than Watergate itself. And al-
though the indictment did not mention
it, Liddy's revelation was presumably
what prompted Mitchell and Mardian to
tell Dean that the CIA might provide.
covert funds to the Watergate burglars.
Mitchell himself admitted at the Water-
gate hearing that it was because of the
meeting in LaRue's apartment that he
learned "early on of Liddy's involvement
with Watergate and what he called "the
White House horrors." Unfortunately for
him, however, Mitchell bad denied
knowing of Liddy's confession during an
earlier appearance before the Watergate
grand jury-"and the jury cited him for
false declaration on that score, too.
In any event, the indictment charged
that Dean subsequently met with Elir-
liehman on the matter and that Ehrlich-
marl "approved a suggestion" that Dean
/ask CIA deputy director Vernon Walters
if the agency could lend a hand-paying .
the bail and salaries of the Watergate
crew. Just who suggested contacting
General Walters, a long-time friend of
President Nixon? The indictment didn't
say. Nor did it mention the parallel ef-
forts-testified to before the Senate com-
mittee-to have Walters suggest the
possibility that the CIA was involved in
Watergate, and thus to hamper the ini-
tial FBI investigations into the break-in.
The indictment did say that Mitchell,
sometime in mid-July, advised Dean to
obtain FBI reports on the investigation
for CRP lawyer Parkinson and others.
And it alleged that on July 21, Mardian
met with Dean at the White House to re-
view some of those FBI reports. This
Department aide, was working for the.
CRP when he reviewed the confidential;
FBI reports. There was no
mention, however, of the
embarrassing political files
from Howard hunt's " safe
that were turned over se-
cretly to FBI acting direc-
tor L. Patrick Gray III-
and later destroyed by
him, according to Gray's
own testimony before the
Senate committee.
STA1
The Story of the
Big Cover-Up
THE EARLY PAYOFFS
When the CIA refused
to take responsibility for
the Watergate gang, the
Nixon men were thrown
back on their own not-in-
considerable financial re-
sources. On June 28, the
indictment charged, Ehr-
lichman and Dean met at
the White House and Ehr-
lichman approved the use
of California lawyer Iler-
bert Kalmbach-the President's personal
attorney and money handler-to raise
cash to make "covert payments to and
for the benefit of persons involved in the
Watergate break-in."
Keeping the payments covert was a
complicated problem. On July 6, the in-
dictment said, CRP lawyer Parkinson
met in Washington with attorney Wil-
liam O. Bittman, representing Ilunt, and
passed a cryptic message: "Rivers is OK
to talk to." Rivers, it turned out, was the
code name for ex-cop Anthony Ulase-
wicz in his role as the bearer of cash.
The next day, according to the indict-
ment, Ulasewicz delivered $25,000 in
cash to Bittman and ten clays later made
drop-offs of $40,000 to Mrs. Iloward
Aunt and $8,000 to Liddy.
Ulasewicz was a virtuoso at the art
of clandestine payoffs, generally hiding
the money in some public place and
watching from the sidelines to make sure
it was retrieved by its intended recipi-
ent. In Liddy's case, according to Ulase-
wicz's own testimony at the Watergate
hearings, he placed the money in a
locker at Washington National Airport
and left the locker key for Liddy in an
envelope on. a nearby window ledge.
There were some prob-
lems, of course, most nota-
bly Kalmbach's growing
doubts about the propriety
of the back-door funding
scheme. One of the overt
acts listed by the indict-
ment in support of its pri-
mary conspiracy charge
was a July 26 White
house meeting at which
Ehrlichinan allegedly told
Kalmbach that he had to
continue raising the funds
excerpted)
ance before the
mittee last July:
"I was beginning to have concern
about this assignment," he said then.
"And I wanted ... and I said, `John, I
want you to tell me'-and you know, I
can remember it very vividly because I
looked at him and I said, `John, I am
looking right into your eyes. I know
Jeanne [Mrs. Eln?lichman] and your fam-
ily. You know Barbara [\irs. Kalmbach]
and my family. You know that my family
and my reputation mean everything to
me, and it is just absolutely necessary,
Jolm, that you tell me, first that John
Dean has the authority to direct inc in
this assignment, that it is a proper assign-
ment, and that I am to go forward on it'."
"And did he look you in the eyes?"
asked Sam Dash, the committee's chief
counsel.
"Yes; he did," said Kalmbach.
"What did he say to you?" asked Dash.
"Ile said, `Herb, John Dean does have
the authority, it is proper, and you are
to go forward'."
In mid-October, the indictment indi-
cates, Fred LaRue took charge of the
? secret payments-but not before Ulase-
wicz, working under Kalrnbach's direc-
tion, made at least three other drop-offs
of cash totaling more than $114,000.
may be a key element in the nand jury's o k ? such fund-raisin
charge that an effc~PPrQ; ftlmrMflease 2005/07/01n 61A sue , nQ0~Q 000700090048-3
Watergate investigation was under way. lately secret. Kalmbach
Mardian, though formerly a top justice recalled the scene dra-