NOT WATERGATE MATERIAL, NEDZI SAYS CIA IS BACKED ON TAPES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700090052-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 13, 2005
• Sequence Number: 52
• Publication Date: February 22, 1974
• Content Type: NSPR

? V AS1HINGTON POST
194
Approved For Release 20W0 /R:CI7A-RDP91-00901
N(1 Watea?a-'a>Ilte Material, Neciad Says
d o T es
1i e CIA Is'. B11"an P
By Laurence Stern
Washington Post Start Writer
Rep. Lucien Nedzi (D-
Mich.) said yesterday he has
concluded that no Water-
gate-related or presidential
conversations were de-
stroyed by the Central Intel-
ligence Agency in a major
bouse-cleanin,61 of tape ree-
orclings in January, 1973.
Nedzi based his judgment
on an examination of a volu-
minous report, including
.logs, notes and memoranda,
delivered to him yesterday
by the CIA.
The P:Iichigan Democrat is
,the chairman of the House
Armed Services Intelligence
Subcommittee, which con-
ducted extensive hearings
last year into alleged CIA
involvement in the Water-
gate scandal. In a report on
the inquiry the subcommit-
tee concluded that the CIA
had been duped b; high
White House aides into pro-
viding some assistance for
the Watergate cover-up but
had no substantive involve-
ment iii.the affair.
0
REP. LUCIEN NEDZI
... checked agency logs
In the course of his inves-
tigation Nedzi took sworn
testimony from dozens of
witnesses, including top CIA
officials, all the key presi-
dential officials involved -in
the case and a number of
Watergate defendants.
"Someone is trying to'
blow smoke around," Nedzi
observed of persistenE
charges on Capitol Hill that
the CIA was more deeply .
implicated in the scandal
than has, as yet, been deny
onstrated in public testi-
niony.
The issue of CIA involve-
ment in Watergate has been
a continuing subject of sur-
mise at the highest levels of
the administration since the
scandal first surfaced in
June, 1972.
President Nixon himself
acknowledged such a, con-
et in
cern niotivateci him to set'
motion White House meet-
ings within a week of the
break-in be.iv:ecn his two
top aides, 11. B. (Bob) Halde-
man and John D. Ehrlich-
man,'and former CIA Direc-
tor Richard Helms and his
deputy, Gen Vernon Wal-
-edged, however, in his May
22 Watergate statement that
this concern was unfounded.
Sen. Howard H. Baker
Jr. (It-Tenn.), cochairman of
the Senate Watergate com-
mittee, has .been the most,
persistent questioneer~ on
Capitol Hill an the question
of CIA implication. in Water-
gate. -
In recent weeks he has
been interrogating witnesses
and seeking to gather evi-
dence that might link the
Watergate, he said.
CIA officials said that the
mass destruction of tapes in
mid-January, 1973, was "rou-
tine" and prompted by the
need to clean out its files.
The only prior tape destruc-
tions on comparable scale,
according to CIA spokesmen,
were carried out in 1971 and
1964.
.The tapes were destroyed,
by one official account, on
Jan. 18,' one day after the
CIA's office of congressional
liaison received a letter from
Senate Majority Leader
Mike Mansfield (D-Mont,) L- -
asking the agency to retain
all records that might per-
tain in any way to Water-
gate. - ,
agency to the scandal. Such ?
a determination would tend
to justify early White House
} actions which delayed for
more than two weeks the
Justice Department investi-
gation of Nixon re-election
funds "laundered" through
a?Mexican bank.
So far Baker's inquiries
into the CIA. role have
failed to draw any conclu-
sive connections. "The ani-
mals are crashing around in
the forest," he told an inter-
viewer recently. ,You can
hear them but you can't see
them."
Nedzi said the new CIA
report supplied yesterday
does not alter the general
conclusions of the subconi
mittee investigation last
year.
CIA logs and memos pro-
vided yesterday, combined
with evidence already be-
STAT
fore his subconiniittee, dem-
Approved For Release 2005/07/01; :? tAilkd)OW'f-('1 ObAdbb,700090052-8