Jim Hougan has recently joined the forum and is willing to answer questions about his thought-provoking book on Watergate, Secret Agenda.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0394514...ce&n=266239

Congratulations to John Simkin and Andy Walker on netting another big literary fish to join the the distinguished school of John Newman, Josiah Thompson, David Lifton and Peter Dale Scott, among the most illustrious authors who have been attracted to the Education Forum.

I first read SECRET AGENDA and SPOOKS back in the late 80's, and decided that Jim Hougan is one guy I would really like to chat with over a beer or two. After finishing SECRET AGENDA I felt I had the equivalent of a Master's Degree in the shadow world of espionage and deception.

In the intervening years I more or less forgot about Watergate and Jim Hougan, until a mysterious character named ASHTON GREY made his appearance on this forum arguing stuff like the following:

Howard Hunt did NOT forge a single cable in the Diem assassination matter. It never happened, according to Mr. Grey.

There was no first break-in at the DNC, or some such.

Dr. Malcolm Perry (the surgeon who tried his very best -- in an attempt that was hopeless to begin with -- to save JFK's life) was part of a conspiracy to murder the president of the United States.

Mr. Grey exited the forum around the time of new revelations concerning the (now admitted) involvement of the aforementioned Howard Hunt in the assassination of JFK.

Mr. Hougan: It is an honor to finally meet you. Would you care to share your current thoughts on the late Howard Hunt, especially in light of these recent revelations?

BTW COOL WEBSITE: http://www.jimhougan.com/ I just discovered you also write thrillers, and I intend to get get my hands on one this very day. As they say in your native village of Brooklyn, FUGGEDDABOUTIT!

Jim-- Great to have you on the forum, and it should be said that your footnotes are among the best I have ever read. They keep curiosity alive!

Your book aint half bad either! In fact I have been recommending Secret Agenda to middle Aged social studies for some time now. It seems so much more relevent to rethink Watergate in comparision with what the current organisms have gotten away with. It might not by a symetrical comparison, but the best ones often are not.

1. First, I assume you have read Secret Coup. What was your initital reation? What did you make of their emphasis on a possible Haig-Woodward relationship?

2. I am wondering what you make of the rehab of John Dean into an Air America type liberal ? Or if you have no thoughts on that one, let me get more specific. I heard Dean on Randi Rhodes show and the Rhodes characterized Silent Coup (without even mentioning it by name, but rather refering to it as if it was a scurrilous FOX newsish defense of disgraced Republican) as a Republican rewrite of history meant to distort the record of Nixon? This struck me as a simplisitic dismissal, but I am wondering if you see the book as in any way a rightist defense of Nixon? It seemed to me that your book seemed to raise the possibility that the hit on Nixon came from the Right, and am not sure that Silent Coup is all that different. I must say that I have only read half of Silent Coup.. but anyway am much more interested in your thoughts on it.

3. Also I was very intrigued by a footnote you wrote on page 53..


.. In 1965 a firm called Psychological Assessment Associates Inc., was established with headquarters in Washington D.C.
Founded by two retired CIA psychologists, the firm's mains source of funding was the CIA. See Laurence Stern, "Behind
Psychological Assessment's Door, a CIA Operation," Washington Post, June 21, 1974, p A3. (footnote 22, Chapter 3,
Secret Agenda, p. 53 by Jim Hougan)


Also I am wondering if there may have been 2 Laurence Sterns who worked at the Post on Intelligence because I noticed that sometimes the name was spelled Lawrence and other times Laurence.

I went up to the research libery in NYPL to look for this article. I found lots of other articles by Larry Stern but this one was nowhere in sight. Their Stern articles seem to end with one about Wounded Knee in 1973 and then the obit in 79. Are you aware the Forum member and former stern Colleague at the Post has written here of his suspicion that Stern may have been killed by the CIA? (see Sterling Seagrave's posts)

Do you currently have access to this 1974 article? Anyway of posting it or perhaps giving an overview? Thanks.

By the way you might want to check the Lawrence Stern thread. I have posted some old articles of his that you have probably already seen. I am going to post more, including one very interesting one about the kennedy's raising questions about the tax exempt status of the American Enterprise Inststitute. As you know this has become an increasingly influencial media kennel for hounds fed by the oil and arms industires and in favor of US unilatteral militarism.
STERN THREAD
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...art=#entry98131

3. Also I was very intrigued by a footnote you wrote on page 53..


.. In 1965 a firm called Psychological Assessment Associates Inc., was established with headquarters in Washington D.C.
Founded by two retired CIA psychologists, the firm's mains source of funding was the CIA. See Laurence Stern, "Behind
Psychological Assessment's Door, a CIA Operation," Washington Post, June 21, 1974, p A3. (footnote 22, Chapter 3,
Secret Agenda, p. 53 by Jim Hougan)
--------

Ummmm So I guess this article by the Larry Stern has gone off to Where the Woodbine Twineth!

Jim,

Have you any comments on the articles that have been written about Mark Felt as Deep Throat that have been published since his death?