Douglas Caddy

I have no recollection of Shearn Moody, Jr. ever mentioning that he desired to merge his Alabama insurance company with another entity. Of course, by the time I began working with him he had lost his company to unscrupulous Alabama insurance regulators in years prior, so I don’t have a complete grasp of what transpired in that period. Jimmy Day was Shearn’s lobbyist in Austin, Texas, the state capital. When Carter was elected President he moved to Washington, D.C. There, according to Shearn, he got himself charged with the felony of “puffery” and was sent to prison. Shearn said that Day “lifted” stationery while visiting the White House and then wrote a letter on the White House letterhead that praised himself as being most meritorious and signed the name of a White House official. He used this to impress potential clients for his lobbying expertise.. Day was sent to federal prison at Big Spring, Texas, which is where Billie Sol Estes was incarcerated. It was Day who suggested to Billie Sol that he call Moody to request a grant from the Moody Foundation to help in getting the story out about his relationship with LBJ. I met Jimmy Day on only one occasion, when he visited with Shearn soon after his release from Big Spring prison. Subsequently, he disappeared from the scene and Moody never mentioned him again. Billie Sol at no time spoke about Day to me. In 1984, I invited Shearn to be my guest at the annual dinner of the U.S. Supreme Court Society, which had been organized by Chief Justice Warren Burger. The dinner was held in the Supreme Court building and guests were free to roam around the building before dinner. Shearn went into the conference room where the justices weekly met to discuss the cases before them. In a playful mood he “lifted” a note pad from the conference table that bore the title of “Supreme Court of the United States” on it and started to walk out. Mrs. Burger intercepted him and gently suggested that he return the pad to where it belonged. It was lucky that she was good-natured about it, otherwise he might have found himself later charged with “puffery” also.

Lee: No, at no time did Shearn Moody, Jr. ever mention the name of John Tower to me.

No, the names of Howard Hughes or Robert Maheu were never mentioned by Shearn Moody, Jr. to me. There was no feud between LBJ and Moody to my knowledge. After Billie Sol Estes from prison initially contacted Moody about getting financial help in telling his story about his relationship with LBJ, Moody did tell me in 1983 that he had heard on reliable authority that Johnson had created "a secret financial empire" while holding public office. Such a secret LBJ financial empire is, of course, the subject of Barr McClellan's book, "Blood, Money & Power: How LBJ killed JFK", which was published in 2003, some 20 years after Moody talked to me about it.

Shearn Moody, Jr. on numerous occasions told me how John Connally had attempted to take over the Moody Foundation of Galveston, Texas. At one time the Foundation was placed in the hands of strangers and only through a lawsuit filed by Shearn Moody, Jr., did the Moody family regain control. Moody provided me with documents showing that one means that Connally utilized his power illicitly was through Project Southwest, which was instituted by the Internal Revenue service under the Nixon Administration. After Professor John A. Andrew of Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania published his book titled “The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics,” he informed me that he had begun writing another book. This additional work would deal with abuses by the Internal Revenue Service. I provided Prof. Andrew with materials that Moody had given me on Project Southwest. Prof. Andrew was intrigued by what he read and through the Freedom of Information Act obtained additional documents on IRS abuses, including more on Project Southwest. However, before he finished his book, he suddenly died in 2000. His manuscript was later completed, using his writings and research materials that he left behind, and was published in 2002. Its title is “Power to Destroy: The Political Uses of the IRS from Kennedy to Nixon” and is available from amazon.com. Among the documents that I gave to Prof. Andrew was a letter-to-editor from me on Project Southwest that was published in The Wall Street Journal in 1998. A few days after my letter was published, The Wall Street Journal published a letter-to-editor from former IRS Commissioner Johnny Walters, who served in the Nixon Administration, disputing my allegation of IRS abuses through Project Southwest while he was Commissioner. Prof. John Andrew, who had previously studied at the University of Texas and written a book on Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, contended in his communications to me that Connally, while serving as Secretary of the Treasury in the Nixon Administration, had used IRS Project Southwest to go after his political enemies in Texas. He maintained that Watergate Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, also from Texas, had indicted Connally in part in retaliation for devising Project Southwest. The indictment charged that Connally had accepted a bribe while serving as Secretary of the Treasury. The evidence was strong that he had done so but a Washington, D.C. jury, comprised mainly of African-Americans, found Connally not guilty after the Rev. Billy Graham and Member of Congress Barbara Jordan of Texas, a prominent African-American, testified as character witnesses in his behalf. In 2001, at its Commencement Ceremony Franklin and Marshall College remembered Prof. Andrew in a eulogy that contained, in part, the following words: History Professor John Andrew Honored Posthumously at Franklin and Marshall Commencement A member of the faculty since 1973, Andrew earned his bachelor's and master's at the University of New Hampshire and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas - Austin....At the time of his death, Andrew was deeply immersed in writing a history of the political uses of the Internal Revenue Service from Kennedy to Nixon. He became interested in this subject while researching The Other Side of the Sixties, and soon became an expert in filing Freedom of Information Act petitions to gain access to IRS documents. http://server1.fandm.edu/departments/Colle...0-01/PR171.html Publisher’s Weekly in its review had this to say about Prof. Andrew’s book on the IRS: As historian Prof. Andrew (Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society) shows in this dense study, during the 1960s and '70s the White House used the power of taxation to attack enemies-and reward friends-with relative impunity. President Kennedy, for example, started an "Ideological Organizations Project" that used the IRS to challenge the tax-exempt status of (and thus choke off the funding from) such right-wing opponents as the John Birch Society. Johnson often promised tax favors to wealthy individuals who could deliver votes. But these abuses pale in comparison to the corruption of the Nixon administration, which used the IRS to persecute people on the president's notorious "Enemies List." At Nixon's request, the IRS launched audits and investigations of a host of real and imagined opponents, including the Jerry Rubin Foundation, the Fund for Investigative Journalism (which funded Seymour Hersh's reporting on the My Lai massacre) and the Center for Corporate Responsibility. The basic intent, Nixon aide John Dean wrote, was to "use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies." Though known to Watergate prosecutors, these abuses went largely unreported in the mainstream media because they weren't sexy enough for the general public. In my opinion, had Watergate not erupted and had not Connally been swept up in its wake, he might well have succeeded in using his position as Secretary of the Treasury to steal the Moody Foundation from the Moody Family. Discussions that took place in the Oval Office in the White House would seem to support this. Thus, Shearn Moody, Jr., had proper reason to be on guard against Connally’s ambitions.

Mr. Caddy - thanks for that. Incredible! I really enjoyed reading every word. Sounds as if you were born under a lucky star for sure. On the final note - I haven't seen anything at all - it just occurs to me that Galveston would have been a very powerful area of a lot of 'mixing' of interests. Howard Hughes, 'rich Houston Oilmen' and others, visiting the Balinese Room - the Maceo Brothers, etc. Prostitution in Galveston apparently was common since the 1830s. A large center of power, influence and trafficking, even though it appears that the migration to Nevada for casinos was taking place in late 1950s, since Galveston was effectively shutdown by the Rangers. I did enjoy reading about the techniques used by the Balinese Room to thwart investigation into their gambling activities. Anyway - I have not seen any kind of connection of any kind whatsoever, aside from the question as to what kind of relationship Ruby may have had with Shearn, and some interest in Galveston, and insurance companies funding Maffia casinos and hotels. I would point out though - that if the operation in Dealey Plaza was compartmentalized - with multiple 'cells' made up of multiple players, being directed by multiple channels and through funding provided by multiple sources - all with plausible denial and on a 'need to know basis,' using code names, and etc., well....the Estes / Wallace thing would only be a small piece of the overall puzzle - and unrelated to other pieces. - lee Lee – Re: Shearn Moody, Jr., you are correct. I should not hastily foreclose any possibility in the consideration of the JFK assassination conspiracy, especially since it has been previously disclosed in the Forum that Moody was apparently financially involved in the funding of the Bay of Pigs project. This came as news to me. I am slowly reading all the past topics on the Forum dealing with the assassination and am constantly amazed at the quality and quantity of valuable materials being posted by Forum members. It is a real eye-opener and should serve as a terrific educational tool for anyone, student and non-student alike, wishing to learn how the world really works.

In regard to Shearn Moody, Jr., I wish to add the following information: In 1979, I moved from Washington, D.C. to Houston, Texas. I was admitted to the Texas Bar that same year. In 1980, George Strake, Jr., who was the Texas Secretary of State in the first administration of GOP Governor William Clements, asked me to join his staff as Director of Elections for the State of Texas. Enforcement of the Texas election code in the state’s 25 4 counties fell within the purview of the Secretary of State (and still does today.) In 1981, while still employed by the State of Texas, I was contacted by Howard Phillips, Chairman of the Conservative Caucus, Inc., of Vienna, Virginia, who had been one of the original founders of Young Americans for Freedom. Phillips asked me to become legal counsel to the Texas Policy Institute, which was about to receive a $250,000 grant from the Moody Foundation of Galveston, Texas. The Moody Foundation had three trustees, brothers Robert and Shearn Moody, Jr., and their aunt, Mary Moody Nothern, daughter of the founder of the financial dynasty. Shearn Moody was the sponsor of the Foundation grant to the Texas Policy Institute. After receiving the grant, the Texas Policy Institute in 1982 organized a National Conference on Star Wars to encourage the authorization of the Star Wars Project, which later was officially proposed by President Reagan. Howard Phillips invited Senator Jesse Helms to address the conference at its opening session, which took place at a well-attended dinner at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston, Texas. At the dinner Howard Phillips presented an award for conservatism to Senator Helms, who left early the next morning to return to Washington. Senator Helms was correct, then, when he stated that he was unfamiliar with the name of Shearn Moody, Jr. Although an attendee at the dinner, Moody played no role in its activities. To Helms the key person at the event was Howard Phillips, whom he knew to be a national conservative activist. By the way, among the Star Wars Conference other attendees was historian J. Evetts Haley, author of “A Texas Looks at Lyndon.” I worked with Shearn Moody, Jr. for the three years following the 1982 Star Wars Conference on a number of other Moody Foundation grants.. However, I know next to nothing about Moody’s activities in the period before 1981, when I met him for the first time. When I worked with him he had serious health problems stemming from high blood pressure and had long since stopped giving any wild parties at his ranch in Galveston. He spent much of each year in Durham, N.C., where he was enrolled under supervision on the low-sodium rice diet made famous by a doctor associated with Duke University. In the posting by Lee Forman, mention is made of Tilman Fertitta. Fertitta today is an extremely successful businessman, owner of a chain of restaurants around the U.S., including Landrys. He has extensive business interests in Galveston, where he is engaged in heated business rivalry with Robert Moody, Shearn Moody’s brother, usually to the latter’s detriment who is not popular locally due to his arrogant attitude. When Bill Clinton was President, on a number of occasions he attended fund-raising events for the Democratic Party at Fertitta’s home, located in the River Oaks section of Houston. In 1986, Shearn Moody, Jr. fell under the influence of a con man, William Pabst. His association with Pabst eventually led to his losing his post as a trustee of the Moody Foundation. Pabst fled Houston in 1986 and is today still a fugitive from justice, wanted by both federal and Texas law enforcement for his criminal activities. Moody was convicted of defrauding the Moody Foundation due to his association with Pabst. His conviction was later reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His other conviction for bankruptcy fraud, however, was affirmed. His close adviser for many years, Norman Revie, was convicted with him of bankruptcy fraud and is today, like Pabst, a fugitive from justice. Ultimately Moody was set free from prison by an order of a federal judge after I wrote a letter to the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and asked to appear voluntarily before the federal grand jury to testify how an agent from the Criminal Intelligence Division of the Internal Revenue Service had directed me to spend $38,000 of a Moody Foundation grant. I asked that both I and the agent be required to testify under oath, with the threat of perjury, about the transaction. The U.S. government refused to let the IRS Criminal Intelligence agent testify (because my evidence was air-tight) and, as a consequence, the federal judge ordered Moody’s release from prison on the ground that the U.S. government had failed to disclose the role of the IRS agent at Moody’s trial. Below is an article from the Houston Chronicle of January 18, 1987, which describes my association with Moody. Houston Chronicle January 18, 1987 “In harm's way, again What do Watergate, CIA and Moody probe have in common? Caddy By Dianna Hunt Staff HE HAD RECEIVED bomb threats, been followed, had his phones tapped and the windows of his office shot out in the night. Yet Douglas Caddy still feared he might just be paranoid. "We used to joke about it," says Caddy, a Houston author and attorney. "Do you think somebody's trying to give us a message?" His fears, apparently, were not unfounded. In a sworn statement submitted to a Houston private investigator and the FBI, a former military explosives expert says Caddy was the target of an alleged bomb plot hatched by Galveston millionaire Shearn Moody Jr. Moody, says the expert, tried to hire him to "blow (Caddy's) legs off" because Caddy prompted investigations into impropriety within the multimillion-dollar Moody Foundation. For Caddy, the front-row seat in a money-and-power scandal is an all-too-familiar occurrence. As a defense attorney and witness in the Watergate scandal, a friend and former roommate to South Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park, and a one-time publicist in a CIA front company, Caddy turns up in the strangest places. "I don't know why," he concedes. "I just do." He flatly denies ever working for the Central Intelligence Agency. "I get tarred with it, but I never have worked for the CIA," Caddy says. Caddy, 48, emerged as a central figure in the latest scandal after approaching Moody Foundation officials in 1985 with information about the possible mishandling of millions of dollars in foundation grants. His complaints prompted an internal Moody Foundation probe, which ultimately led to the hiring of Houston private investigator Clyde Wilson to look into the matter. The state attorney general's office and federal officials likewise are investigating. Five people - including Moody and his administrative aide Norman Revie - already have been indicted by a Houston federal grand jury. Caddy's life the last three decades has been scattered with similar brushes with important people and events. A graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and New York University Law School, Caddy became involved in the Watergate scandal just half an hour after the arrest of five burglars in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel - when he received a 3 a.m. call from former CIA operative E. Howard Hunt. Caddy served as defense lawyer to both Hunt and another Watergate conspirator, G. Gordon Liddy, and later testified about his refusal to accept $25,000 in "hush money." His involvement in Watergate stemmed from his friendship with Hunt, with whom he shared office space in the Washington-based Mullen Company - a public relations firm and offshoot of General Foods that was later identified as a front company for the CIA. Caddy went to work as a lobbyist in General Foods' New York office in 1967, but transferred to the Mullen Company in 1969. He left the company in 1971 to go into private practice as an attorney. "I didn't ask to be put in the Mullen Company," Caddy says now. "General Foods put me there. "I didn't even know the Democrats had their headquarters in the Watergate." Just a few years later, though, Caddy would be back in the midst of another scandal - one involving his former college roommate, Tongsun Park, a Korean rice dealer. Park, a glittering party-giver and a central figure in "Koreagate," was granted immunity from criminal prosecution in 1978 for his much-publicized testimony that he paid members of Congress in exchange for political favors. Caddy says Park was the first person he met at Georgetown University, and they later became class officers together, as well as friends. During that time, Caddy said he suspected - but never knew - that Park worked for the Korean CIA. "I suspected - much like working in the Mullen office - that something was up," Caddy said. Caddy says he was questioned by staff members of the U.S. House of Representatives ethics committee about his relationship with Park, but never testified publicly. Through it all, Caddy remained active in conservative Republican politics and helped found two youth groups, the Young Americans for Freedom and the International Youth Federation for Freedom. And in 1974, he wrote a book, "The Hundred Million Dollar Pay-off," about organized labor's role in campaign financing. Caddy came to Texas in 1979, and went to work in 1980 in Austin as director of elections for then-Secretary of State George Strake. While there, he agreed to a friend's request to serve as local counsel to a non-profit foundation that wanted to apply for a Moody Foundation grant. He moved to Houston in 1981. Caddy said he first met foundation trustee Shearn Moody Jr. at the foundation's Galveston offices, where they and other officials discussed the grant. Caddy eventually would serve as director or legal counsel to several organizations that would receive more than $1 million in Moody Foundation grants. Those grants are now among more than $3 million in grants under investigation. Caddy says the investigation of him is "retaliation" for his raising the initial allegations with officials. He also attributes the probe to what he says is a friendship between the Moodys and Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox. Caddy says he has cooperated fully with investigators because he has "nothing to hide." "We're very proud of what we did," Caddy said. "We fulfilled our contracts for the purposes stated." Among his grant-funded projects were conferences on terrorism, Hispanics and the "Star Wars" technology, and - at Moody's request - an investigation into allegations raised by convicted West Texas swindler Billie Sol Estes. Estes has long claimed to have information implicating former President Lyndon B. Johnson in wrongdoing. During that time, Caddy says he began to consider himself a friend to Moody, and once agreed to work undercover posing as Moody's lawyer to help an FBI investigation of alleged corruption among Alabama state officials. The friendship began to cool, however, after Moody's lawyer revealed the "cover" in a North Carolina bankruptcy court, Caddy said. Moody's increasing association with William R. Pabst, convicted in 1985 of charity fraud, furthered the split. Caddy said Moody ignored repeated warnings to steer clear of Pabst. On Oct. 31, 1985, Caddy urged the Moody Foundation to investigate grants to several foundations Pabst and his associate, Vance Beaudreau, helped set up. Moody, Pabst and Beaudreau have since been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly diverting Moody Foundation grants to pay personal expenses. It wasn't long after his split with Moody that Caddy says he started receiving threats. Caddy said he received three or four bomb threats over a period of several days, and the windows in his sixth-floor office were shot out during the night. About a month later, he found a spent cartridge near his desk. Throughout, he says, his house has been watched, he's been followed and his telephones have been wiretapped. Friends and associates, too, have been harassed, Caddy says. In a July 22, 1985, letter to Moody, Caddy attributed the threats to "Pabst and his kooky paramilitary colleagues." Last week, D. Michael Hollaway, the explosives expert, said under oath that Moody and Pabst tried to hire him later that year to plant explosives in Caddy's car. Hollaway said Moody told him he wanted to "blow his (Caddy's) legs off," or have him shot by a sniper. Hollaway declined the offer. "William R. Pabst just talked to me about using enough explosives to scare Caddy, but Shearn Moody wanted him either dead or his legs blown off," Hollaway said. "Shearn Moody was not kidding about this but was very serious." Hollaway said he was approached by Moody and Pabst "at the time that Douglas Caddy started causing problems at the Moody Foundation." Caddy says he's not surprised by Hollaway's allegations. "It's what comes out of a case involving a family fortune and a family dynasty," Caddy said. "I think quite frankly, yes, they were trying to send us a message." He remains worried, though - particularly since Pabst and Beaudreau are fugitives believed to be hiding in Mexico. "It still bothers me that Pabst and Beaudreau are still running around out there, because they're unstable people," Caddy said. "I am still fearful for my life and the lives of my associates. "We're not just paranoid. If he (Moody) had found the right guy, they would have done it." [End] Any attempt to tie Shearn Moody, Jr., to the Kennedy assassination conspiracy, in my opinion, is a waste of time and energy as there is no connection. History, however, does owe him a debt of gratitude for his responding favorably when Billie Sol Estes contacted him about the latter publicly telling the story of his relationship with Lyndon Johnson. Had Moody not encouraged Billie Sol to do so, much of what is now known of LBJ’s use of the stone killer, Malcolm (Mac) Wallace, would still be cloaked in secrecy.

The 1961 column is vintage Alice Widener. It is interesting some 45 years later to read what the Anonymous Administrator in the State Department wrote in the Washington Post and Alice Widener’s response. Both seemed to hit their marks about 50 per cent of the time. Castro has endured and his influence in Latin America has never been greater. In fact, Latin America has never been so unified against the U.S. as it is today. In this regard the link below will bring up a recent interview with Noam Chomsky, titled “What’s happening is something completely new in the history of the hemisphere,” which was published on March 7, 2006 in Counterpunch. http://www.counterpunch.org/dwyer03072006.html

Alice Widener worked closely with the FBI on internal security matters. On a number of occasions the bureau chief of the FBI's Manhattan office visited her in her residence and sought her counsel or information that she might have on these matters. However, in all the years that I knew her, primarily in the 1960's and early 1970's, I never heard her speak of the CIA. For this reason, I do not think that she had any connection with J.J. Angleton.

In the period leading up to the expansion of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in 1965, I was in general agreement with Senator Goldwater’s views, with the exception of his advocacy of the use of nuclear weapons. I was unaware that he maintained this particular position until I read your posting. At this time I was in NYU law school and living in the Manhattan coop owned by Alice Widener. Mrs. Widener, a newspaper columnist and publisher of USA magazine, every few months talked on the phone with J. Edgar Hoover. She had for many years infiltrated Communist Party meetings in New York City using the name of Alice Berezowsky, widow of a prominent Russian emigre, Sergei Berezowsky, her first husband. Hoover valued her inside reports on the Party’s meetings. Her writings were frequently published in Barron’s Financial Weekly, whose editor, Robert Bleiberg, was a frequent dinner guest in her coop, along with James Dines, another Barron’s writer. The topic at these dinner meetings invariably dealt with Vietnam and while everyone was in general agreement that the American war effort must be supported, there was also discussion of public statements of Senator William Fulbright, an opponent of the war. His views had a certain credibility, or so it seemed to those around the dinner table. Of course, Johnson defeated Goldwater in 1964 and America got the Vietnam War, big-time. In retrospect, the Vietnam War obviously was a disaster for the U.S., just as is Bush’s war in Iraq. Johnson’s military experience in World War II was a joke. Mainly photo-ops for a few weeks in the Pacific theater. Goldwater, on the other hand, had a distinguished military record and was a jet pilot. He was Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. I firmly believe that had Goldwater been elected, the Vietnam War would not have been the total wipe-out for America that took place under Johnson’s leadership. (I still remember in my mind’s eye seeing on television General Douglas MacArthur meeting reporters on the lawn of the White House in 1963 after conferring with President Kennedy, who had sought his views on Vietnam. MacArthur declared that, “the chickens are coming home to roost,” a reference of the Korean War, which even today lacks final resolution.) Another topic that to my mind merits discussion, but not at this time, is whether communism and the Soviet Union were actually the threat that 99.9 percent of the world’s free population were led to believe or whether they were instead the strategic product of controlling financial interests in London and on Wall Street who stood to profit by the cold war. I visited the Soviet Union in 1974 with a group of lawyers and was flabbergasted at the poor living conditions that I saw. Upon my return I proposed to Allan Ryskind, editor of Human Events, the conservative newspaper for which I had worked while attending Georgetown University, that I write an article stating that other than for its nuclear weaponry, the Soviet Union was essentially a third-world country that posed only a limited menace to the U.S. Ryskind responded that if Human Events were to publish such an article it would lose its readership, which much preferred to believe that the Soviet Union posed a dire threat to America’s survival. I have often wondered what Alice Widener, a strident anti-communist but possessor of a sophisticated mind, would have thought had she had been able to visit the Soviet Union in the 1970's.

I promised in a prior posting to provide information concerning link between Dr. Alton Oschner of New Orleans, a key figure in the Kennedy Assassination debate, and the election of George Bush as President in 2000. This follows. There is no need to go into the background of Dr. Oschner, which has already been disclosed by others in prior Forum postings. The Oschner link involves the super-secret Council for National Policy. Below is an article from the New York Times of August 28, 2004 that provides background on the Council: August 28, 2004 Club of the Most Powerful Gathers in Strictest Privacy By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK The New York Times Three times a year for 23 years, a little-known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country have met behind closed doors at undisclosed locations for a confidential conference, the Council for National Policy, to strategize about how to turn the country to the right. Details are closely guarded. "The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs, before of after a meeting," a list of rules obtained by The New York Times advises the attendees. The membership list is "strictly confidential." Guests may attend "only with the unanimous approval of the executive committee." In e-mail messages to one another, members are instructed not to refer to the organization by name, to protect against leaks. This week, before the Republican convention, the members quietly convened in New York, holding their latest meeting almost in plain sight, at the Plaza Hotel, for what a participant called "a pep rally" to re-elect President Bush. Mr. Bush addressed the group in fall 1999 to solicit support for his campaign, stirring a dispute when news of his speech leaked and Democrats demanded he release a tape recording. He did not. Not long after the Iraq invasion, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld attended a council meeting. This week, as the Bush campaign seeks to rally Christian conservative leaders to send Republican voters to the polls, several Bush administration and campaign officials were on hand, according to an agenda obtained by The New York Times. "The destiny of our nation is on the shoulders of the conservative movement," the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, told the gathering as he accepted its Thomas Jefferson award on Thursday, according to an attendee's notes. The secrecy that surrounds the meeting and attendees like the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Phyllis Schlafly and the head of the National Rifle Association, among others, makes it a subject of suspicion, at least in the minds of the few liberals aware of it. "The real crux of this is that these are the genuine leaders of the Republican Party, but they certainly aren't going to be visible on television next week," Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said. Mr. Lynn was referring to the list of moderate speakers like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York who are scheduled to speak at the convention. "The C.N.P. members are not going to be visible next week," he said. "But they are very much on the minds of George W. Bush and Karl Rove every week of the year, because these are the real powers in the party." A spokesman for the White House, Trent Duffy, said: "The American people are quite clear and know what the president's agenda is. He talks about it every day in public forums, not to any secret group of conservatives or liberals. And he will be talking about his agenda on national television in less than a week." The administration and re-election effort were major focuses of the group's meeting on Thursday and yesterday. Under Secretary of State John Bolton spoke about plans for Iran, a spokesman for the State Department said. Likewise, a spokesman for Assistant Attorney General R. Alexander Acosta confirmed that Mr. Acosta had addressed efforts to stop "human trafficking," a major issue among Christian conservatives. Dr. Frist spoke about supporting Mr. Bush and limiting embryonic stem cell research, two attendees said. Dan Senor, who recently returned from Iraq after working as a spokesman for L. Paul Bremer III, the top American civilian administrator, was scheduled to provide an update on the situation there. Among presentations on the elections, an adviser to Mr. Bush's campaign, Ralph Reed, spoke on "The 2004 Elections: Who Will Win in November?," attendees said. The council was founded in 1981, just as the modern conservative movement began its ascendance. The Rev. Tim LaHaye, an early Christian conservative organizer and the best-selling author of the "Left Behind" novels about an apocalyptic Second Coming, was a founder. His partners included Paul Weyrich, another Christian conservative political organizer who also helped found the Heritage Foundation. They said at the time that they were seeking to create a Christian conservative alternative to what they believed was the liberalism of the Council on Foreign Relations. A statement of its mission distributed this week said the council's purposes included "to acquaint our membership with those in positions of leadership in our nation in order that mutual respect be fostered" and "to encourage the exchange of information concerning the methodology of working within the system to promote the values and ends sought by individual members." Membership costs several thousand dollars a year, a participant said. Its executive director, Steve Baldwin, did not return a phone call. Over the years, the council has become a staging ground for conservative efforts to make the Republican Party more socially conservative. Ms. Schlafly, who helped build a grass-roots network to fight for socially conservative positions in the party, is a longstanding member. At times, the council has also seen the party as part of the problem. In 1998, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family spoke at the council to argue that Republicans were taking conservatives for granted. He said he voted for a third-party candidate in 1996. Opposition to same-sex marriage was a major conference theme. Although conservatives and Bush campaign officials have denied seeking to use state ballot initiatives that oppose same-sex marriage as a tool to bring out conservative voters, the agenda includes a speech on "Using Conservative Issues in Swing States," said Phil Burress, leader of an initiative drive in Ohio, a battleground state. The membership list this year was a who's who of evangelical Protestant conservatives and their allies, including Dr. Dobson, Mr. Weyrich, Holland H. Coors of the beer dynasty; Wayne LaPierre of the National Riffle Association, Richard A. Viguerie of American Target Advertising, Mark Mix of the National Right to Work Committee and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Not everyone present was a Bush supporter, however. This year, the council included speeches by Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party and Michael A. Peroutka of the ultraconservative Constitution Party. About a quarter of the members attended their speeches, an attendee said. Nor was the gathering all business. On Wednesday, members had a dinner in the Rainbow Room, where William F. Buckley Jr. of the National Review was a special guest. At 10 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, members had "prayer sessions" in the Rose Room at the hotel. [End] The Council for National Policy was incorporated in 1981. Its first Executive Director was Woody Jenkins, a protege of Dr. Alton Oschner. Woody Jenkins was introduced to the contra cause in Nicaragua by Dr. Oschner, head of the Caribbean Commission. It was Oschner who suggested Jenkins start Friends of the Americas (FOA), which became a conduit to the contras. Oschner's father was a prominent white supremacist. Jenkins had been a member of the Oschner’s Caribbean Commission. Friends of the Americas was a Caribbean Commission spinoff. Through Jenkins' membership, FOA was also linked to the Council for National Policy. Jenkins was the Executive Director of the Council in 1982-83, and in 1987. Further information on Jenkins and Dr. Oschner can be found in the links below: http://rightweb.irc-online.org/groupwatch/foa.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_E._%22Woody%22_Jenkins George Bush addressed the Council for National Policy in 1999, and, as noted in the Times’ article, since then has steadfastly refused to release a copy of his speech. It is alleged that in his speech he outlined to the assembled conservatives the goals he would seek to achieve if elected president. Historians have already labeled the Bush presidency as a failure, probably the worst in American history. It would, therefore, be of interest to history to find out now exactly what promises he made in 1999 to these key conservatives before his election the following year. Bush is recognized as being a lame-duck president. The conservatives, operating through the secretive Council for National Policy, are already making plans to elect his successor. Because this is the most important conservative group in America, it is important that its future plans and activities become publicly identified. The best means to do this is to read the past and future postings on the Council that appear in www.google.com.

I had a volunary working relationship while still in high school in New Orleans with Kent and Phoebe Courtney. This was from 1954-56, until I left for college. I did not maintain contact after that date and am aware of any activities in which they engaged subsequently. I helped with the preparation of their publication, Free Men Speak and, later, The Independent American. The publication reprinted editorials from conservative newspapers, such as the Manchester (N.H.) Union-Leader and the N.Y. Daily News. There was little original editorial comment by the Courtneys in their publication during this period. I did not know that Gay Bannister was recommended to the La. or Miss. Sovereignty Commissions. I have never heard the name of Frank McGehee before. The John Birch Society had essentially through its activities tarnished its public image so that no thinking young conservative would have seen much benefit with associating with the group. I do not think that YAF in any way was used a vehicle to recruit members for the Society. Senator Strom Thurmond was a strong YAF supporter and spoke at YAF-sponsored events. I have no knowledge about his views of the John Birch Society.

I do not consider William F. Buckley to be either a racist or opportunist. He is an extremely cerebral man, obviously gifted with a high I.Q. But even one so intelligent as he can make a grievous decision with disastrous results. Only within the last week has Buckley publicly acknowledged that Bush’s invasion of Iraq was a mistake and that now is the time to admit defeat and remove our troops. Millions of persons around the globe far less gifted intelligently than Buckley marched against the Iraq War in the months preceding the invasion. They foresaw disaster. Why didn’t Buckley? He is a captive to his significant role in history in jump-starting conservatism by writing “God and Man at Yale” in 1953 and initiating National Review magazine in 1955. In 1950, in “The Liberal Imagination,” Lionel Trilling declared that “the plain fact” was that there were no conservative ideas being seriously considered in public discourse. Buckley changed that. The real question today is: Now that Buckley has admitted that the Iraq War is a disaster, will he have the courage to go further and acknowledge that the conservative ideology has become morally bankrupt, and that its leaders, who control all three branches of the U.S. government, by their actions pose a threat to the viability of Western Civilization?

The John Birch Society and Young Americans for Freedom were both conservative organizations and probably shared similar views on a number of public issues in the 1960's. The Birch Society mainly stressed anti-communism, while YAF had a broader view of public policy. YAF certainly did not embrace the view of Robert Welch, the Society’s founder, who proclaimed that “Eisenhower is a communist.” YAF’s public image was more moderate in its approach to public discourse. As a result, YAF attracted the support of leading conservative figures, while the Society did not. YAF’s membership was comprised of young persons, while the Society attracted adults. YAF sponsored it first conservative rally in March 1961, six months after its founding, which merited a front page article in The New York Times. The rally was held at the Manhattan Center on 34th street in New York City and over 3000 persons were turned away because the Center was already full with an even larger number. As the Times reported, those on the outside were assuaged by Senator Goldwater, who went outside the meeting hall and talked to them just before the rally began. The Times previously had recognized that something interesting was afoot when it carried an article about the activities of Youth For Goldwater at the Republican Convention in Chicago in August 1960. The Times’ reporter interviewed me and conveyed the significance of what was taking place then, while nevertheless characterizing me as a “young fogey.” In 1962 YAF held a second conservative rally at Madison Square Garden, which was packed with almost 20,000 attendees. On the other hand, the John Birch Society, due to its extremist image, was never able to mount a public meeting that attracted more than a few hundred people on any one occasion. For those who wish to learn more about the early years of YAF, the link below will bring up a YAF web page titled “Rebels with a Cause - Part I, The YAF Story 1960-1967" by Lee and Anne Edwards, both of whom were involved in the origins of YAF. http://www.yaf.com/rebels1.shtml

Re: Tim Gratz threat: this article includes information about the NY civil suit filed recently in the Holloway case against the Aruba boy and his father. It shows that even if the civil case is decided against the boy and his father, the impact on them would probably be of no effect. Spilbor: The Case of Missing Alabama Teen Natalee Holloway http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20...27_spilbor.html

I attended Alcee Fortier High School in New Orleans from 1954 until I was graduated in 1956. That same year I departed New Orleans and enrolled in the School of Foreign Service, at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In 1954, the Senate took up the matter of the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Kent and Phoebe Courtney organized a public meeting of those who supported McCarthy and opposed his being censured. I attended and within days set up a small table in Jackson Square, in front of St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter, to solicit signatures on a petition opposing McCarthy’s censure. McCarthy was catholic, so there was no lack of signatories on the petition from those attending mass in the Cathedral. After the national petition drive, which had been organized by General Albert Wedemeyer, ended with the Senate’s censure of McCarthy, I did voluntary work after high school in helping the Courtney’s launch their publication, Free Men Speak, which later was re-named The Independent American. Later, at a public meeting of the Kohn Crime Commission, a quasi-governmental investigatory body set up to monitor organized crime in New Orleans, Kent Courtney introduced me to Guy Bannister. I departed New Orleans several years before Lee Harvey Oswald arrived and thus never met Oswald. As is known, Oswald was recruited by Bannister for “undercover” work and also was also recruited by Dr. Alton Oschner of the Oschner Cancer Clinic for “specialized” work . There are other topics already in the Forum that cover the period that Oswald worked with Oschner, so I won’t elaborate any further here on this aspect. However, there is a direct link between Dr. Oschner and the election of George Bush as President in 2000. I shall describe this in a forthcoming posting

Civil Rights was not topic on the agenda of Young Americans for Freedom in 1960. My recollection is that it was not a topic on the agenda of Conservatives or Republicans until President Johnson initiated his civil rights legislation from 1964 to 1968. Then the Conservatives and the GOP united to oppose the legislation. Senator Goldwater was outspoken against the proposed legislation. I, myself, was not immune. In 1962 I hosted a reception for Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the presidential candidate for the Dixiecrat Party in 1948, at the residence I shared with Tong Sun Park in the Georgetown section of Washington. Looking back, I can only say to myself, "Where was my mind?" A number of conservatives came to regret their opposition to civil rights. I remember how James Jackson Kilpatrick, a national conservative columnist and one-time editor of the Richmond (Virginia) News-Leader, wrote in his later years what a mistake steeped in human tragedy it was that he and the conservative movement failed to recognize the legitimacy of civil rights legislation. Louis Auchincloss, the wall street lawyer and author of many novels based on the elite WASP society, also was to write how he suddenly awoke and realized how wrong the conservatives were in some of their policy stands. Later I attempted to make amends. From 1980-81 I served as Director of Elections for the State of Texas in the first administration of GOP Governor William Clements. I used my position to make certain that the votes of African-Americans and Hispanics were correctly counted in the elections conducted in the 254 counties comprising Texas. In 1982, when the extension of the Federal Voting Rights Act was being considered by Congress, I testified before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee in favor of the legislation. My prepared statement, entered into the printed record, drew upon information that I had learned as Director of Election for Texas.. Lyndon Johnson achieved his goal of becoming President of the United States with blood on his hands. But, give the devil his due, his civil rights and much of his Great Society legislation were monumental steps in making the American dream come true for millions of persons, citizens and non-citizens.

In response to your query about the policy positions of YAF in 1960: YAF in its first year, when I was its National Director, merely coalesced around the general principles enunciated in the Sharon Statement, which was adopted at its founding meeting in Sharon, Connecticut at the Buckley family estate. During this period I was interviewed by The New Leader Magazine, which placed my picture on its cover. I was asked by its reporter at the time what YAF's policies were and replied, "Our policy is to have no policy." Behind this statement was the strategy of making certain that the new organization did not become "radioactive" by being labeled extremist as the result of embracing one particular policy that could be singled out for special criticism by the media. For example, Robert Welch of the John Birch Society about this time proclaimed publicly that "Eisenhower was a communist." This pretty much put an end to the Society's effectiveness because the media thereafter consigned it to the lunatic right. (Shortly after Welch made his statement, YAF chairman, Robert Schuchman, then a student at Yale University Law School, had breakfast with Edward Teller, the father of the H-Bomb. Schuchman made light of Welch's statement about Eisenhower being a communist and was dumbfounded when Teller said he agreed with Welch.) The Sharon Statement, which has been posted in the Forum, provided the perfect umbrella to explain where YAF stood on policy issues in its first year without having to get too specific. Later, YAF began publishing its monthly magazine, The New Guard, whose editor was Lee Edwards, son of famed Chicago Tribune reporter, Williard Edwards. Each issue of The New Guard contained articles that dealt with policy issues of the day.

First, in regard to Marvin Liebman: As I had indicated in a prior post, Liebman in his columns in the three or so years prior to his death (circa 1994) that were published in gay newspapers around the country had written about his early days in the Young Communist League. Also, when we had worked together in the 1960's in launching YAF, he had told to me about his prior communist affiliation. So when he declared at our last visit just prior to his death that he had written a column titled "Lenin Was Right" and was prepared on the spot to fax it to the gay newspapers, I was not overly surprised. I do not remember exactly what was contained in the column but do retain the impression from our talk that he had become thoroughly disillusioned with the Republicans and the Conservatives. He believed that all their talk about capitalism and free enterprise merely served as a smokescreen that obscured their real purpose, which is make the rich richer at the expense of those in society who are less fortunate. My only motive in discouraging him in sending out the column was to save him from suffering a backlash, one that could have led to emotional trauma at a time when his death was imminent, from those who admired him for his work in creating the modern conservative movement. I am not certain whether I made a mistake in so advising him. The ultimate decision to send the column was, of course, his to make. Several years ago I related this above story about the column to Richard Viguerie, the fund-raising guru for America's right-wing. He considered Liebman to have been one of his closest friends. Viguerie registered complete shock upon so hearing. It could be that Liebman never told him of his communist past and, of course, not being a reader of the nation's gay newspapers, Viguerie was unaware of Liebman's writings in the twilight of his life. In regard to the split that took place in the initial YAF board of directors: It was concerned with strategy. Why did Goldwater at the 1960 Republican convention advise the Youth for Goldwater activists to make their organization a permanent one? He could just as well have said: stay active in the Young Republican National Federation. His concept, embraced by myself and others involved in the founding of Young Americans for Freedom, was to use the new organization to reach out and convert others to the conservative movement who did not consider themselves Republicans. These included members of the academic community, rank-and-file union members, Southerners, members of the media, and other segments of society. Up until the time when National Review under William Buckley appeared on the scene and a mass conservative movement emerged through YAF, the right-wing in America was an intellectual desert. Again, for more information about the subject, reference should be made to Prof. John Andrew's book, The Other Side of the Sixties, available through amazon.com.

From what you know, why was the Watergte broken into? Steve Thomas I do not know why the burglars broke into the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate. When Howard Hunt came to my residence about 3:30 A.M. on June 17, 1972, 60 minutes after the burglars were arrested, he remained there for about an hour. During this time the emphasis was on how to get the five arrested individuals out of jail on bail as soon as possible. I immediately telephoned one of the partners of the law firm of which I was an associate attorney and explained what had occurred, as related to me by Hunt who was present. The partner, who knew Hunt and was a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, then arranged for another attorney skilled in criminal law to accompany me in an attempt to post bail quickly for the arrested five, an effort that was doomed to failure from the start. I talked on the telephone with Gordon Liddy from my residence while Hunt was still there. Both Hunt and Liddy, besides retaining me to represent them individually, also retained me to represent the five arrested persons. After this initial meeting, Hunt disappeared. Apparently he had been ordered to leave town. He telephoned me from an unknown location several times but our conversations were short and stilted because by then I had been served with a subpoena to appear "forthwith" before the Watergate grand jury. On one of these occasions, Dorothy Hunt was in my office when Howard called. I did not have a lengthy substantive conversation with Hunt until after he was released from prison, when on one occasion we had dinner at a restaurant in Washington, D.C. Even then our conversation was circumspect, so that today I am still in the dark as to why there was a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters. About a week after the case broke, Gordon Liddy visited my office one Saturday afternoon. In a boastful manner he declared that Watergate was the biggest criminal case of the 20th century. He was cool as a cucumber and appeared to be thrilled at the prospect of being a key player in the case.

It should also be noted that Bennett's purchase of Mullen was orchestrated by Colson. Colson was Nixon's point man in winning back Howard Hughes, and his money... When Hughes fired Maheu, Nixon was horrified to find out that Maheu had put Larry O'Brien on Hughes' payroll. Nixon was scared that Maheu had told O'Brien about the pay-offs Maheu had given to Rebozo. Nixon had Colson work with Hughes and find Hughes a Washington representative, one that Nixon could trust. It's unclear whether it was Hughes or Colson who came up with the idea of finding a good Mormon to work for Hughes. (Hughes trusted Mormons.) Anyhow, Bennett fit the bill, got the Hughes gig (through Colson) and got Mullen (through Colson). Ironically, Neither Nixon nor Colson had any idea that Mullen was also a CIA front, and that, as a result, Bennett also got a case officer along with his Mullen gig. When Colson and Nixon found out about Bennett's CIA ties, they decided that all of Watergate had been a set-up and that it had been orchestrated by the CIA using Hunt, and Bennett as its principle agents. The irony, of course, was that both these men had achieved their proximity to the White House entirely through Colson's machinations. I've read where Bernard Barker said that Hunt worked for Hughes in the sixties. His official story was that he was with the CIA during this time. Did Hunt ever let on that he'd worked for Hughes prior to his working oin the Hughes account at Mullen? Do you still talk to Hunt? Is he working on any more books about his exploits? This is the first time I have heard that Charles Colson was responsible for Robert Bennett purchasing the Mullen Company from Robert Mullen. The scenario that you outline makes a great deal of sense, although I lack any personal information to support it. As I have indicated in a prior post, Robert Mullen wanted to retire and had approached Howard Hunt and myself about purchasing the Mullen Company. At that time I was an employee of General Food Corporation, a Mullen client, and did not know the Mullen Company was a CIA front. Howard Hunt obviously did know of the CIA connection as he was placed in the Mullen Company by Richard Helms, CIA Director. This took place soon after I commenced working out of the Mullen offices as a General Foods employee. When Robert Mullen suddenly disclosed that he was selling his company to Robert Bennett, both Hunt and I were taken by complete surprise. Hunt, even then, was a close friend of Colson through their Brown University alumni association. It would seem more likely that Colson would have asked Bennett and Hunt to be the co-purchasers of the Mullen Company, but I have no evidence to support this thesis. Whenever I see Robert Bennett on television these days, as the U.S. Senator from Utah, I say to myself that "The Secret State" has it own man looking after its interests directly in the U.S. Congress, a disturbing thought indeed. I am not in communication these days with Hunt. The last communication that I received was a letter from his wife about two years ago informing me of Hunt having undergone a hospital operation and reporting on his health developments. When the Advocate article of August 16, 2005 about my role in Watergate was published, I sent a copy of the magazine to both Hunt and Gordon Liddy but never received a reply back from either. While there is controversy about some of the activities that Hunt engaged in during his professional career, in my opinion his motivation was always to do what he thought was best for his country, which included at times putting his own life on the line.

I noticed that I failed to answer a question that you recently posed about whether I have been in communication with Billie Sol Estes since 1984. The answer is negative. After he failed to meet with the FBI agents sent to Abilene to interview him in Sept. 1984, our communications ceased. I did keep in contact for a brief time with Pam Estes, his daughter, who completed an unrelated research paper for which she was paid through a Moody Foundation grant. I might add other clarifications here also. I have seen Forum posts linking me to Operation Gemstone, which was part of Watergate. I was in no way connected with Gemstone and only learned about it from reading the press. About three months before the Watergate case broke in June 1972, one of the partners of the law firm at which I was employed assigned me to do volunteer legal work for John Dean, Counsel to the President. Up until the case broke I did legal work on campaign financing issues on a part-time basis out of the White House under Dean's direction and one of his close associates. I also prepared a legal paper on campaign financing for Gordon Liddy, who was Counsel for the Committee to Re-Elect the President. To the best of my recollection, I was never questioned about this legal work for Dean or Liddy either when I was before the Watergate grand jury or by the Watergate Special Prosecutor. Apparently, these authorities were aware of the work and had checked it out and found it not relevant. I was never interviewed by the Senate Watergate Committee, although I sent its chairman, Senator Sam Ervin a copy of my first book "The Hundred Million Dollar Payoff", which carried an introduction dealing with Watergate, and received a nice letter from the Senator in response. Also, in regard to Marvin Liebman: After Liebman and William Rusher, two adults, engineered the takeover of Young Americans for Freedom by making it an auxiliary of the Young Republican National Federation in 1961, I ceased contact with Liebman. He claimed that I had brought about a split in the YAF board of directors over the issue when in fact the takeover of the organization took place when I was on 6-months active duty in the U.S. Army. I did oppose the takeover but being in the service at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, severely limited my ability to influence the outcome. However, Liebman asked me to visit him just prior to his death, which took place about six years ago (I cannot remember the precise year.) At our visit we made amends for any ill feelings that stemmed from the YAF controversy that occurred over 30 years previously. Only then did Liebman tell me that he was dying of cancer. He showed me a column he had written that he proposed to send to the various gay newspapers around the country that regularly carried his writings. The title of the column was "Lenin was Right." Liebman maintained, correctly, in the column that the Republicans and the conservatives were reverting to their old roots that espoused advocating only the cause of the elite and wealthy. (Liebman, in prior columns in the gay newspapers, had written about his days in the youth arm of the Communist Party in the 1930's.) I advised him that sending out a column with the inflammatory title of "Lenin was right" in light of his failing health would only serve to alienate many of those in the modern conservative movement who admired what he had done in launching it. He reluctantly agreed. As we parted, he said, "See you on the other side." When he died soon thereafter, no memorial service was held, which was in accordance with his expressed wishes.

The shooting took place on a ranch in south Texas. No news was leaked out about it for 18 hours and then only to a local newspaper. The news was leaked by a lobbyist who has represented a company that is the second largest contractor in Iraq, having U.S. contracts worth $5.2 billion. The sheriff of the county in which the shooting took place waited 14 hours to investigate. The sheriff's investigation did not include interviewing the shooting victim. The victim is the owner of the building in Austin that housed the Bush gubernatorial campaign headquarters and the private office of Karl Rove. The office of the Vice President did not release a statement until two days after the shooting. The White House press secretary, one of Barr McClellan's sons, purposely misled the press about the event and declared it was time "to move on." The hospital administrator where the victim is being treated said that he did not know what all the fuss was about. Everyone involved in keeping mum about the exact details of the shooting. The victim is 78 years old and may die from the pellets permanently lodged in his body. In short, it's Texas corruption and politics all over again. (If the victim dies, there will be an attempted cover-up at the local level that will ultimately fail because news travels too fast these days via the Internet in contrast to the 1960's.)

(4) In 1960, while a student in the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University in 1960, I helped form Youth for Goldwater for Vice President. Nixon was assured the GOP's presidential nomination, so the strategy was to build up Goldwater's statute through advocating his nomination for the second position. Goldwater was a big success at the 1960 GOP convention in Chicago, which transformed him into a national political figure. In a meeting during the convention held at the Pick Congress Hotel, Goldwater told the Youth for Goldwater activists there that they should not let their movement end with the convention, that they should form a permanent organization. William F. Buckley, along with Marvin Liebman and myself, were present at this meeting and Buckley volunteered his family estate, Great Elm, in Sharon, Connecticut to host the founding of the permanent national youth organization. This took place subsequently in September 1960 and chose the name of Young Americans for Freedom. The story of the founding of YAF is best told in Prof. John Andrew's book, "The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of the Conservative Politics" and in M. Stanton Evans' book, "Revolt on the Campus." At the founding meeting, I was elected as National Director of YAF. About a year after it was formed, I entered the U.S. Army, where I served 6 months active duty and 7 ½ years reserve duty. While I was on active duty, Marvin Liebman and William Rusher, publisher of Buckley's National Review, organized a coup that brought new leadership into the organization. In effect, YAF then became an auxiliary of the Young Republican National Federation, and, in my opinion, lost is effectiveness in affecting intellectual thought. After my release from the U.S. Army, I soon ceased to be active in YAF not only because I disagreed with its overt partisan political approach but also because I had entered New York University Law School. As a result I am not in a position to comment on the policy positions it later took on the main issues of the day. Prof. Andrew's book probably is the best source of information on this. (5) To the best of my knowledge, the original YAF board of directors had only one member of the John Birch Society on it. This was Scott Stanley, editor of American Opinion, the Birch national magazine. Stanley was among those directors, including myself, who vigorously opposed the Liebman-Rusher strategy of converting YAF into an auxiliary of the Young Republican National Federation. YAF at no time was ever the arm of the John Birch Society, although Scott Stanley's presence on its board of directors permitted the Society's views to be espoused at the directors' meetings. (6) Ray Cline, E. Howard Hunt, and John Singlaub were not involved in any way in establishing YAF. The main persons so involved were William F. Buckley, Marvin Liebman, Charles Edison and myself. I was never paid compensation for the volunteer work that I did for YAF. My full time job, until I entered the Army, was Executive Director of the Committee for Public Affairs, McGraw-Edison Company. Charles Edison, son of Thomas Edison, former governor of New Jersey and former Secretary of the Navy under Roosevelt, was chairman of McGraw-Edison Company and provided the financial "seed" money that launched YAF. I worked on a daily basis with Gov. Edison, who resided in the Towers of the Waldorf-Astoria on the same floor with General Douglas MacArthur and Herbert Hoover. Marvin Liebman, who had his own public relations company, was Edison's right-arm in the latter's attempts to influence public affairs. Gov. Edison and I shared the same political philosophy that the American Eagle needs two wings, right and left, to fly straight and that the Eagle faces danger in surviving if either of these wings becomes overwhelmingly too strong, as is the case today with the GOP sociopaths and opportunists in control of U.S. government.

(1) Billie Sol never indicated to me that he was in any way involved in the Henry Marshall murder. However, he also never fully discussed this case with me. As far as I know, he only disclosed it in detail when he appeared before the Robertson County, Texas, grand jury in 1984. Billie Sol is an active member of the Church of Christ denomination. If the Moody Foundation grant had been approved to fund the telling of his story, it was to have been through a grant from the Foundation to Abilene Christian University, an educational institute located in Billie Sol's hometown that had previously received Moody Foundation grants. Billie Sol on more than one occasion said to me that the primary reason he want to tell publicly what he knew about his relationship with LBJ was to set the record straight to atone for serious sins he had committed. (2) Billie Sol never provided any documentation to me concerning the deaths of Henry Marshall, George Krutilek, Harold Orr, Ike Rogers, Coleman Wade, Josefa Johnson, John Kinser and John F. Kennedy. He was to disclose fully what he knew about these murders to the FBI agents that were sent from Washington, D.C. to interview him in September 1984, but he abruptly backed out at the last moment from so doing. (3) I do not have any information about the death of Ike Rogers and his secretary.

Howard Hunt was placed in the Mullen Company in 1970 by the then Director of the CIA. When Robert Mullen decided to retire, he initially approached Hunt and myself to purchase the company from him. There were several discussions among the parties, which abruptly ended when Mullen announced that he was selling the company solely to Robert Bennett, whose father was a U.S. Senator from Utah. I departed General Foods at that time to begin employment with a law firm in Washington, D.C. The Mullen Company collapsed in the wake of the Watergate scandal when its cover was blown as a CIA front. Robert Bennett then went to work for a Howard Hughes entity and later succeeded his father as U.S. Senator, where he serves today, doing the bidding of the Mormon Church and the CIA. In 1971 Charles Colson, a fellow alumnus of Brown University, approached Hunt about working part-time for the White House while still being employed by the Mullen Company. Soon thereafter Hunt met Gordon Liddy and the two began coordinating activities. In answer to your query about how Hunt ended up with an office in the White House, the answer then is solely through the sponsorship of Charles Colson.