Tim Gratz and Donald Segretti

[Tim Gratz]

Robert Charles-Dunne wrote:

A quick question, Tim:

Have you kept a copy of Segretti's hotel bill all these years?

As I posted in the Watergate Forum, I do not recall if I EVER had a copy of his actual bill; I think I only obtained information from it. I do not even have a copy of the memo in Ulasewicz's book--and only had the vaguest recollection that I had prepared the memo. When I read the memo, then and only then did I remember getting Simmon's information from the hotel.

I used to have voluminous records of my political activities in the sixties and seventies (correspondence, political newsletters, etc.) but I think it got discarded years ago.

[Tim Gratz]

There is an old legal maxim: What is fit for the goose is fit for the gander.

Robert is always attempting to make me justify the reports I use to support my scenarios. When Pat asked Robert to justify his claim that Segretti had mentored Rove, here is one of the reports he posts to justify that assertion:

The Rove Machine Rolls On

By Robert B. Reich

Issue Date: 2.1.03

It's no accident that Karl Rove was one of Richard Nixon's moles. Using techniques developed by his first mentor, dirty-tricks strategist Donald Segretti, Rove infiltrated Democratic organizations on behalf of Nixon's infamous 1972 campaign.

Now let's stop and think about this. Reich is no source. He clearly had no personal knowledge whether Rove had ever met Segretti. Reich does not even state in his story, for instance: "According to a confidential source" or "according to a friend of Rove" or "according to Segretti's testimony" etc.

And look at how sloppy Reich's writing is: "Using techniques developed by his first mentor, dirty-tricks strategist Donald Segretti, Rove infilitrated Democratic organizations on behalf of Nixon's infamous 1972 campaign."

Now how MANY things are wrong with THAT sentence?

Youy know what? I've decided to put Robert to the test. Let's see how intellectually honest he is. Robert, I request that you impeach your own witness. Use the techniques you have honed in critiquing my posts and list all the errors Reich makes in that one sentence.

Robert, if you are intellectually honest, I suggest when you take a closer look at the Reich story and see the obvious errors in it. Several jump out at me.

[John Simkin]

I would remend members that visitors will be visiting this thread to find information on Dennis Salvatore Cassini. It would therefore be better to discuss it on the Anthony Ulasewicz thread:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=4323

[Tim Gratz]

Re the issue of whether Rove knew (or was trained by) Segretti, the book "Bush's Brain" appears to be fairly well-researched "biography" (polemic against) Rove. It contains not one sentence linking Rove to Segretti.

[Robert Charles-Dunne]

I would remend members that visitors will be visiting this thread to find information on Dennis Salvatore Cassini. It would therefore be better to discuss it on the Anthony Ulasewicz thread.

John:

At the risk of incurring your wrath, I beg for a bit of indulgence here.  There are posts in this thread, that don't appear on the Ulasewicz thread, containing information that may yet prove quite illuminating.  And there's an outside chance we'll get back to the topic of Cassini/Cossini and his significance in the greater scheme of things quite soon.

Tim has pointed out a few things that I find rather unsettling, and I'd just like to resolve each to the extent that it can be done.

First, there is the issue of how Segretti determined which students to contact in seeking recruits for his Ratxxxxers program.  I have argued against cold-calling, since it seems destined to implode upon encountering the first moral candidate.  As happened when Tim made his complaints about Segretti to Karl Rove.  The only reason that nothing tangible came of Tim's complaints lies in his contacting the Republican Party, to report its own excesses to it.  Had he reported Segretti's overtures to the Democrats, the police or the press, I assume more would, or at least could, have come of it. 

This is not to imply that Randy Knox or Tim Gratz had reputations for being underhanded.  But I have argued that somebody must have thought they could be useful in order for Segretti to have made his approach.  Tim may have provided us with an answer, with a news tidbit posted on the Watergate forum:

I had met one person from CREEP (who was associated, as I recall, with Nixon's "youth campaign"), a gentleman named Ken Rietz. As I recall, Rietz ended up in some legal trouble over Watergate as well, And for what it is worth I had not cared much for Rietz.

Tim, did you meet Reitz before or after the Segretti overture to you?  Here's why I ask the question.  Reitz was active in another White House plot called Operation Townhouse.  It distributed illegal campaign funds to a variety of Republican candidates running in tight, but potentially win-able races.  George Bush the Elder was among them.  It also actively sought students to infiltrate campus and anti-war groups, to spy on them and influence the group's direction.  In some respects, not unlike Segretti's Ratxxxxers, and despite a limited number of references to them in the Nixon White House tapes, Nixon clearly worried that both Segretti and Reitz could put Nixon in a grossly unflattering light.

If you met Reitz first, and then got the Segretti overture, I would venture to guess the former advised the latter to contact you.  Moreover, if Reitz knew that you worked at the Park Motor Inn, it may well explain why Segretti chose to stay in that establishment when he came to visit you.  It provided a most low-key and inconspicuous way in which to contact you.  I must say, without that explanation, it otherwise seems a remarkable coincidence that Segretti would stay in the hotel at which worked the very chap he'd come to town to see.  Don't you think?  Unless he had already called you prior to arriving in town, and you suggested he stay at the Park Motor Inn, because you worked there and you thought it best to meet there for cloak and dagger reasons.  But if that were the case, I assume you would have mentioned that fact.

Did Reitz try to recruit you for something too?  Here's why I ask the question.  Both Reitz and Segretti were hustling about, trying to find Young Republicans to do some unattributable dirty work.  I think the chances of one Young Republican in a traditionally Democratic state being approached by two Republican dirty tricksters for use in two different and illegal Republican machinations are overwhelmingly slim, no matter how high your profile may have been, Tim.  Consequently, again, I venture to guess that the one suggested that the other contact you.  What else could explain it?

You stated in this thread that you thought Segretti's motive [and Reitz's too, it turns out], was to sow disunity within the Democratic party ranks.  Yet you refrained from believing the Republicans themselves might have something to do with it.  Instead, you said you thought it may have been sponsored by "a well-meaning but ill-informed rich Republican (perhaps W. Clement Stone) or by a Democrat or by the Democratic Party as an agent provocateur."  Both points deserve a little closer attention.

W. Clement Stone wasn't just a garden variety multi-millionaire.  He was also a principal contributor to the 1970 George Bush the Elder campaign, which received large sums from Ken Reitz's Operation Townhouse, which in turn received at least $40,000 of its funding from one W. Clement Stone.  Though you didn't mention them in tandem, we now find that you met Ken Reitz, an obscure Republican dirty trickster, and suspected his financier of underwriting Segretti's dirty tricks schemes.  That's remarkably prescient of you, I'd say.

As to your contention that you thought Democrats might be seeking Young Republicans to subvert the Democratic campaign, I believe it borders on the bizarre that you would think it then, or ask us to believe it now.  But then, that's precisely what the Ratxxxxers campaign was designed to do: sow disunity and suspicion within the Democratic party.  And it worked.  You claimed you thought the Democrats were responsible for sponsoring Segretti.  So did the Democrats.

To crib something I posted earlier today on the Watergate Forum, here's how Muskie campaign executive Senator George Mitchell recalls events during the '72 primary election in Maine:

"In addition, there was the year of the infamous dirty tricks campaign that the Nixon campaign ran against Senator Muskie, particularly in the primary. And I myself was the direct object of a good deal of that campaign. We encountered what then seemed inexplicable crazy events. Everywhere I went on the road, there would be a bill for $2,000 in the restaurant and bar signed with my name. One day, 15 limousines showed up signed with my name. At four o'clock in the morning 500 pizzas were delivered to the hotel, ordered in my name. Crazy actions to disrupt the scheduling, phony photographs of Senator Muskie, cropped photographs distributed at various events. We couldn't figure out what was happening. We had no idea that it was coming from President Nixon's campaign. We thought it might be other Democrats in the primary. It had a tremendous disruptive effect on the operation of the campaign. And then later events, which got a lot of publicity, involved phony letters to the editor and Senator Muskie's response and so forth, which affected the campaign. .......to read about it later, it was really like a light bulb coming on. All of these crazy things that happened that seemed trivial and insignificant and inexplicable at the time suddenly became clear."

Also, Tim, I noted that you quit your Park Motor Inn job - despite earning upward of $250 a day in tips - to take a short-term gig with the Young Republicans in Rhode Island and New Hampshire, just after your meeting with Tony Ulasewicz.  Again, this is quite the coincidence.  Did Ulasewicz recruit you for this position, either directly or through a proxy?  If so, and the pay was sufficient to warrant you leaving your well-paid job, did it ever strike you that Ulasewicz was paying you to placate or mollify you, and to place you where they could keep tabs on you?  Please don't take umbrage at the questions.  These are far more flattering than others I could ask.

In short, you knew Karl Rove [though you declined to mention him here by name and waited for one of us to catch on], and were approached by his former mentor Donald Segretti.  Around the same time, you met Ken Reitz, who ran a dirty tricks campaign concurrent to Segretti's own dirty tricks Ratxxxxers.  After meeting with Tony Ulasewicz, you traded in a well-paid job for a short term position to help out in what was among the dirtiest campaigns waged to that date.  That's quite a cast of notorious characters for a small town lad to encounter in so short a time frame, particularly if all occurred by random chance.

   

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[Tim Gratz]

Well, Robert, this will blow your mind but I once legally represented W. Clement Stone in suing someone (a nut) who was plagarizing his materials. Cannot recall how I got the case (I'm sure it was a referral by another lawyer) and I never met Stone and I do not think the referal had ANYTHING to do with my politics. The case was well after the 1972 election (in the early eighties if my recollection serves me correctly).

Now to your points and questions:

I cannot remember when I first met Rietz. It is my recollection he had something to do with setting up the Nixon youth campaign and his personality just irritated me. He was kind of a "prima donna" type and had not risen through the ranks of the Young Republicans as I recall. He seemed like a "know-it-all". As I recall, he was addressing a group meeting and it is highly unlikely he would have known my name, but for its inclusion on a list.

I might be wrong on this but I think Rietz may have come from the same southern California mileu as Haldeman and Chapin.

Rietz was not some obscure political operative. He was rather a "mucky muck" in the Nixon campaign. (I just now recall the name of the Nixon youth organization: "Young Voters for the President.")

You are too conspiratorial re the Segretti operation. Of course I objected to the ethics of some of his proposals but it was also rather obvious to me that Segretti did not have the sophistication to pull off the kind of operations he was suggesting. (The fact that he did so with some success may show I was wrong about this judgment. But, interestingly, in "All the President's Men" Bernstein writes that he was rather taken aback by Segretti when he first met him (for some of the same reasons I was).) Your conjectures are intelligent, to be sure, but I am convinced they are wrong. Segretti got my name from Randy Knox. In fact, I think Knox called me to tell me to expect Segretti's call. Segretti had Knox's name only because he had formerly been the chairman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Young Republicans. Segretti was in fact working on an old list. I am convinced Segretti did not even know I was an officer in the College Republicans (in fact I was the state chairman at the time).

And you would have to understand the factionalism in the Young Republicans to understand why Randy Knox was probably the last person a knowledgeable operative would think to attempt to recruit in an ethically questionable campaign operation. Randy was essentially a "Rockefeller Republican" type whereas I was associated with the conservative Goldwater faction in the Young Republicans. If I recall right, there was even a spirited contest at the UW Republican club over a candidate backed by the Knox wing and a candidate backed by my group (we won).

An aside: most Forum members have probably concluded my politics are fairly conservative. When I ran for State Chairman of the Wisconsin College Republicans I had the support of every single campus Republican club except one and its objection to me was that I was not conservative enough!

Perhaps that club was right. I was associated with a state senator from Milwaukee whose politics were moderate and had strong support from labor unions. My friend ran for governor but lost the Republican race to a man so conservative he later was a VEEP candidate on a ticket headed by Lestor Maddox! This man lost the general election. My candidate, the moderate Republican from Milwaukee, probably would have won.

But I digress. My point is simply that Segretti was working from a dated Young Republican list, and he was not even astute enough to have realized that Knox came from the liberal wing of the GOP. And Segretti called me only because Knox gave Segretti my name.

So it is in fact co-incidental that Segretti was staying at the Park Motor Inn (where I worked), but there is a simple explanation for that: at that time the Park Motor Inn was the most luxurious hotel in Madison.

Re my job in Rhode Island, it was lined up BEFORE I met Segretti. This also shows that Segretti was not operating with the best information. I could not do the job he wanted even if I had been inclined to do so because I had committed to leave the State of Wisconsin. I don't even remember the compensation of the Rhode Island job but I wanted to take it because of the excitement of the presidential campaign. (And I now remember I was able to get my job back at the Park Motor Inn after my stint in Rhode Island was over.)

And Robert, re the issue of sowing disunity in the Democrat campaigns, I do have to admit that I was naive in refusing to accept the thought that such an operation would have been authorized by either the White House or the Nixon campaign.

[Mark Knight]

Tim's comment, regarding Segretti:

I could not do the job he wanted even if I had been inclined to do so because I had committed to leave the State of Wisconsin.

But Tim...you've already admitted that you took the money from Segretti; does this not, then, reflect poorly on your morality? Taking money for a job you KNEW you couldn't/wouldn't be present to do...where I come from, that's just morally WRONG.

And yet YOU'RE the one with the morals in this crowd?

Not from where I stand, Tim.

Edited July 13, 2005 by Mark Knight

[Tim Gratz]

Mark, I posted that I took the money from Segretti to "string him along" so I could report him. And I offered to give the money to the Committee to Re-Elect the President (through Ulasewicz). In fact I think I had even retained the fifty dollar bill Segretti had given to me. I have no concerns over my morals about pretending to Segretti I was "on his bandwagon" when I was doing my best to stop him.

And I have certainly NEVER attempted to imply that my moral standards are higher than any other member of this forum with the caveat that I do not think it is morally appropriate to brand someone a murderer unless there is some substantial evidence to support such a charge. I believe that most members of this Forum would object to political "dirty tricks" even if done to support a candidate whose candidancy they strongly favored.

Edited July 13, 2005 by Tim Gratz

[Mark Knight]

Tim, the "this crowd" to which I referred is the Segretti/Rove/Ulasewicz/Reitz crowd, and NOT the esteemed members of this forum. I won't disparage the morals--OR the intelligence--of the members of this forum in that manner.

But, Tim...you TOOK the money, for a job you had no intention of performing. If this had been a plot on Segretti's part to expose YOU as one who would take money for questionable purposes, I believe that any sane jury in the nation would convict you...based strictly upon your own testimony.

Over the years, countless officials in this country who have bveen convicted of bribery have used the "I-was-just-stringing-them-along" defense, and still went to jail. With the money in your hands, it's hard to claim the moral high ground. And when you're taking money under false pretenses--for a job you couldn't possibly perform--ANY "moral" justification evaporates. Doing wrong, even for a cause that's right, is still "doing wrong." Or is it that the ends justifies the means...even though the end result was that you stopped NOTHING?

A TRULY moral person would've reported Segretti and NOT have taken his money. I'm not saying that I wouldn't have taken his money had it been offered to me--since the opportunity never occurred, I can't say how I would've reacted--but to have taken the money would've eroded any claim I had to the high moral ground.

[Tim Gratz]

Mark, you were not there.

I felt it necessary to take the money in order to report Segretti. He literally INSISTED I take it.

And I had no intention of using the money for my personal purposes.

I was not trying to "con" Segretti out of his money. I told Segretti I was leaving for Rhode Island. What he wanted was for me to recruit a student to spy on the Muskie campaign before I left the state. Of course, I had no intention of doing so. That some people may falsely claim they did something to "string someone along" does not refute that that is EXACTLY what I did with Segretti. I reported him IMMEDIATELY (at least the very next business day) after my meeting with him.

That OUGHT to be the final word on that subject!

[Tim Gratz]

Mark wrote:

Tim, the "this crowd" to which I referred is the Segretti/Rove/Ulasewicz/Reitz

I am aware of nothing which links Rove to Segretti, Ulasewicz or Rietz.

[Robert Charles-Dunne]

Well, Robert, this will blow your mind but I once legally represented W. Clement Stone in suing someone (a nut) who was plagarizing his materials.  Cannot recall how I got the case (I'm sure it was a referral by another lawyer) and I never met Stone and I do not think the referal had ANYTHING to do with my politics.  The case was well after the 1972 election (in the early eighties if my recollection serves me correctly).

At this point, Tim, very little you say could "blow my mind."  You seem to have travelled in some highly interesting circles back in the day.

Now to your points and questions:

I cannot remember when I first met Rietz.  It is my recollection he had something to do with setting up the Nixon youth campaign and his personality just irritated me.  He was kind of a "prima donna" type and had not risen through the ranks of the Young Republicans as I recall.  He seemed like a "know-it-all".  As I recall, he was addressing a group meeting and it is highly unlikely he would have known my name, but for its inclusion on a list.

I might be wrong on this but I think Rietz may have come from the same southern California mileu as Haldeman and Chapin.

Rietz was not some obscure political operative.  He was rather a "mucky muck" in the Nixon campaign.  (I just now recall the name of the Nixon youth organization: "Young Voters for the President.")

Here's a comment about Reitz from somebody who knew him, and grew to question his utility to the Republicans:

  "NRCC staffer Ed Terrill warned [bob] Michel that the Republican National Committee's recruitment efforts were interfering with the NRCC's activities. Terrill held a low opinion of the RNC, complaining that Ken Reitz, who headed the program there, had "almost a complete lack of knowledge of political operations" in targeted states. Terrill stated that the RNC duplicated NRCC operations, hired unqualified people to work in the field, overused polling, and kept the NRCC in the dark about their visits to potential candidates." 

One can only assume that Reitz's role in illegally distributing untraceable funds to various Republican candidates, and recruiting Republican students to infiltrate various target groups, kept him so busy that Reitz had little time to learn what his "cover" role involved.  If Terrill's observations were correct, one can only marvel that the incompetent Reitz lasted in his "cover" post as long as he did [about 3 years, if memory serves.]

Given the foregoing, and Reitz's criminal activities, it would be most enlightening if you could recall the time and circumstances under which you met Kenneth Reitz.

You are too conspiratorial re the Segretti operation.  Of course I objected to the ethics of some of his proposals but it was also rather obvious to me that Segretti  did not have the sophistication to pull off the kind of operations he was suggesting.  (The fact that he did so with some success may show I was wrong about this judgment.  But, interestingly, in "All the President's Men" Bernstein writes that he was rather taken aback by Segretti when he first met him (for some of the same reasons I was).)  Your conjectures are intelligent, to be sure, but I am convinced they are wrong.  Segretti got my name from Randy Knox.  In fact, I think Knox called me to tell me to expect Segretti's call.  Segretti had Knox's name only because he had formerly been the chairman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Young Republicans.  Segretti was in fact working on an old list.  I am convinced Segretti did not even know I was an officer in the College Republicans (in fact I was the state chairman at the time).

And you would have to understand the factionalism in the Young Republicans to understand why Randy Knox was probably the last person a knowledgeable operative would think to attempt to recruit in an ethically questionable campaign operation.  Randy was essentially a "Rockefeller Republican" type whereas I was associated with the conservative Goldwater faction in the Young Republicans.  If I recall right, there was even a spirited contest at the UW Republican club over a candidate backed by the Knox wing and a candidate backed by my group (we won).

Perhaps I am too "conspiratorial," Tim.  It's the curse of having a suspicious mind.  And I must again stress that I do not mean to impugn either Randy Knox or you in suggesting that somebody within the Republican hierarchy directed Segretti in your direction, or that you would have any way of knowing if that was done.

My point is simply that Segretti was working from a dated Young  Republican list, and he was not even astute enough to have realized that Knox came from the liberal wing of the GOP.  And Segretti called me only because Knox gave Segretti my name. 

So it is in fact co-incidental that Segretti was staying at the Park Motor Inn (where I worked), but there is a simple explanation for that: at that time the Park Motor Inn was the most luxurious hotel in Madison.

I have not studied Segretti's accomodation habits in depth.  If he was given to staying in four star hotels and living the high life on the Republican tab, then it is likely your suggestion above is correct.  However, since you have no way of knowing just how much Segretti did or didn't know about you [or Knox] prior to arriving in Wisconsin, we cannot know this for certain, nor that he was working from "a dated Young  Republican list."  If, for example, Segretti knew that you worked at the Park Motor Inn, it would clearly be his hotel of choice when seeking to meet with you.

Re my job in Rhode Island, it was lined up BEFORE I met Segretti.  This also shows that Segretti was not operating with the best information.  I could not do the job he wanted even if I had been inclined to do so because I had committed to leave the State of Wisconsin. 

This presumes: that Segretti was only interested in recruiting you for use in Wisconsin; and, that Segretti had no way of knowing you'd already arranged to take a sabbatical from the Park Motor Inn, to travel to the Northeast for campaign work there.

However, by your own admission, it was Segretti's former protege Karl Rove who arranged for your work in the Northeast, so one must at least leave open the possibility that Segretti knew about this in advance from Rove.  Given that Segretti travelled to a dozen states to seek similar recruits, it is at least possible that he didn't care where you found a student to infiltrate the Muskie campaign, only that you did so.  Until, of course, somebody within the Republican hierarchy warned Segretti to stay away from you, because you were the wrong guy for the job, clearly.

I don't even remember the compensation of the Rhode Island job but I wanted to take it because of the excitement of the presidential campaign.  (And I now remember I was able to get my job back at the Park Motor Inn after my stint in Rhode Island was over.)

I'm sorry to rehash the same issues with you endlessly, Tim.  But surely you made prior arrangements with the Park Motor Inn management to take a temporary sabbatical, rather than quit a very lucrative job for a short-term roller-coaster ride on the campaign trail, only to find your job still awaiting you upon your return?

After you returned from your work in Rhode Island and New Hampshire, did you travel throughout Wisconsin to do campaign work in your own state?  If so, do you recall all the cities and towns you passed through in the course of that work, and [assuming you did] approximately when that happened? 

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[Tim Gratz]

Robert, I enjoyed reading your comment and the complaint by Ed Terrell about Ken Rietz. For those who do not know, the NRCC was the National Republican Campaign Committee (I think), an organization run by the congressional Republicans. Apparently my instinctive feeling about Rietz were well-founded. I have racked my brain and I cannot remember when I met him. All I remember is that it was a rather large meeting and Rietz was discussing the organization of "Young Voters for the President". I don't think the meeting was in Wisconsin, but I moght be wrong about that.

Looking at John's "page" on Segretti, I just noticed that Segretti, Chapin (who was his WH "control" (per most books) and BART PORTER (of CREEP) were all U.S.C. students, apparently at the same time. The implication, of course, is that they all knew each other.

As you will recall, one of the calls I received from CREEP was from Bart Porter. So, if John's page on Segretti is correct, it is very likely that when Porter called me he knew EXACTLY who Segretti was.

Re your suggestion that Segretti might have deliberately chosen the Park Motor Inn because he knew I was working there, I really think it was as simple as Segretti calling Knox, Knox turning him down and suggesting my name. I really don't think Segretti knew anything about me or my plans to be in Rhode Island. Of course, anything is possible and perhaps Segretti was a good actor. But one would think he might have wanted to AVOID staying at a hotel at which I was working, lest I spy on him as I did.

I don't think I did much political work upon my return from Rhode Island. I was active on a local level only with Young Voters for the President, and a friend of mine was head of the UW chapter. I recall that I became disillusioned with Nixon fairly soon after the Watergate business started to gain national exposure, and I became involved in some tense arguments with my friend who remained a Nixon loyalist until the very end.

Edited July 14, 2005 by Tim Gratz

[John Simkin]

You will have noticed I have renamed this thread: "Tim Gratz and Donald Segretti". I have put the material on Dennis Salvatore Cassini here:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=4391

[Robert Charles-Dunne]

Looking at John's "page" on Segretti, I just noticed that Segretti, Chapin (who was his WH "control" (per most books) and BART PORTER (of CREEP) were all U.S.C. students, apparently at the same time.  The implication, of course, is that they all knew each other.

As you will recall, one of the calls I received from CREEP was from Bart Porter.  So, if John's page on Segretti is correct, it is very likely that when Porter called me he knew EXACTLY who Segretti was.

I've never had the slightest doubt.  And, of course, in response to your complaints about the pitch made to you by Segretti, Tony Ulasewicz was dispatched to deal with you.  [The recent addition to the tale of Ken Reitz makes for a most interesting troika of political sleaze culture.  I'll leave Karl Rove out of it for now...] 

Clearly, whether or not you consciouslessly recognized it at the time, you were skimming the surface of a very slimy milieu.  Which is where we get back to Cassini, and how the mistaken impression arose that you were somehow connected to him, and the putative role played in the Arthur Bremer scenario.

Both Segretti and Ulasewicz were reportedly seen with Bremer, as was Cassini.  The evidence for these assertions seems weak at best, but they will remain a part of the record - and oft-repeated - until some of these issues can be resolved.  While I cannot comment on the veracity of others who reported the above, I have always respected the quality of Bill Turner's work.  If he has been quoted accurately, I must assume there was a germ of truth to what he learned, or at least that he accurately related what he had been told, by someone whose agenda remains obviously undetermined.

Given that you had dealings with the first two men mentioned directly above, I am wondering if it is at all possible that you came into contact with the third man purpotedly seen or affiliated with Bremer, Cassini aka Cossini aka Kushman aka Cushman aka Kuzman, without even knowing it.  Segretti certainly used an alias in contacting you, and Cassini is reputed to have used a number of aliases, as just noted.     

If your campaign activities in 1971 or 1972 didn't put you in proximity with Cassini, one wonders how it came to be that your name - down to the first initial - was thrown into the hopper.

Presumably, if you encountered Cassini - even without knowing it - this would have occurred in the context of Republican party business, for that was a major portion of your life at the time.  Moreover, to cite from Eric Norden, it appears that Cassini's role was much like the ones played by Segretti and Reitz, both of whom you did meet:   

Tim Heinan, a Marquette University student who moonlighted as an undercover agent for the Milwaukee Police Department's Special Assignment Squad, learned that Arthur Bremer had ties to a CIA operative named Dennis Salvatore Cossini, a federal "counter terrorist" who specialized in the infiltration and control of radical organizations including the local SDS chapter the gunman had joined.

This whole situation is just claustrophic with coincidence.  I've noted before the possibility that your name was simply confused with Tim Heinan, who has written on the topic.  Heinan was himself also a student who had been recruited by local police to infiltrate and monitor target groups.  You suggested he may have appropriated your persona, hence the affiliation of your name with Cassini.  It's a plausible possibility, but again begs the question of how Heinan, or anyone else, became aware of your name and why they elected to use it for such unsavory purposes. 

One wonders if it might not have even been a handy smear attempt against you by Republicans in retribution for your complaints about Segretti.  A smear job with a dual purpose: if they suspected you knew more about the Segretti situation than you actually did, and they feared you might somehow release it to the public [based on you ratting Segretti out to Rove, for example], this preemptive tarnishing of your name via association with Bremer would have neutralized your credibility on anything you might have chosen to disclose. 

Though false, had police or FBI become convinced that you were among those associating with Bremer prior to his attempt on Wallace, and that you had been involved in providing him money - and even Bremer has alluded to being paid money by somebody - just imagine what a nightmare your life might have become. 

For some relatively insightful revelations about the state of the Bremer case, I recommend clicking here:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._14/ai_53409132

 

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