Operation Sandwedge: Kennedy/Wallace

[Bob Atkinson]

Robert Charles-Dunne,Jul 27 2005, 02:41 PM

The diary was very important to Sandwedge as it revealed that Bremer had initially targeted Nixon. This information was used to argue that Nixon could not possibly be involved in the Wallace assassination attempt. The SS agent would also have been used to remove any information that linked Nixon and the Republicans to the assassination.

However, this operation did not go smoothly. Local reporters got access to Bremer's apartment soon after the killing. Some took away documents. Did some of this information get passed to Sprague?

The diary wasn't found in the apartment, but in Bremer's car at the scene in Laurel, Maryland. That isn't to say that some writing wasn't present in his apartment. I've spoken to Rick Janka, who was a reporter for the Milwaukee Sentinel at time. I wanted to contact him because his initial stories about Bremer contained portions of his writing that no one else had. Here's what he had to say:

"He was working at Milwaukee Sentinel as a reporter when the wire service announcement of the Wallace shooting and the involvement of a Milwaukee person came. Janka was given the assignment of going to the apartment. He didn’t have a car, but didn’t want to give up the assignment. He and a photographer ran to the address given and it happened to be that of one of Janka’s old college roommates. Janka figured that the numbers in the address had been transposed and started going to the other possible addresses.

He found the apartment building with Bremer’s name on the buzzer, rang it, and was let in. When he when to the apartment, he found two or three man he took to be Secret Service or FBI men were in the apartment along with the younger brother of the building manager, who the men were questioning. Janka identified himself as a reporter and the men promptly left the apartment without saying a word or identifying themselves.

Janka took this to be tacit permission to stay and search the apartment for clues about Bremer. Among the items he found was a document sitting on the dresser listing all of the main facts of Bremer’s life: schools he attended, jobs he had worked, names of people he knew, etc. Knowing the size of his scoop, Janka took this piece of paper and made notes of some of the other pieces of writing he found in college-style notebooks. Janka and the photographer spent as estimated hour in the apartment alone before anyone else arrived.

Fearing that the police would confiscate the items he had found, Janka hid notes written by Bremer in his socks and underwear as he left. Janka called the Milwaukee Sentinel and gave his colleagues the names and places listed on the document found, but kept some of the information for himself and his own story on Bremer."

Among the most interesting things in Janka's story, besides the mysterious folks who didn't identify themselves, is the transposed address numbers (the real address is 2433 West Michigan, Apt. 9). Janka didn't mention what the given address number was and I wouldn't expect him to remember it 30 some years after the fact. Honest SNAFU or something to buy someone a bit more time? It's not clear where this mistake happened - in the wire report or at the newspaper. If anyone out there has the original wire reports about the Wallace shooting, I'd love to see what kind of information was included.

Edited August 7, 2005 by Bob Atkinson

[John Simkin]

One of the first investigations carried out by Tony Ulasewicz for Operation Sandwedge was into Edward Kennedy. Jack Caulfield later admitted that Ulasewicz’s reports on Kennedy went to three people: Bebe Rebozo, Murray Chotiner and Richard Nixon. I think it is worth taking a close look at both Rebozo and Chotiner. This is what I have found out about Rebozo.

Charles (Bebe) Rebozo, the son of Cuban immigrants, was born on November 17, 1912, in Tampa, Florida. After leaving school Rebozo worked as a steward with Pan American Airways.

In 1931 Rebozo married Claire Gunn. The couple were divorced four years later. According to Claire Rebozo, the marriage was never consummated.

Rebozo eventually saved enough money to start his first business and in 1935 he opened Rebozo's Service Station and Auto Supplies. During the Second World War he became involved in the lucrative retread tire business. Rebozo invested these profits into a self-service laundry chain. He also began buying and selling land in Miami.

In December, 1951, George Smathers arranged for Rebozo to meet Richard Nixon. Rebozo took Nixon on a boat trip but the relationship got off to a bad start. Rebozo told Smathers that Nixon's "a guy who doesn't know how to talk, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't chase women, doesn't know how to play golf, doesn't know how to play tennis... he can't even fish." However, the two men eventually became close friends.

The men spent so much time together that rumours circulated that the men were having a homosexual relationship. Bobby Baker claimed that Rebozo and Nixon were "close like lovers". According to one interview carried out by Anthony Summers for his book The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon, Rebozo was a member of Miami's homosexual community.

In 1952 Dwight Eisenhower selected Nixon to be his vice president. As George Smathers later admitted that "Bebe's level of liking Nixon increased as Nixon's position increased". One of the ways that Rebozo helped Nixon was to obtain large campaign contributions from Howard Hughes.

Rebozo briefly remarried Claire Gunn. The marriage only lasted two years. Later he married Jane Lucke, his lawyer's secretary. In one interview, his wife said "Bebe's favourites are Richard Nixon, his cat - and then me." One of Rebozo's friends, Jake Jernigan, claimed that: "He (Rebozo) loved Nixon more than he loved anybody." Another friend said that "Bebe worshipped Nixon and hated Nixon's enemies".

Rebozo advised Nixon about possible business investments. According to a FBI informant, the two men invested in Cuba when it was governed by the military dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Rebozo's business partner, Hoke Maroon, claimed that Nixon was also part-owner of the Coral Gables Motel.

In 1960 Rebozo paid for an investigation into the private life of JFK. Rebozo sent Nixon documents claiming that Kennedy had previously been married to Durie Malcolm. However, this story was untrue and despite this smear campaign against Kennedy, Nixon was defeated.

Rebozo became one of Nixon's closest political advisers. He also helped him raise funds for his various political campaigns. Rebozo also took a keen interest in Caribbean politics and had considerable business investments in the region. He therefore became one of the leading opponents of Fidel Castro after he gained power in Cuba. In 1961 Rebozo accompanied William Pawley on a secret mission to see Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo.

In 1964 Rebozo started his own financial institution, the Key Biscayne Bank. Nixon, who took part in the opening ceremony, held Savings Account No.1. The bank was used to fund a shopping centre for Cuban refugee merchants. The man brought in to manage this shopping centre, was Edgardo Buttari. Later, Nixon appointed Buttari to a highly paid job in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Rebozo also purchased land in Florida with a man called Richard Fincher. It was believed that Fincher worked as a front for Meyer Lansky. An examination of Fincher's telephone calls revealed that he was in regular contact with Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante. Vincent Teresa, a high-ranking mafioso, later admitted that he had used Rebozo's bank to launder stolen money.

After Nixon became president in 1968, Rebozo was a regular visitor to the White House. However, he often used a false name and was not logged in by the Secret Service. Rebozo also negotiated deals on behalf of his business friends. One of the released White House tapes reveals Rebozo explaining that he could get "a quarter of a million at least" from a friend in return for an ambassadorship. Rebozo is also heard providing information that could be used to smear Nixon's political opponents.

Rebozo was eventually dragged into the Watergate Scandal. During the investigation, a $100,000 donation from Howard Hughes that was meant for the Republican Party, was found in a safe-deposit box owned by Rebozo. The IRS now began a detailed look into Rebozo's financial affairs, with a focus on "misappropriation of campaign contributions, acceptance of money in exchange for favors by the Justice Department, distribution of Watergate hush money, and alleged diversion of campaign funds to Nixon's brothers and personal secretary."

The IRS investigation discovered that when Nixon took office his net worth was $307,000. During his first five years in the White House this sum had tripled to nearly $1 million. During the same period Rebozo's net worth went from $673,000 to $4.5 million. According to Jack Anderson, Nixon and Rebozo had both hidden money in Switzerland.

Rebozo escaped prosecution. One of the IRS investigators, Andy Baruffi, later claimed that "I was assigned to review the entire case file. We had Rebozo primarily on a straight up-and-down provable false statement charge. It was a dead-bang case. I believe a deal was made with the White House to kill the investigation."

It was also discovered during the Watergate investigation that Rebozo had a business relationship with two of the burglars, Bernard L. Barker and Eugenio Martinez. Rebozo had also arranged for E. Howard Hunt to investigate Hoke Maroon, who had information about Nixon's early business investments in Cuba.

[John Simkin]

As promised. This is what I have found out about Murray Chotiner.

He was born in Pittsburgh in 1909. He left school at fifteen but four years later he had obtained a law degree from Southwestern Law College.

A member of the Republican Party, Chotiner worked for Herbert Hoover in 1932 and Earl Warren, when he campaigned to be governor of California. Chotiner also managed the campaign of Richard Nixon in 1950 when he defeated Helen Douglas. Chotiner developed a reputation for running dirty campaigns. Another of Nixon's advisors, Leonard Garment, said that Chotiner was a "hardheaded exponent of the campaign philosophy that politics is war" and that "politics is shabby most of the time, filled with lies and deceptions".

As a lawyer, Chotiner obtained a reputation for working for organized crime bosses. In 1956 Robert Kennedy and Carmine Bellino began an investigation of Chotiner. They discovered evidence that a New Jersey uniform company that had been convicted of stealing from the federal government had paid out $5,000 to Chotiner. An informant told Bellino that the money was meant for Richard Nixon to help prevent a possible prosecution by the Department of Justice. Chotiner received support from Joe McCarthy and the case against him was eventually dropped.

Chotiner's reputation had been badly damaged by this investigation and for a while he ceased working for Nixon. However, he returned in 1968 to help Nixon defeat Hubert Humphrey. After the election Chotiner was appointed general counsel of the Office of the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations. The following year he was named special counsel to the president.

Soon after he took office Nixon established Operation Sandwedge. Organized by H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, the two main field officers were Jack Caulfield and Anthony Ulasewicz. Operation Sandwedge involved a secret investigation of Edward Kennedy. Caulfield later admitted that Ulasewicz’s reports on Kennedy went to three people: Nixon, Chotiner and Bebe Rebozo.

According to Dan T. Carter (The Politics of Rage) Chotiner was involved in the attempt to blackmail George Wallace about corruption in Alabama. This played an important role in persuading Wallace to announce that he would not be a third-party candidate in the 1972 presidential election.

Chotiner had returned to private practice as a lawyer in Washington by the time the Watergate break-in took place. However, he still maintained a White House telephone. His law offices were one floor above those of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CREEP).

Anthony Summers (The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon) has pointed out that "at least one woman working on White House dirty tricks operations was carried on the payroll of his firm". Dwight L. Chapin was convinced that Chotiner was secretly involved in Watergate: "There is a person who goes all the way back through this thing, and that is Murray Chotiner. He was in the White House... he leaves; the break-in happens. Murray was the operator for Nixon on God only knows what."

In an article published in the Los Angeles Times (31st March, 1973) it was claimed that Chotiner had received copies of the tape recordings that had been made by Alfred Baldwin as a result of the bugging Democratic campaign headquarters in the Watergate building.

On 23rd January, 1974, Murray Chotiner was involved in a car accident outside the Washington home of Edward Kennedy. Although he only suffered a broken leg he died a week later.

[John Simkin]

John wrote:

Is it possible that information about Dennis Cassini and Tim Gratz being involved in some sort of Nixon conspiracy against Arthur Bremer had already leaked out. Is this the information that eventually found its way to Richard Sprague.

John, use some judgment here.  It is clear I first met Segretti in December of 1971.  Randy Knox, who I assume is still alive, can confirm that he was the person who gave Segretti my name.

It seems clear to me that Richard Sprague, whose book proposes a grand conspiracy theory involving all or most of the assassinations, plus the attempt on Wallace's life, was attempting to link Nixon or Nixon's people to Bremer.  Segretti was involved in "dirty tricks" for Nixon and had been in Wisconsin, so Sprague links Segretti to Bremer.  And since Segretti had seen me in Wisconsin, Sprague then adds me to the group.  He may very well not have even read the full story about how I tried to stop Segretti.

This was sloppy journalism at its worst.  And I suggest Sprague may very well have drafted the sentence so that it was vague and so, if sued, he could argue about its meaning.

I think I have found out where Sprague got his information from about Tim Gratz. I was reading a collection of articles about politics in the early 1970s that was published by Ramparts Magazine entitled ‘Big Brother and the Holding Company: The World Behind Watergate’ (1974). If you remember, Sprague says he got the information from William W. Turner, who at the time worked for Ramparts.

There are several articles that provide interesting information about Donald Segretti (Donald Simmons). Donald Freed’s article ‘Gemstone’ explores Segretti’s recruitment policies. He explains how Segretti targeted members of the “ultra-conservative Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). He claims that E.Howard Hunt and Charles Colson had been founder members of this organization. I found information from a Washington Post article (June 21, 1972) that the lawyer that Hunt contacted after the Watergate break-in, Douglas Caddy, was the first executive director of the YAF. I suspect that the group that Sprague referred to when writing about Tim Gratz, Dennis Cassini and Donald Segretti was indeed the YAF.

Donald Freed refers to the fact that Segretti attempted to recruit another member of the YAF, Ronald Johnson of San Diego State College, to join his dirty tricks campaign. However, Segretti’s ideas were not innocent as those that were apparently expressed to Tim. According to Johnson, Segretti suggested “getting-rid of” left-wing leaders in San Diego. Johnson claimed that Segretti was a “paramilitary operative” with extremist ideas. Johnson turned Segretti down.

Freed also refers to the case of Roger Gordon, a member of another covert Republican Party group called the Secret Army Organization (SAO). On 13th July, 1973, Associated Press reported that Gordon had attempted to gain political asylum in Fiji. Gordon claimed he “had secret information concerning Watergate” and feared for his life. His information was that he had seen Tony Ulasewicz giving orders to Arthur Bremer on an Ohio ferry. It was of course Ulasewicz, chief field officer with Operation Sandwedge, who had met with Tim Gratz to talk about Segretti.

The SAO was another organization linked to Segretti. In another article that first appeared in Ramparts, Richard Popkin writes about the SAO in San Diego. Richard Nixon planned to hold the Republican Convention in San Diego in 1972. According to Louis Tackwood, a member of SAO, the plan was to “turn San Diego into a bloodbath during the convention”. This included killing a senior Republican official and planting a bomb in the convention hall. The plan was to implicate the Democrats in these acts of violence. This would paint the Democratic Party as an extremist organization. The plan came unstuck when a member of the SAO, William Yakopec, was charged with bombing the Guild Theatre. The chief witness against Yakopec was Barry Godfrey, a fellow member of SAO. It turns out that Godfrey had been a FBI undercover agent since 1967.

In 1973, Jerry Busch gave an interview to the editor of the local newspaper about his time in the SAO. According to Busch, the SAO were getting their orders from Donald Segretti (he used the name Donald Simmons). It seems that Segretti’s activities were not as harmless as he made out. According to these witnesses Segretti was organizing paramilitary activities. If Ronald Johnson is to be believed, this included murder and acts of terrorism.

[Dawn Meredith]

John wrote:

Is it possible that information about Dennis Cassini and Tim Gratz being involved in some sort of Nixon conspiracy against Arthur Bremer had already leaked out. Is this the information that eventually found its way to Richard Sprague.

John, use some judgment here.  It is clear I first met Segretti in December of 1971.  Randy Knox, who I assume is still alive, can confirm that he was the person who gave Segretti my name.

It seems clear to me that Richard Sprague, whose book proposes a grand conspiracy theory involving all or most of the assassinations, plus the attempt on Wallace's life, was attempting to link Nixon or Nixon's people to Bremer.  Segretti was involved in "dirty tricks" for Nixon and had been in Wisconsin, so Sprague links Segretti to Bremer.  And since Segretti had seen me in Wisconsin, Sprague then adds me to the group.  He may very well not have even read the full story about how I tried to stop Segretti.

This was sloppy journalism at its worst.  And I suggest Sprague may very well have drafted the sentence so that it was vague and so, if sued, he could argue about its meaning.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think I have found out where Sprague got his information from about Tim Gratz. I was reading a collection of articles about politics in the early 1970s that was published by Ramparts Magazine entitled ‘Big Brother and the Holding Company: The World Behind Watergate’ (1974). If you remember, Sprague says he got the information from William W. Turner, who at the time worked for Ramparts.

There are several articles that provide interesting information about Donald Segretti (Donald Simmons). Donald Freed’s article ‘Gemstone’ explores Segretti’s recruitment policies. He explains how Segretti targeted members of the “ultra-conservative Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). He claims that E.Howard Hunt and Charles Colson had been founder members of this organization. I found information from a Washington Post article (June 21, 1972) that the lawyer that Hunt contacted after the Watergate break-in, Douglas Caddy, was the first executive director of the YAF. I suspect that the group that Sprague referred to when writing about Tim Gratz, Dennis Cassini and Donald Segretti was indeed the YAF.

Donald Freed refers to the fact that Segretti attempted to recruit another member of the YAF, Ronald Johnson of San Diego State College, to join his dirty tricks campaign. However, Segretti’s ideas were not innocent as those that were apparently expressed to Tim. According to Johnson, Segretti suggested “getting-rid of” left-wing leaders in San Diego. Johnson claimed that Segretti was a “paramilitary operative” with extremist ideas. Johnson turned Segretti down.

Freed also refers to the case of Roger Gordon, a member of another covert Republican Party group called the Secret Army Organization (SAO). On 13th July, 1973, Associated Press reported that Gordon had attempted to gain political asylum in Fiji. Gordon claimed he “had secret information concerning Watergate” and feared for his life. His information was that he had seen Tony Ulasewicz giving orders to Arthur Bremer on an Ohio ferry. It was of course Ulasewicz, chief field officer with Operation Sandwedge, who had met with Tim Gratz to talk about Segretti.

The SAO was another organization linked to Segretti. In another article that first appeared in Ramparts, Richard Popkin writes about the SAO in San Diego. Richard Nixon planned to hold the Republican Convention in San Diego in 1972. According to Louis Tackwood, a member of SAO, the plan was to “turn San Diego into a bloodbath during the convention”. This included killing a senior Republican official and planting a bomb in the convention hall. The plan was to implicate the Democrats in these acts of violence. This would paint the Democratic Party as an extremist organization. The plan came unstuck when a member of the SAO, William Yakopec, was charged with bombing the Guild Theatre. The chief witness against Yakopec was Barry Godfrey, a fellow member of SAO. It turns out that Godfrey had been a FBI undercover agent since 1967.

In 1973, Jerry Busch gave an interview to the editor of the local newspaper about his time in the SAO. According to Busch, the SAO were getting their orders from Donald Segretti (he used the name Donald Simmons). It seems that Segretti’s activities were not as harmless as he made out. According to these witnesses Segretti was organizing paramilitary activities. If Ronald Johnson is to be believed, this included murder and acts of terrorism.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

__________________________________________________

And of course we know that the FBI's Counterintelligence program- (CointelPro) would infiltrate many groups, especially the growing anti-war movement. The plan was to have agents posing as SDS'ers only the agent's plan was not peace, but violence. The CIA, with its Operation CHAOS, had this identical operation in place.

Dirty tricks, including murder, was business as usual.

Dawn

[Guest John Gillespie]

"And of course we know that the FBI's Counterintelligence program- (CointelPro) would infiltrate many groups, especially the growing anti-war movement. The plan was to have agents posing as SDS'ers only the agent's plan was not peace, but violence. The CIA, with its Operation CHAOS, had this identical operation in place.

Dirty tricks, including murder, was business as usual.

Dawn"

Hi Dawn,

I can attest that Military Intelligence was doing the very same thing and with good reason, though nothing of which to be Proud. Acting as Agent Provocateurs - and with no concern whatsoever for the disruption of domestic order - both Cointelpro and CHAOS often exacerbated and in many instances instigated the turmoil, causing the activation of the National Guard. Need I say more?

It doesn't take a leap of the imagination to consider the folly of those times when "student" demonstrators would be approached by Police with the result that, on many an occasion, literally half the group would quickly fumble for their official IDs.

This monitoring of the monitors and snake-biting-its-own-tail dance extended to the Civil Rights movement in the South, to which I was witness, unfortunately. God bless government!

Regards,

JohnG

Edited August 10, 2005 by John Gillespie

[John Simkin]

Freed also refers to the case of Roger Gordon, a member of another covert Republican Party group called the Secret Army Organization (SAO). On 13th July, 1973, Associated Press reported that Gordon had attempted to gain political asylum in Fiji. Gordon claimed he “had secret information concerning Watergate” and feared for his life. His information was that he had seen Tony Ulasewicz giving orders to Arthur Bremer on an Ohio ferry. It was of course Ulasewicz, chief field officer with Operation Sandwedge, who had met with Tim Gratz to talk about Segretti.

I'm confused by this paragraph. Does Freed say that Gordon saw Ulasewicz, or is that what you're assuming?

These are the two relevant passages:

Donald Freed, Gemstone (1974)

The full story remains to be told. But during 1972-Z3, our research group, the Citizens Research and Investigation CommitteeCRIC), receive severa bits of unconfirmed information which are worthy of note:

(1) On July 13, 1973 Roger Gordon, fifty-three, a member of the rigtit-wing Secret Army Organization (SAO) fled from a hiding place in Australia to beg asylum in Suva, Fiji. According to the Associated Press, Gordon "had secret information concerning Watergate" and feared for his life. His information: that the heavy-set man with the "Joisey brogue" seen giving orders toBremer on an Ohio ferry was Anthony Ulasewicz, a White House operative.

(2) Secret Army Organization (SAO) and FBI sources in the San Diego area reported that White House agent Donald Segretti gave moriey to Bremer.

(3) During 1970 Tom Huston, a Nixon aide, prepared a series of memoranda which attempted to tighten White House control of the FBI, CIA, etc., and intensify the use of electronic surveillance, "penetration agents," and illegal break-ins. According to a staff member of the Ervin Committee, White House files contain a still undivulged memo in which Huston justifies selective assassination.

(4) On May 18, 1972, three days after the Wallace shooting, Charles Colson staged a "Victory in Vietnam" march and rally in Washington, under the auspices of the right-wing preacher Carl McIntire. Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Fox of the Secret Army Organization drove from San Diego to attend, passing en route near the site of the Wallace shooting. Sources in San Diego reported that while the Foxes were away, FBI Special Agent Steve Christianson entered Mr. Fox's office files and planted documents which could implicate him in the assassination attempt. A group of Washington-based former intelligence agents have since confirmed this.

Richard Popkin, The San Diego Coup, Ramparts Magazine (October, 1973)

The L.A. Times reported on July 13, 1973 that a former Minuteman had requested political asylum in Fiji, saying he had secret information on Watergate and feared assassination.

[William Turner]

The description of the big man with Bremer made me think of William J. Bryan Jr., the hypnotist discussed in your book "The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy" who may have handled Sirhan. In one photo he has a moustache and dark hair but it's not curly. I know that Bryan was based in California, but is it possible that he came from New York?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I strongly doubt that it was Bryan with Bremer at the ferry terminal---he was morbidly obese, weighing some 300 pounds. At the time of RFK's assassination Bryant was in Los Angeles, calling a local talk show to raise the question of whether Sirhan was hyonoprogrammed (he would later claim that hypnoprogramming to kill was impossible). Bryan had a hyonotherapy practice on Sunset Blvd., and was a fundamentalist preacher riding the same circuit as Jerry Owen. I find Roger Gordon's information that he had seen Ulascewicz giving orders to Bremer on an Ohio ferry eniirely plausible (it was a Chesapeake & Ohio ferry that ran from Milwaukee to Michigan}. Also, Bremer's companian could have been another NYPD cop recruited by Ulascewitz for Sandwedge.

As you know, Jerry Owen claimed Sirhan wanted him to bring a horse to the rear of the Ambassador Hotel late on election night. He told me that he didn't show up there because he had an engagement at the Calvary Baptist Church in Oxnard. But we determined that he couldn't have preached there at that time because it was closed for financial reasons. Slapsy Maxie Rosenbloom was in fact a friend of Owen, who had been a sparring partner. But I have no information that he provided

an alibi for election night. But this doesn't preclude Rosenbloom and/or Mickey Cohen as palying some role.

I have no information on former Kern County DA Edward Jagles.

[John Simkin]

I wonder if Karl Rove was involved with Tim Gratz in Operation Sandwedge? Here is an extract from a recent article by Jack Sonthor, Bush, Rove engaged in dirty tricks of their own dating to Watergate (June, 2005):

Meanwhile, Bush's partner-to-be in many, many dirty tricks, chief political advisor Karl Rove, had been doing worse for a few years by then. In 1970, Rove posed as a supporter of Alan Dixon, a Democratic candidate for state treasurer in Illinois, and stole stationary from the campaign. He then created a flier that lied about offering free beer, food and women at Dixon's campaign opening event on the official stationary and distributed thousands of copies to homeless centers and similar places. Hundreds of the homeless showed up, effectively disrupting the event.

Rove spent the Watergate years in similar actions and even was paid by Republican organizations to lead seminars on college campuses, lecturing young Republicans on how to engage in dirty tricks of their own.

[Tim Gratz]

John, Robert Charles-Dunne will always rise to the defense of Fidel.

Where is he now that Bush and Rove need him?

What is the basis of Sonthour's charges?

Rove put on a seminar in Wisconsin when I was State College Republian Chairman. One of the attendees (my predecessor as State Chairman) is now a Wisconsin judge. I am sure he would affirm, as I have previously posted, that the seminar involved nothing but organizational techniques. There was nothing hinting of dirty tricks.

Does Sonthour have a source who he claims attended a "dirty tricks" seminar?

It is facially absurb that one would run a seminar on dirty tricks. I am not a dirty trickster but I can assure you if I was I would not teach them in an open seminar, for heaven's sake. Does the mafia run "seminars" on murder?

Sometimes a little common sense helps separate the wheat from the chaff.

[Tim Gratz]

John wrote:

Donald Freed’s article ‘Gemstone’ explores Segretti’s recruitment policies. He explains how Segretti targeted members of the “ultra-conservative Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). He claims that E.Howard Hunt and Charles Colson had been founder members of this organization. I found information from a Washington Post article (June 21, 1972) that the lawyer that Hunt contacted after the Watergate break-in, Douglas Caddy, was the first executive director of the YAF. I suspect that the group that Sprague referred to when writing about Tim Gratz, Dennis Cassini and Donald Segretti was indeed the YAF.

John, what I can tell you is that Randy Knox, the man Segretti first approached in Wisconsin, was about as far from YAF as one could get. Randy and his friends were from the Rockefeller wing of the party.

I could be wrong but I do not think either Hunt or Colson were involved in the founding of YAF. Caddy was (this is not from my personal knowledge but from the YAF web-site).

The fact that Segretti first approached a man who was far, far from being a Nixon supporter shows how poor his background work was. Knox told him Segretti ("Simmons") called him because Knox was a former chairman of the UW-Madison College Republican Club. Segretti did not even know what "branch" of the party with which Knox was affiliated.

Segretti may have used YAF lists in other states. Not in Wisconsin. He used an out-of-date Young Republican list.

[John Simkin]

I have now discovered more information about John W. Leon. It is indeed a very complicated story. Leon worked as a private detective for Carmine Bellino (JFK)during the 1960 presidential election. Leon bugged the phones of Engelhard Industries. Charles W. Engelhard, a South African diamond merchant, had discovered that Kennedy was having an affair with a nineteen year old student at Radcliffe College. Engelhard had attempted to employ a private detective in Boston to obtain photographs of Kennedy with this student. The detective refused and informed Kennedy of what was going on and this resulted in Bellino organizing the wiretap.

By the early 1970s Leon was running a detective agency called Allied Investigators Incorporated in Washington. Lou Russell was one of the men Leon employed.

In March, 1972, Russell purchased $3,000 in electronic eavesdropping equipment from Leon. Russell's friend, Charles F. Knight, was told that this equipment had been purchased for James W. McCord. This equipment was used to tape the telephone conversations between politicians based at the Democratic Party National Committee and a small group of prostitutes run by Phillip Mackin Bailley that worked their trade in the Columbia Plaza.

It is not clear what role Lou Russell played in the Watergate break-in. Jim Hougan (Secret Agenda) has suggested that he was helping McCord to "sabotage the break-in".

Russell was interviewed by the FBI soon afterwards. He claimed that during the break-in he was in his rooming house. The FBI agents did not believe him but none of the burglars claimed he had been involved in the conspiracy and he was released.

According to Jerris Leonard, a supporter of Richard Nixon, Leon told Carmine Bellino, who at the time was working for Edward Kennedy and the Senate Administrative Practices Committee, about Russell's problems. Bellino phoned Russell. It is not known was was said but as a result of this conversation Russell went to stay with Bellino's friend, William Birely on the top floor of the Twin Towers complex in Silver Spring, Maryland. Birely was also a close friend of Lee R. Pennington. Both men had been active members of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Leon claimed that Russell had been a spy for the Democratic Party within CREEP and that he had tipped off Carmine Bellino and the police about the Watergate break-in. At the time Leon was working on a counter-investigation for the Republican Party. Leon claimed that Watergate was a set up and the operation had been sabotaged from within.

On 2nd July, 1973, Lou Russell died of a heart attack. Leon now began contacting others who had worked with him for Carmine Bellino during the presidential campaign. This included former CIA officer John Frank, congressional investigator Edward M. Jones and Joseph Shimon, a former inspector for the Washington Police Department. Leon and the others provided affidavits claiming that the JFK had ordered the bugging of Richard Nixon during the 1960 presidential election. Leon now passed this information to Jerris Leonard, an attorney working for the Republican National Committee (RNC).

George Bush, the chairman of the RNC announced there would be press conference on 13th July, 1973. John Leon was to be the star witness. However, Leon suffered a heart-attack and died on the day he was due to appear at the press conference.

The press conference took place but minus its key witness, John Leon. John Frank, Edward M. Jones and Joseph Shimon all testified that Carmine Bellino had been involved in wire-tapping. However, eventually it was decided that there was not enough evidence to charge Bellino with any crimes. At the time, it was believed that George Bush was trying to direct attention towards Democrat dirty tricks.

Lou Russell had a long history of working on behalf the Republican Party. It is possible he was a man for hire and that he willingly sabotaged the operation from within. If he did, then McCord was part of the same plot. Yet all the evidence is that McCord was working on behalf of Helms and the CIA in the struggle with Nixon. Is it possible that Watergate was a CIA/Democrat set up? If so, it could be argued that Leon, who was close to Russell, went to the Republicans with the story. However, there is a problem with this scenario. It is recorded that when Russell was pulled in by the FBI after the Watergate break-in, Leon contacted Carmine Bellino about it. It is true that Russell and Leon had both worked for Bellino. However, Bellino had employed them on behalf of the Democratic Party.

The next stage is also confusing. Bellino puts Russell into contact with William Birely, who hides him away in top floor of the Twin Towers complex in Silver Spring, Maryland. Birely, was a right-wing Republican. If Bellino wanted to help the Democrats and hurt the Republicans, he would have wanted Russell to a deal like the one obtained by Alfred Baldwin. This would have ensured an early end to Nixon. Instead, Bellino and Birely successfully kept Russell from testifying. The death of Russell and Leon completed this process.

One possible answer to this riddle is that the Republicans and Democrats would have been both hurt by the testimony of Russell and Leon. It was therefore in both their interests to keep them quiet.

Another possible solution to this mystery is that Bellino and Birely were working for another organization, the CIA. Maybe they were the real beneficiaries of the deaths of Leon and Russell.

I think that there is a good chance that Bellino was a CIA asset. When Robert Maheu was first recruited by the CIA they insisted he stopped sharing an office with Bellino. Why? Maheu gives the lame excuse that Bellino and the Kennedys had been associated with Joe McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the CIA were still upset by the way some of their officers (Frank Wisner, Cord Meyer, etc.) had been treated during this period. This is a ridiculous explanation. Maybe the CIA were protecting themselves. It would not do to have two CIA cut-outs working in the same office. If one was exposed, people would start asking questions about the other one.

If Bellino was CIA, then that raises issues about his relationship with the Kennedy family. For example, Robert Kennedy suggested to Richard Goodwin that Bellino should carry out the “Kennedy family” investigation into the assassination of JFK. Maybe it was Bellino who first suggested this. This would have been like LBJ commissioning the Warren Report. Bellino would have come up with the report that the CIA would have wanted. RFK, who had great respect for Bellino, would have been convinced by the report. That of course would not have been true if he realized that Bellino was a CIA asset.

[Tim Gratz]

John wrote:

Donald Freed refers to the fact that Segretti attempted to recruit another member of the YAF, Ronald Johnson of San Diego State College, to join his dirty tricks campaign. However, Segretti’s ideas were not innocent as those that were apparently expressed to Tim. According to Johnson, Segretti suggested “getting-rid of” left-wing leaders in San Diego. Johnson claimed that Segretti was a “paramilitary operative” with extremist ideas. Johnson turned Segretti down.

John, you yourself stated: "If Johnson is to be believed . . . "

Do you suppose Segretti just walked up to Johnson and suggested to him that they should "whack" left-wingers? Segretti has no reason to believe this Johnson has any criminal tendencies but the first thing he tells Johnson is that he has murder on his mind?

How do we know that Johnson was even approached by Segretti?

Did Johnson ever turn Segretti in? If not, why not?

Segretti did not suggest a specific criminal act to me. But his hypothetical talk about printing bogus dinner tickets I certainly thought would have been illegal. But let me tell you had Segretti suggested murdering someone I would have gone to the police not to CREEP, shaking in my boots!

So Segretti proposed murder to Johnson, Johnson said no, but did not go to the police?

Also, of all the people Segretti approached, was Johnson the only one to whom Segretti suggested murder?

Segretti's name may end in a vowel, but if I was a Mafia don he would be the last guy I would think of to involve in "hits". Segretti would have been knocked off his feet by the recoil from a 22 caliber.

[Robert Charles-Dunne]

John wrote:

Donald Freed refers to the fact that Segretti attempted to recruit another member of the YAF, Ronald Johnson of San Diego State College, to join his dirty tricks campaign. However, Segretti’s ideas were not innocent as those that were apparently expressed to Tim. According to Johnson, Segretti suggested “getting-rid of” left-wing leaders in San Diego. Johnson claimed that Segretti was a “paramilitary operative” with extremist ideas. Johnson turned Segretti down.

John, you yourself stated: "If Johnson is to be believed . . . "

That's always wise when dealing with an unknown commodity, which describes Johnson.  You have made the most bold assertions in the past yourself, Tim, and have thoughtfully included qualifiers such as "If that is true...."  Using such qualifiers doesn't impugn the credibility of the person quoted, but leaves open that what they have said may not be the whole truth.   

Do you suppose Segretti just walked up to Johnson and suggested to him that they should "whack" left-wingers?  Segretti has no reason to believe this Johnson has any criminal tendencies but the first thing he tells Johnson is that he has murder on his mind?

You have asserted in the past that you had only a brief and peripheral involvement with Segretti.  If so, on what basis do you presume to know what Segretti did or said with others?  Unless you were there, how do you know what Segretti had on his mind?   

How do we know that Johnson was even approached by Segretti?

Perhaps for reasons similar to your own situation, in which you advised Republicans that Segretti was a loose cannon.  Perhaps he was even looser with Johnson than he had been with you, and Johnson reported this to Karl Rove, as you did.  If Rove did nothing to stop Segretti's machinations as a result of your complaints, why do you presume he would have done something radically different as a result of Johnson's complaints?

Did Johnson ever turn Segretti in?  If not, why not?

Perhaps for the same reason that you didn't.

Segretti did not suggest a specific criminal act to me.  But his hypothetical talk about printing bogus dinner tickets I certainly thought would have been illegal.   But let me tell you had Segretti suggested murdering someone I would have gone to the police not to CREEP, shaking in my boots!

You seem to feel that Segretti had only one intention, and one operation, on his agenda, the one he pursued with you.  You would have no way of knowing that this was so.  Please do not make the mistake of insisting that your personal anecdotal experience with Segretti must have been true for all his contacts with others.  You can give us no such assurance.

So Segretti proposed murder to Johnson, Johnson said no, but did not go to the police?

How do you know that Johnson never went to the police?  We have seen in another thread that two men were apprehended and admitted to having been part of a plot against President Carter.  We have no idea as to the final disposition of this case, despite the involvement of police, and presumably Secret Service and FBI.  Perhaps Johnson filed such a police report about his contacts with Don Simmons.  The fact that we don't have that report doesn't allow us to conclude no such report was made.  Again, that's your baseless supposition.            

Also, of all the people Segretti approached, was Johnson the only one to whom Segretti suggested murder?

We don't know the answer to that question, though you seem quite anxious to assure us that Segretti did no such thing.  Had the Watergate Committee been more thorough in pursuing the full degree of political chicanery at work within the Nixon White House, we might have a better idea about such things.  However, it didn't really plumb the number of times that White House personnel and proxies - Tom Huston, Gordon Liddy, et al - entertained the notion of murder.  Hence, we have no way of knowing with certainty whether Segretti was involved in such things.    

Segretti's name may end in a vowel, but if I was a Mafia don he would be the last guy I would think of to involve in "hits".  Segretti would have been knocked off his feet by the recoil from a 22 caliber.

Since the suggestion is not that Segretti was to be a gunman himself, but was perhaps recruiting others to "get rid of" leftists, his ability to wield firearms is really irrelevant, isn't it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Edited August 14, 2005 by Robert Charles-Dunne

[Tim Gratz]

More later, but Robert, I have not seen the article but why did the author not state whether Johnson had complained to SOMEONE, ANYONE, that a stranger approaches him and starts to talk about murder. A rather bizzare or blazen approach, I am sure you would agree.

And of course I do not rise to defend Segretti. I believe several people believed his "mission impossible approach", went down his slippery slope and ended up with criminal records because of it.

I was not as smart as I thought. In retrospect, I should have deduced that the Ulasewicz visit to me was probably a con job to shut me up. But I do not know to whom else I COULD have complained. At that point, it was not really a matter for the police. Perhaps I should have gone to the press. But it is water over the proverbial dam now!