Watergate Hearings - testimony of James McCord (Jim McCord) May 22, 1973
Watergate Hearings - testimony of James McCord (Jim McCord) May 22, 1973
Watergate Hearings - Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 22, 1973 - testimony of James McCord (Jim McCord) continues to testify vis a vis his perception of official sanctioning of WATERGATE BURGLARY by both White House and Attorney General. Caucus Room, Russell Senate Office Building, Washington DC
Watergate Hearings - testimony of James McCord (Jim McCord) May 22, 1973
Mr. James McCORD. Uppermost in everyone's minds, at that point, in time and certainly in mine, was the bloodshed which had occurred at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and I constantly sought intelligence from any source which might help forewarn us and help us avoid in 1972 that danger to the lives of our people. The right to demonstrate, or the right of peaceful assembly is a right guaranteed by the Constitution and I took absolutely no issue with that. It was the 2 percent to 3 percent of the demonstrators who focused on violence, damage to life and property that concerned me. In 1969 we had seen the bombing of the Capitol Building itself. In May 1972 we had seen the bombing of the Pentagon with the equivalent of 18 sticks of dynamite. In Feb 1972 there were four pipe bombs emplaced at a police station in Manchester, N.H., one of which went off prematurely, and mangled the arm of the young man who had reportedly emplaced them. Caught with him was a young lady who had in her possession four letters which said, "we have just bombed the offices of the Committee To Re-Elect the President in New Hampshire." Found in her apartment were the makings of other pipe bombs. It was clear to me and to others that the intentions of the two were to go on from the police station and drop off other bombs at the CRP offices in Manchester, where there had been demonstrations and trouble a few days before. Only their arrest preempted that action. A few days later in Oakland, Calif., another pipe bomb was emplaced on the first floor of the Republican county headquarters and blew out all of the windows & damaged a pillar to the building. Luckily no one was injured or killed. Already in February there was a pattern then of bombings beginning to develop against the committee and against Republican offices. Subsequently, in Austin, Texas, the offices of Senator Tower were destroyed by a firebomb which, I believe, as I recall did a million dollars worth of damage and destroyed irreplaceable files. So the concern was not of a theoretical threat, but of a realistic threat of violence, and I wanted advance notice from anywhere that I could receive it, of action planned against us of this sort-- advance notice, advance warning, so we could take measures to protect against it and protect our people's lives. Property could be replaced, lives could not.
Watergate Hearings - testimony of James McCord (Jim McCord) May 22, 1973
James McCord (Jim McCord) continues statement: Questions were on my mind such as : Who are these people who bombed in New Hampshire, in Oakland, the Pentagon Building, the Capitol Building? How are they funded? Who are they working with? Is anyone in collusion with them, encouraging them, or funding them? The Vietnam Veterans Against the War was one violence-oriented group that was already saying in the spring of 1972, that they were going to cause destruction to life and property at the August Republican Convention, using in their own words, their own bodies & other weapons as the spearhead of the attack there--these are their exact words & some of them have since been indicted in Tallahassee, Florida, w/ additional plans to damage the life & property in the convention. Later in the summer of 1972 the VVAW did in fact have offices in the DNC in Washington, as I understood. I had also received information from the Internal Security Division of the Department of Justice in May 1972, that some individuals in Florida planned to forge college press credentials to get into both the Democratic & Republican Convention sites & blow up the communication centers of both parties there & cause havoc on the convention floor. That information was part of the basis for my going to Miami in June 1972, w/ members of the White House staff to survey and strengthen the security of the Doral Hotel where both the White House staff & the CRP staff were to have both offices & quarters for July & August 1972. Some 30 recommendations were made as a result of that survey, to help protect against such violence & I believe that most were put into effect before the convention.
Watergate Hearings - testimony of James McCord (Jim McCord) May 22, 1973
[cut shot of DASH conferring with an aide while BAKER stares at witness and ERVIN takes notes.] James McCord (Jim McCord) continues reading statement: Now, we also had word from CRP sources alleging that the McGovern committee had "a pipeline" directly into the offices of the Committee To Re-Elect the President in Washington; allegedly, they were feeding out, on a regular basis, policy position papers, that is plans & strategy, which were rather important to the success of a candidate's campaign. If the other side is reading your poker hand, he can negate your plans. We had word that one of the volunteers at the Committee To Re-Elect the President had in fact prior to coming aboard the committee, threatened the life of John Mitchell & other persons. This was about the same time Governor Wallace was almost killed in an assassination attempt. There were numerous threats in writing & by phone against John Mitchell & his wife. One such call came to the Unlisted telephone of Mrs. Mitchell at their apartment & got her greatly upset, as it would any woman, b/c it appeared that even the unlisted telephone number appeared then no longer safe, we certainly had sufficient indications that violence -oriented groups were out to endanger both life and property. With some 250,000 demonstrators planning to go to the convention in early 1972 & there were statements that some would be out to commit violence. The questions were, Who are such people? Who is funding them-encouraging them? Who is In collusion with them? What are they planning next and where? Are any of them being supported and encouraged by any staff members of the McGovern committee or DNC? I had no indication whatever that Larry O'Brien or Senator McGovern had either any knowledge of or part in such-- just to the contrary, I was completely convinced that they did not. But I was not so sure that, w/o their knowledge, other staff members might not be working behind their backs to quietly encourage such groups as the VVAW. McGovern's early political base was w/ some of the radical groups. My questions were, What was the extent of such encouragement, if any, and how far did it go? Did they let such groups use their telephones and work in their offices? There were indications later 1972, that such groups actually did just that in California and in DNC headquarters in Washington. These then were some of my concerns in my role as security chief of the CRP; I felt that the Watergate operation might produce some leads answering some of these questions, and I had been advised that the operation had the sanction of the White House and of the Attorney General, while he was AG. In hindsight, I do not believe that the operation should have been sanctioned or executed, nor should I have participated. However, you've previously asked some of my motivations & what some of the atmosphere at that time. Those are some of the things that make up my atmosphere & some of my motivations.
Watergate Hearings - testimony of James McCord (Jim McCord) May 22, 1973
James McCord (Jim McCord continues reading statement) My next memorandum deals with the subject of the Intelligence Advisory Committee I previously referred to in the CIA memorandum, [cut to shot of Senator BAKER pointing out the reference to Senator ERVIN] which I referred to Mr. Robert Mardian. In May, 1972, Robert Mardian had told me that he, John Mitchell, Robert Haldeman and John Ehrlichman were key members of an "Intelligence Advisory Committee." I now assume that this was the Intelligence Evaluation Committee, referred to, I believe, in the New York Times of May 21, 1973. I have Previously submitted a tape to the Senate Watergate committee which I believe contains material which was the product of that Committee, which I obtained from the evaluation section of the Internal Security Division of the Department of Justice, a contact established through Mr. Robert Mardian, in May 1972. I have no knowledge of the sources of that committee. Robert Mardian during a brief conversation in June 1972, stated to me that he as going to be "in charge of intelligence operations at Miami during the convention." He did not elaborate further.
Watergate Hearings - testimony of James McCord (Jim McCord) May 22, 1973
Mr. James McCORD. The next item is headed "Las Vegas Matter," which was referred to in the previous testimony on Friday. In January or February 1972, Gordon Liddy told me that he was going out to Las Vegas, Nevada in connection with "casing the office" of Hank Greenspun, editor of the Las Vegas Sun. Liddy said that Atty Gen John Mitchell had told him that Greenspan had in his possession blackmail type information involving a Democratic candidate for President, that Mitchell wanted that material, & Liddy said that this information was in some way racketeer-related, indicating that if this candidate became President, the racketeers or national crime syndicate could have a control or influence over him as President. My inclination at this point in time speaking of today is to disbelieve the allegation against the Democratic candidate referred to above & to believe that there was in reality some other motive for wanting to get into Greenspun's safe. Liddy told me one day in Feb 1972 that he was going out to Las Vegas & might need my help if there was an alarm system in the offices, when an entry operation was mounted to enter a safe in Greenspun's offices to get the information. A few days later Liddy told me that he had been to Las Vegas & looked over the offices & that there was no such alarm system, & my services were not needed. Subsequently in about April or May 1972, Liddy told me that he had again been to Las Vegas for another casing of Greenspun's offices. Liddy said that there were then plans for an entry operation to get into Greenspun's safe. He went on to say that after the entry team finishes its work, they would go directly to an airport near Las Vegas where a Howard Hughes plane would be standing by to fly the team directly into a Central American country so that the team would be out of the country before the break-in was discovered. Around the same time that Liddy made this last statement to me about the Hughes plane, Mr. Hunt told me in his office one day that he was in touch w/the Hughes company and that they might be needing my security services after the election. He said that they had quite a wide investigative & security operation and asked me for my business card [cut to shot of BAKER, ERVIN, and DASH, conferring intently and appearing to laugh about it) & asked if I would be interested. I said I would like to know More about what was involved, gave him a card, but never heard from him again on this subject. However, I did read in the newspapers after July 01, 1972 that Hunt had apparently handled a Hughes campaign donation to the Committee To Re-Elect the President sometime in 1972, Gordon Liddy told me in Feb 1972 that he, too, had handled a Hughes campaign check, a donation to the 1972 campaign. This is the extent of my knowledge on this matter. That completes my prepared statement and I will be glad to answer any questions.