(00:00:01) Now when I graduated from college, it was a war going on. So my first job was to be a lieutenant of artillery in the United States Army. Naturally. I was 10 to some artillery schools and then one day they sent me (00:00:10) to a school. Base surrounded by barbed wire secret one up in New England there. They taught me absolutely nothing about artillery what they taught me was clandestine operations. I thought there was a mistake made here. I didn't say anything though because frankly I was enjoying myself too much (00:00:27) wasn't any mistake when it was all over they said look none of this goes in anybody's 201 file don't talk to anybody about it. If we need you we'll call upon you. Well at war ended we were almost it out. Nobody called I went to law school on the GI Bill and right out of law school. I went into the FBI. No sooner was a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation when I found that regularly and continually the FBI would go clandestinely into the embassies chanceries consulates of other nations Friend or Foe alike inside the United States penetrate the safe in a manner. So sophisticated you could never tell that it had been opened and reclose extract their from say the one-time Cipher pad used at least in those days for their most intimate Communications photographic then with the aid of Right photographs put it back exactly the way we found it. Now inevitably the product of that night's work went to the same place the NSA the National Security Agency the nation's code makers and Breakers the communications intelligence people and at the same time that that was being done by the FBI inside this country the CIA was doing an outside the country and while it was being done by the FBI and the CIA is being done by the KGB and the Gru and the DGI by Mossad by MI6 by doxing Bureau. Everybody all over the world go into the safe. Take it out photograph. Put it back in again. Because that's the way it really is out there. Unfortunately, so often when you take your history in your poly sign your government courses what you get is the Holiday Inn version of reality. It's a strip of paper round's the sanitized for your protection. You are not getting that for me this evening. (00:02:02) Well, (00:02:04) I was lucky in the FBI was in the right place at the right time several times in a row and so at the age of 25 29, I found myself the youngest Bureau (00:02:13) supervisor and FBI headquarters on the staff of J Edgar Hoover. (00:02:17) And it was long before old age had an anyway. Affected adversely. Mr. Hoover's performance in office. He was if anything at his Peak and he was awesome. He was an extraordinary administrator and is dominant a personality as you ever fine. He ran the bureau with an iron hand. And indeed we almost had too much of a good thing because that combination LED (00:02:40) sometimes. Who some rather strange goings-on but why me I said he was. A master administrator. (00:02:50) He said look there is nothing so complex in (00:02:53) this world that an intelligence Bureau supervisor (00:02:57) cannot reduce it for me into a memorandum no longer than two and a half pages and I will not read anything and they longer than I don't have the time to and if you can't do it I will find someone who can now behalf page was (00:03:09) important because on its way up to Hoover that is where the other brass got to put their comments on the internal content of the memorandum (00:03:16) only in pencil only J Edgar Hoover was ever allowed to (00:03:20) use ink Why what he said would then jump right out? And it was important because in those days it was only what JJ Hoover had to say that meant anything in the FBI and sometimes he had a lot to (00:03:33) say and go all the way up the margin all the way across all the way down fill up the whole thing. And for that reason he had a rule to a precise minimum Believe It or Not For Those margins just in case he (00:03:45) needed them. When I was assigned to division 8 it was a brilliant older supervisor two desks behind me. He got all the really tough stuff not I and one day he got a beaut (00:03:58) and he worked and he worked and he wrestled and wrestled and finally in desperation. (00:04:01) I heard him say to the stenographer. There's no way we can get this into two and a half pages. But one she said what's that? He said we're gonna have to cheat on the margin rule. She (00:04:13) said do we dare? He said yes and have to put our careers on the line cheat on the margin rule. They did (00:04:21) got it into two and a half pages up. It went through the chain of command (00:04:23) nobody caught it all the way to (00:04:25) Hoover. And this man had done a brilliant job of analysis because J Edgar Hoover had not a single word to say about the internal content of that memorandum, but being J Edgar Hoover at the peak of his prowess. He caught him cheating on a margin rule. Anyone can put up with it so he took his (00:04:49) pain. And he wrote an injunction against that kind of Conduct in the (00:04:53) future Jake who were thought of the margins of sort of the borders of the paper. So what he (00:04:57) wrote was watch the borders Hoover. (00:05:02) Down it came through the chain of command. Watch the borders. Charlie this memorandum has absolutely nothing to do with the borders of the United States of America. Why don't you go up and ask the director what him you (00:05:15) know you go up a NASA director what he mean? I'm not going to go up and ask him. So it all where they if J Edgar Hoover that know and I don't care how vague ambiguous and Order even an observation. He would make no one would answer that man a (00:05:29) question. They would solve their dilemma always in the same way. They would put their heads together and then do (00:05:38) what they thought he wanted what they hoped and prayed he wanted in this particular instance it led them to send an extra 35 Special Agents of the FBI on detail down to the border with Mexico 27 up to Canada. The agents already there. See all these guys getting off the plane. And so what are you doing? He said we don't know. Hoover says watch The Border by God. We're going to watch it till it's safe to go back to Washington. He was awesome. Well by that time I had four children and I could not feed clothe and house them and what I was making and so I resigned and I practiced law in Manhattan and the 60s were upon us and I did not like what was happening in this country in the 1960s again many of you are too young to recall. But I refer you to the comments of James Reston columnist for the New York Times not noted for his excessive conservatism. And at the time he said this nation has not been so endangered since the (00:06:39) Civil War. William F. Buckley a conservative (00:06:43) generally credited with being pretty level-headed went even further. He said indeed we are in the midst of a civil war y yet. Mm bombings alone in one year. police officers were being fired upon by snipers (00:06:55) People would pull (00:06:56) the fire alarm the fireman we come the snipers would get them too. Tens of thousands of our citizens would descend on Washington on mass not to push Titian peacefully for (00:07:07) grievances. We dress as is encouraged in the Constitution, but with the announced purpose beforehand, we're going to shut down the government of the United States by force and violence. And if you don't know how to do it, here's a manual to show you how to make a pipe bomb with nails how to make a Molotov cocktail. I can recall on a Saturday morning going into the Department of Justice hallways, I'll tell you how bad it was inside. They're posted at the intersection of the hallways. We're not the National Guard. But the regular army (00:07:44) in full battle dress Manning crew-served automatic weapons. In case the mob should break through the GSA guards. They would be machine-gunned in the Halls the Department of Justice to protect those (00:07:54) records. So bad. It was now I analyzed the problem as being essentially political. (00:08:02) And whatever tiny contribution I could make as a (00:08:04) citizen. Toward solving it would have to be in (00:08:08) politics. So I went into politics entry level can't get in at much lower level assistant district (00:08:14) attorney in Dutchess County, New York. No (00:08:17) sooner had I that (00:08:18) position when (00:08:20) Timothy Leary then the nationally-known guru of the 60s drug movement tune in turn on drop out (00:08:28) with the aid of lysergic acid (00:08:29) diethylamide. chose to make Dutchess (00:08:33) County his headquarters that was my County. That was a bad move. (00:08:43) I was soon possess not one, but two search warrants commanding us to search the premises for controlled dangerous substances. We did so we found them we arrested the people. And then the Supreme Court of the United States one of the more eccentric legal Bodies In This Nation. Deliberate itself of a decision entitled Miranda versus Arizona and the warnings we had given to these people were insufficient. Case was no longer any good. So we made a deal with Tim Leary get out of Dutchess County (00:09:15) and you walk which is what happened. But (00:09:17) now I was so well-known up there that I could actually run for Congress more specifically for the Republican nomination thereof, which up there as is sometimes the case with the Democratic nomination in the South was tantamount to election in those days. I was not the party's designee. I was a challenger the organization. I put together got 49% of the vote. They don't pay off on 49% of the vote in Dutchess County New York. (00:09:40) Maybe Cook County, Illinois, but not Dutchess County, New York. (00:09:44) But I had come to the attention of someone who announced himself to me as a classmate of one John Mitchell then running the campaign of Richard Nixon for president of the United States because now it was (00:09:55) 1968. And he said look Nelson Rockefeller the governor of this state. Is putting all the assets (00:10:06) of the Republican party, which he controls absolutely behind liberal candidates such as Jacob Javits. And giving only lip service to the presidential campaign. He's not behind Nixon at all. We are going to have to take over this campaign ourselves and it's very late in the game to be doing something like that. Now you've demonstrated that in this area you have a potent political organization, you know how to use it. If you will put it at the disposal of Richard Nixon if you will run the Nixon campaign in this (00:10:32) area, and of course if we win, We'll see to it. You get to go to Washington. We wanted to go in the first (00:10:38) place and that is exactly what happened fewer than 90 days after Richard. Nixon was inaugurated president of the United States. I was special assistant to the Secretary of the (00:10:46) treasure a (00:10:47) year later. I was treasuries enforcement legislative Council six months after that staff assistant to the president of the United States in the White House. Now at that time Henry Kissinger was not yet the Secretary of State. He was the president's National Security advisor, and he was in a rage. He stormed into the Oval Office and he would finally calm down enough for Richard Nixon to be able to understand his accent. He complained he said that he and his staff had spent months generating 6 fallback positions from negotiations with the Soviet Union while he was in the air flying over to the site of the negotiations all six of his fallback positions are printed and American Press. He said I can't conduct diplomacy like that. He said that's like trying to play poker with somebody standing directly behind you reading your hand off to the other side and the presence of what do you want me to do about it Henry and he said I want you to identify these people who are doing that so they can be removed from government and Richard Nixon said, okay, and he called the FBI. (00:11:53) But by this time (00:11:54) old age had finally caught up with J Edgar Hoover because I have the greatest respect for him. I want you to understand how old that man was. Not only mr. Hoover even his secretary dated back over there. To the days when we were fighting Kaiser Wilhelm in World War 1 (00:12:14) 1918. And now he was starting to act a little funny. (00:12:21) He got annoyed at the head of counterespionage. He brought those lab experts down. It can penetrate the safe that way to changed (00:12:27) the locks so that the head of counterespionage couldn't get his own office. That'll fix him. a low-level functionary (00:12:36) of CIA posted of all places in Boulder, (00:12:38) Colorado Did something that annoyed mr. Hoover (00:12:42) he forbade any contact between the FBI and the CIA now you can't have a situation like that. But we did and J Edgar Hoover was fireproof. He could not be removed from office by anybody. And so there was created in the right house itself a special investigations unit with the power to command the resources of the FBI and the CIA and the DIA and the NSA and The Joint Chiefs of Staff everything. (00:13:08) Cask locate those individuals who will leaking that information so they could be removed from government. (00:13:15) I was assigned as one of the members of that special investigations unit. Now roughly at the same time this was going on if it were possible for Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger to become more angry. They became even more (00:13:29) Angry what happened a man named Ellsberg PhD from Harvard then an (00:13:35) employee of a think tank out in Santa Monica California the Rand Corporation according to him gave to the New York Times a massive series of documents classified top secret sensitive. We're (00:13:47) code word material. That's how hot they were the correct name of this huge pile of documents (00:13:52) the McNamara study for the origins history development of the (00:13:55) Vietnamese War, you know them by the term popularized in the press the Pentagon papers and those of you who have gone to your library and read them because they were published in book form subsequently by the New York Times maybe puzzle. (00:14:10) Why in the world would Richard Nixon be annoyed at the Pentagon papers? They (00:14:14) weren't critical of Richard (00:14:15) Nixon quite the contrary. They were critical of his Democratic party predecessors and office Lyndon Johnson, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I should think he'd be (00:14:26) delighted. Well, I'll tell you why (00:14:30) first for those of you who have not seen the Pentagon papers. You can divide them roughly in half first half exactly what it purports to be a narrative history in that narrative history. There are countless references citations (00:14:43) quotations from (00:14:45) Top Secret cable traffic (00:14:48) memoranda code word material (00:14:50) virtually contemporaneous. The second half exact copies of the full text of all of those things in order to demonstrate (00:15:00) that those references were accurate and in (00:15:04) context (00:15:06) Now to its (00:15:06) Everlasting credit the New York Times did not publish everything it received from Daniel Ellsberg some of those underlying documents, even though they had the legal right which they won in court to publish. They looked at and he said no this stuff is too hot to contemporary its code word. It will damage the United States help the Soviet Union. They haven't published it to this day. Unfortunately at about the same time that Daniel Ellsberg says that he gave that stuff to the (00:15:35) New York Times and remember only about four or five people. No Nation had access to this. The FBI surveillance on the embassy of the Soviet Union on 16th Street in Washington picked up the fact that somebody identity unknown had just given the Soviet Union the whole thing including the hot stuff not published by the New York Times and now he had a problem. It seemed not (00:16:01) unreasonable to suspect that the man who just said he gave it to the New York Times might have been the one (00:16:06) if you have few people had access to it, but giving it to the Soviet Union (00:16:12) it was known that Daniel Ellsberg had had access to the entire top secret Holdings of the Rand Corporation tens of thousands of more of the most highly classified documents. It was known that he had taken out thousands more. Nobody knew what (00:16:24) he had. (00:16:26) Nobody knew what he intended to do with them. Nobody knew whether or not he was a romantic loner of the left as he was being characterized in the press or whether he was in with the show with the KGB. No one knew whether he was the one who had given him to the (00:16:36) Soviet Union. And we had to know that because of what he (00:16:40) had. And so we turn to the FBI and we said what can you tell us about this man? And they said undoubtedly from a wiretap. Although he has terminated the services of a psychiatrist named Fielding out in Beverly Hills. He still telephones me everyday all hours of the day and night relates to in the most trivial incidents of his daily life. (00:17:02) We said well if he's doing something like that maybe something so (00:17:04) Central to his existence these days is giving out the McNamara (00:17:07) study. He may have discussed with the doctor. He may have (00:17:11) told him whether he's the one gave it to the Soviet Union. He may have told him whether or not he's involved with the KGB. He may have told him what else he has. He may have told him what he intends to do with that stuff and the doctor may have put it in the (00:17:22) file. We said to the FBI get the file (00:17:28) the FBI tried the FBI failed it was then that that task was given to the special investigations unit in writing get the file. We went out to the doctor's office in Beverly Hills. We pulled a classic clandestine operation a break an entry to search for the file. We covered it by making it look like a typical burglary by a junkie looking for drugs through drugs all over the (00:17:55) carpet. And what have you the file was not there we came back out (00:18:01) and to give you an idea of how efficient is the Beverly Hills Police Department within weeks. They caught the guy who did it. He was a junkie. He confessed and he was sent the jail where he belongs for awful thing like that. (00:18:22) We (00:18:22) said all right file is not in the office limited filing space. Maybe it was a closed file. And for that reason is in the house of the doctor. He lived in an apartment in Beverly Hills. We went there. We made a surveillance of it to see whether or not it could be penetrated. I photographed the locks and the rest of it we found it could be done easily. We return to Washington to write up a request because you don't do things like that on your (00:18:44) own (00:18:45) authorization. Request denied so he didn't go in there now that breaking and (00:18:52) entry I would perform (00:18:55) for any president of the United States without regard to his political affiliation. Just as I would wear my country's uniform without concern as to whether or not the commander-in-chief was a democrat or a republican because it was a national security mission for the reasons. I have just described to you Watergate by contrast. Now an umbrella term being used to mean just about everything that went on in those days should be understood for what it was and for what it was not first. It was not one. It was to breakings and enterings into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Virginia Avenue and Washington one in May and one in June of 1972. Neither one of which had anything whatsoever to do with the National Security of the United States both were purely political intelligence gathering operations the same kind of thing that goes on every four years when the vast power that is the presidency of the United States is being contested for as it is today, and I assure you not in a manner in Conformity with the wishes of the League of Women Voters. If you believe that I'll tell you all about the Easter Bunny (00:20:00) now Why did we go in there? Remember (00:20:06) both these entries took place prior to the time when the Democratic party had selected its nominee. Yes, George McGovern was in the lead. We were doing everything we could to get him the nomination. And we were particularly effective about it. We were knocking out one after another especially Muskie who we were concerned the most about but we didn't know who was going to get it. What do we know the others all had little office space rented all over Washington from which they ran their campaign for the nomination? The winner would be able to move out of those little places into the vast we'll appointed headquarters of the DNC by right of (00:20:49) Conquest. Well, you know who was going to be but we sure knew where he was going to be when (00:20:55) during the actual battle the campaign after he's nominated. That's when the campaign really starts. What else would we know about then? He be surrounded by the Secret Service then so with the DNC, but it wasn't now. And so (00:21:11) we went in and we planted (00:21:13) what too technical surveillance devices one on the telephone monitor the phone conversations one to monitor the room conversations. I want to point out to you how sophisticated these devices were. After the second entry in which my men were caught the FBI took all the phones in the office up to the FBI laboratory. It took them three months to find the bug on that (00:21:41) phone. That's how tiny it was (00:21:45) at is how minuscule was its RF energy? Just to be heard across the street. Required an oscilloscope to even find the signal a band spreader and then to be able to boost it. So it will be audible to the human ear required an amplifier. So powerful it cost $8,000 in 1971 dollars. We proceeded to read the phone conversations. We could not get the room conversation. Something was wrong either the device was faulty. Or it had been placed inadvertently on a wall. Inside which was a steel beam, which would absorb all that tiny amount of RF (00:22:27) energy. I said to my superiors not to worry. We are going to go in and correct that (00:22:34) quick 5-minute in and out. They said no so long as you are going. To attempt a second penetration of a high-security building. Why do I call it high-security there wasn't just that one guard (00:22:48) whose Misfortune you've all probably heard about in that building was the Federal Reserve or a lot of their (00:22:55) offices. It was also protected by the government. I said so long as you're going to do that bring it all your Cuban assets arm them with sufficient cameras and film to photograph everything in there. And of course we want what's in Larry O'Brien's desk. What was to have been a quick 5-minute in and out repair mission was now in Prospect a two-and-a-half hour photo recon (00:23:18) mission. What went (00:23:21) wrong? How did my men become captured I made a mistake? That's what (00:23:25) wrong. What mistake was (00:23:27) that? Any time you are going to penetrate a (00:23:31) building. You survey it to see its vulnerability. This was a commercial building. It had a (00:23:36) vulnerability typical of many throughout the United States. If there are any of you adults here who are running commercial (00:23:43) buildings. Take heed. Typically a cleanup crew. Char Force (00:23:53) worked at night to clean the (00:23:55) offices when they wouldn't disturb anybody (00:23:59) typically all the doors were what they call Master that means there was a master key which would open any one of them. (00:24:06) Typically the Triforce was given that key and they were instructed (00:24:10) always use the key. We don't care how many times you've got to go in and out that door. We don't care how many buckets of water you've got to bring in and out of there or how inconvenient it is use the key. Typically, they did not it's too much trouble. They'd open it once tape it back (00:24:32) and when they were through (00:24:34) peel it off go to the next (00:24:35) one. We emulated that. the man went in (00:24:43) put the tape on the lock went up to the place found. They could not enter why. There was a single individual a Democrat working late that night that weekend night back in there. (00:24:54) He came back to wait for him to leave we could (00:24:57) tell from across the street where there was a lookout (00:25:00) we were in touch with a transceiver when he (00:25:02) left now. This was one dedicated Democrat. He didn't leave to like one o'clock in the morning. Now is when I made my mistake. I should have said to my man. You're going to put that tape back on your go down because of course when they came out they found the tape (00:25:20) had been gone. The guard had founded taking it off. He didn't call the police. (00:25:24) He just made a mental note to chew out the Char Force for violating the rules. Once again, as it look you going to do that again go downstairs and look at the sign out log see whether the Char force is still in the (00:25:36) building. I didn't say that they didn't do it. And the Char Force had indeed left the building now in the guard saw it that second time. He said wait a minute Char Force has left the building. They signed out in the log downstairs. That is a clue. Call the police (00:25:59) the five men working for me were apprehended Howard hunt my associate and I were in a hotel (00:26:04) room immediately adjacent, you know, just wall-to-wall. We were in touch through transceivers. We knew what had happened. We had a lot of electronic gear in that hotel room. (00:26:14) We took what we could we could stick in our clothes because after all we're both dressed like this and at two o'clock in the morning, we were going to have to sort her out through about 13 police cars. God knows how many cops with all this electronic gear in our suit looking cool. To our immense relief and surprise we got away with it, but not for very long. I'd say within 90 days. Both of us were also indicted and so in January of 1973 all seven of us found ourselves in a room that appear to be almost this size the ceremonial courtroom in Washington DC on trial before his Eminence John Jay (00:26:49) Sarika times Man of the Year. Well, he may have been times many year, but he wasn't exactly my man of (00:26:55) the year. And it was a strange trial a lot of things that went on. It's gonna be a long night. So I won't bore you with a lot of might just give you one (00:27:05) incident that was not reported. Not the fault of the press press didn't know about it couldn't have known about it. You're all aware through (00:27:14) going to the movies and television how you start a trial in this country. The first thing that they do is (00:27:18) they ask (00:27:20) specific individual questions of the prospective jurors, sir. By any chance, are you related one of these defendants? Because if he's the brother of a defendant, he will be excused. He can't give the government a fair Shake. And in the federal system only the judge can do that and Sarika proceeded to do so, and he went along. And he quickly got to a sticking point pretrial publicity there hadn't been pretrial publicity like that's in Sacco and Vanzetti. He had only one person cleared for jury (00:27:49) duty. So he said this is taking too long. No more individual questions of the jurors group questions from now on I'm oversimplifying. Of course it was anybody here can't give these people a fair trial. Let me see you saw hands. I don't see any hands were on the jury (00:28:04) 11 of the 12 jurors had not been asked a single individual question. What do you say so what they were good honest people, of course they (00:28:10) were but I'll tell you what happens when you do something so dumb as that. They were not going to (00:28:17) take any chance that this (00:28:19) trial could be reversed because somebody could say that the jury had been influenced by say what they read in the National Enquirer at the checkout counter that morning when they were getting (00:28:28) coffee. And so they did what they sequestered the jury. That means they locked it up anytime that jury was not in the courtroom under the Steely gaze of John Zurich himself. They were locked up under guard of the United States Marshal Service armed guard no newspapers. No magazines. No television no radio if you think there's an emergency and you have to call home. You don't call home. The Marshall calls home. He gets the other party on the phone. He cautions him not to mention a word about the trial and then he listens in the entire conversation to make sure nobody does. (00:29:05) trial began (00:29:08) Witnesses started testifying and they were from the FBI's laboratory and they're talking about all this elaborate equipment the band spreaders and the oscilloscope. These jury people are laymen they're trying to get all this in their mind. They're not even allowed to take notes. And of course the judge is pronouncing on the law. Yes objection sustained jury disregard that however, you may entertain so and so conscientiously they're trying to remember (00:29:27) it all. And then after a couple of days of that while the jury's out on a (00:29:33) break five of the seven defendants decided this was too expensive is too much trouble. We just like to get it over with judge. We want to plead guilty. They had the right to do that. They plead guilty and they're out. But of course (00:29:44) the trial continues is to more of whom I am one (00:29:48) in comes the jury more testimony trying to get it (00:29:52) more pronouncements on the law. They're contemplating it. And then in walked in the United States Marshall to the judge. Said your honor we've got a problem. What's that Marshal? We caught one of the jurors. Making a phone call himself. We think he called home. I think he called his wife. We don't know we didn't get there in time. But if (00:30:16) she told him that five of the seven defendants are just pleaded guilty. Obviously he'll have to be (00:30:22) removed. You have to be replaced by one of the six alternate jurors. And that's Catch-22 judge. You only picked six alternate jurors. (00:30:29) If he's told the rest of them what happens this huge trial Focus to the attention of (00:30:34) the world will be aborted (00:30:36) declared a mistrial junked to the enormous embarrassment of the United States of America not to mention the huge cost of starting it all over again, maybe nine months from now (00:30:45) trick. I said, you're right Marshall. We got a serious problem here, (00:30:48) but I'll tell you how I John sirica. I'm going to (00:30:50) solve it. I want all counsel. Into my confidential conference room and you at the stenotype machine you're in there too because every (00:30:59) word that is uttered in that room goes on the record. And I times man of the year will get the truth (00:31:05) out. They'll be no cover-up in my courtroom. And they brought the poor wretch in. And so Rick has started to interrogate him as only Sarika can. And the (00:31:21) poor wretch attempted to respond. And as it seeped through the room temperature IQ of John sirica what had happened. his face drained of (00:31:30) color and he said what is he Spanish or something? SI senor (00:31:40) John sirica by failing to ask even one individual question of the prospective jurors had actually Seated on the great Watergate trial itself. A man who was supposed to listen to all the testimony weigh all the evidence listened to all the law debate it with the other jurors with whom he could not conduct a conversation in English language because the poor man did not speak it. (00:32:03) They had to bring in an (00:32:05) interpreter. Now they were so upset. They didn't just bring in an interpreter. They brought in an interpreter who was a lawyer qualified to practice in that very Court through that interpreter. They found out. Yes. He had called his wife. And yes, she had (00:32:23) told him about the five guilty pleas. (00:32:27) They forgot to ask him why we don't know to this day. (00:32:31) There's probably something like I don't know honey bunch of Gringo's got me locked up in a hotel room here, and he won't let me go. But no he hadn't told the rest of the jury. How could he they all speak English? When John sirica the man who abhors a cover-up in this is why you did not see it published in the Press realized how mortally he would be embarrassed. They might take back the man of the year award. (00:32:57) He used his power as chief judge of that Court to seal that portion (00:33:02) of the Watergate trial (00:33:03) transcript and that portion alone. So you could never know it. It was an unsealed until two years ago by the archivist of the United States hasn't been published (00:33:13) because the Press is too embarrassed to do so, but it's there for anybody to see well, of course, it didn't make any difference. I was convicted. I was sentenced to (00:33:22) 21 and a half years in prison find $40,000 and sent to a maximum-security prison, which is where you send somebody with big-time like that. That's double murder time. I went to a place where they had a death House people waiting to die in the chair. Now when I went into that (00:33:40) prison, I was 42 years old. (00:33:44) Because of the great success in this life of my (00:33:46) father, I enjoyed some extraordinary (00:33:49) benefits in this nation. I had a superb education an earned doctorate in law additional doctoral work in law at yet another University NYU Graduate School of Law on top of that. I thought I appreciated all of that (00:34:03) at age 42 I didn't I didn't understand what I (00:34:07) had. (00:34:08) When (00:34:09) those gates close behind me the very first thing they did of course was to strip-search me to make sure that I wasn't attempting to smuggle a weapon into a maximum-security prison. That's a very prudent thing to do if you're running a Maximum Security Prison and then of course, they got to the routine questions, where do you want your civilian clothes and (00:34:26) finally almost as an afterthought State for the record the extent of your education by the time I had finished laying it out for them. I saw fear in the face of the Guard I saw or on the face of the other prisoners why (00:34:42) they understood something. I still hadn't told you. I had just succeeded in bringing into that Maximum Security Prison the most powerful weapon. I possibly could (00:34:50) have and the one weapon of which I could never be disarmed that education. I can see the puzzled look, you know education weapon that does not compute. (00:35:03) I'll show you how it does compute. We'll make it easy medium Security prison-- Danbury Connecticut concrete wall steel cell doors guard towers guards armed with twelve-gauge cylinder bore shotguns and caliber 30 M1 carbines searchlights Doberman Pinschers barbed wire. We had everything but Jimmy Cagney and George Raft banging a Tin Cup in a bars and yelling from ah, When I arrived there I found that the day-to-day life of the prisoners was in the hands of an associate Warden a particularly foul reputation as to how he treated people. I don't believe in being a victim and so I made an appointment see that gentleman and of course his Superior the warden (00:35:44) and I said look neither one of you have anything whatsoever to do with why I'm here. (00:35:49) I'm here because of an occupational hazard. You don't bother me. (00:35:54) I won't bother you. They didn't listen. inside that n very prison I proceeded to create and deploy probably the finest clandestine operations team. I have ever commanded. (00:36:10) We went into the warden's office. We took anything out of his files. We want we see Roxton on his own xerox machine. With their own repair equipment for three months, I wiretap the authorities of the Danbury prison right inside the prison. I didn't do that as a hobby (00:36:28) or to keep my hand in an case later on. I was going to get back in government work. (00:36:33) There's a purpose for that. With the evidence. I gathered through clandestine operations. I then use my education. I brought a lawsuit in the United States District Court the Federal Court District of Connecticut New Haven judge Newman presiding then because I wanted to get to trial immediately and not wait. I petitioned the court to combine my case with that of one brought by other prisoners months before I got their agreement to let me run the case the combined case I petitioned the court to be able to prosecute it myself based upon my education and experience and it was (00:37:12) granted. But the warden honest and I said now welcome to my yard Warden. The time I was finished with those people the associate Warden of whom I spoke was transferred by the Federal Bureau of Prisons 3,000 miles away to a job in which he would not even see a federal prisoner subsequently the warden retire the rules and regulations of the prison were changed my reward. Of course (00:37:36) for that was to be thrown out of the Danbury prison. Remember I told you I was in nine different prisons. That's why I kept getting expelled from prison. (00:37:45) Should I had a bad (00:37:46) attitude? They were right. Finally, they ran out of places to send me Jimmy Carter listen to the entreaties of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and threw me out of the whole system altogether by commuting my sentence (00:38:03) which brings me before you this evening and the (00:38:06) question and answer session now a couple of things there are microphones for you to use which I will ask you you so everyone can hear your question. I know it's a little bit of an inconvenience for those of you in the rear to come forward, but I appreciate your doing so so everybody gets to hear the question. Secondly, while those of you who have questions come up to the microphones. I want to say something else. I will not be offended by a good tough question. That's why I'm here. Please don't anybody be offended by a good tough response. Secondly, please don't anybody take a friends on my behalf. You people are very very (00:38:43) polite. But (00:38:46) I can handle myself and there's no need to for that. And the reason I say that is because (00:38:51) early on when I started lecturing back east at a school very much like this. It was small liberal arts religiously oriented. The first questioner asked a good tough question before I could even open my mouth to respond to it up jump the distinguished-looking gentleman from the front row and he took exception to the question on my behalf. (00:39:17) I had never laid eyes on this man before in my life. (00:39:22) It turned out he was a (00:39:23) professor of political science at that (00:39:25) College. It turned out that the man who asked the question was yet, another (00:39:31) professor of political science at the same College. Whereupon this professor offered to eject physically from the premises that professor. Whereupon that professor gave it as his considered scholarly opinion. You ain't man enough to be able to do a Charlie and (00:39:51) you know it Well, they got into it (00:39:55) the cops came. Now, let's face it. I don't care how good a lecture does, you know a good fights a lot more fun. We're all are watching a fight. We didn't have a license for a fight in that Arena that night. We don't have a license for a fight here this evening. So don't anybody please get (00:40:15) upset or offended and I certainly shall not. Surely there are some questioners. Surely some of the poor people from the social justice Foundation of somebody rather already to attack. Here we go. They about a country (00:40:32) where many people are locked up for life for the same crimes that you committed and you're traveling around the country telling your story for $5,500 a crack. I don't believe from my (00:40:43) experience in an awful lot of Prisons that there's anybody who had received life imprisonment. (00:40:50) Secondly not for a (00:40:51) first-time B&E third degree. Burglary. There are some (00:40:55) people who (00:40:56) are locked up for life for homicide some horrendous violent crimes and things of that sort. (00:41:06) And in prison, if you talk to the prisoners, you'll find that they'll be the first to (00:41:10) agree. They'll say look. I've got a wife a mother a sweetheart a sister out there. I don't want to (00:41:16) bang over the head with an axe by The Mad (00:41:18) rapist any more than you do want that to happen to when your loved ones there are some dangerous people and they Society has to be protected from him. That's the only way you can but no first time (00:41:28) be any people the typical sentence (00:41:30) for what I did was about six months suspended. Yeah. Could you give us your (00:41:36) assessment of the relative value of American and Soviet soldiers? (00:41:43) I would say. From what we have been able to learn in the Soviet Union. that their typical draftees (00:41:56) have a serious (00:41:58) alcoholism problem as do the rest of the members of the Soviet Society. There's rampant alcoholism over there. It's somewhat similar to say the marijuana problem and things like that that we have at least in the past some time had with our own (00:42:13) we have an all-volunteer (00:42:14) Force. That is well-trained as far as they are trained. There are some (00:42:20) tremendous gaps in their training. For example, the Soviet (00:42:23) troops receive equipment vehicle Personnel movers and things of that sort, which are equipped to protect them from chemical bacteriological and radiological Warfare. They practice it they even practice it in Afghanistan. They practice defending against it. Our situation because of the congress with that respect is so (00:42:45) bad. (00:42:47) That if an (00:42:48) army physician, this is an army officer who was a physician who is (00:42:51) chargeable with the health of our troops (00:42:55) wants to take a special course in how (00:42:58) to take care of people who have been injured that way. There isn't one for him to even go to and he doesn't have the training. (00:43:06) The main problem is though that our people could all be nine feet tall and breathe pure (00:43:11) fire. 20 against the hundred ninety-four isn't going to do it. That's the chief problem. Even though I sense a lot of cynicism in your attitude. I also see a lot of belief in America. And this is a country that sent you to prison for a long time. Could you tell us a little bit about your feelings about this country and how you have tried in your way to change America? (00:43:46) All right. I really (00:43:49) I know you meant well, but I would reject the (00:43:51) adjectives cynical about what I have said it is truthful (00:43:56) and it is candid. It is not cynical. Now. I'm (00:44:00) a citizen of the United States of America. I have worn its uniform. I have (00:44:03) been a special agent of the FBI. I love my country. (00:44:07) I don't purport to love it any more than anybody else in (00:44:09) this room. (00:44:12) I went to prison but I could well have say had a lot worse experience in the Hanoi Hilton had I been shot down or something of that (00:44:20) sort. I have brought my children up to love their country several of them are embarking on Military careers for example, but there's nothing extraordinary about that and my (00:44:30) country has not treated me poorly. I understood the risks that I was undertaking. I was certainly willing to accept the fruits of (00:44:39) success. By the same token. I must be willing to accept the (00:44:44) consequences of failure. I was the captain of the aircraft carrier when it hit the reef damage control was my responsibility, but since that time (00:44:54) Relatively brief period almost play around five years in (00:44:57) prison. I have been treated very well in 1980. I was inducted into the honor Legion of the police department of the city of New York. I'm in the Special Operations Association by nomination of a Major General United States Army seconded by a hold of the Congressional Medal of Honor. I have been treated very well by my (00:45:15) country. What I'm trying to do here is (00:45:22) to disillusion everyone in this room. Now that sounds like a negative yet. If you look it up you'll see the word illusion means not to apprehend the reality of something if I believe that empty chair over there is a parachute and I hold it over my head and dive out of an airplane. I'm in a lot of trouble if you disillusion me so that I understand what it is. You may save my life. The chief problems of the American people are self-inflicted. Why? We have been so fortunate as to have been sitting. for two centuries on a mountain of Natural Resources protected by 3,000 miles of open ocean on one closed 6000 on another until we have come to confuse in our minds the very real distinction between the world as it actually is where we wish it were. That if we're altruistic people that we're working for that if we're religious people that we're (00:46:25) praying for. Remember the (00:46:29) Jews are still awaiting the arrival of the (00:46:31) Messiah (00:46:33) Christians are still awaiting the second coming of Christ and by both those religious doctrines which undergird our society it is then and only then that the Millennium will be upon us and then and only then perhaps the world (00:46:45) will become (00:46:47) the way I'm convinced poor Jimmy Carter still thinks it is to this day, but it's not it is not. (00:46:56) pretty little town the world is a very bad neighborhood. But how did how did the robbery in anyway? Help or hinder. I'm sorry. I didn't understand. What was that? How did the robbery of the Watergate in any way help or hinder this diss illusion moment that you speak of (00:47:20) well to the extent. That the American people Now understand the actual real (00:47:27) processes. Of government in their elections and things like that. It's very very healthy.