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Organiser of Watergate break-in testifies
30/01/2001 08:44 - (SA)
Baltimore - Former White House aide G Gordon Liddy testified about the Watergate break-in for the first time, insisting that burglars were
seeking photos linking the future wife of Nixon White House counsel
John Dean to a call-girl ring, not political intelligence for the
1972 presidential campaign.
Liddy said during the testimony on Monday that a floor plan of the Democratic Party headquarters showed him he had been deceived about the true mission of the burglars.
"I said to myself, 'Oh, my God,'? he testified. "My eyes opened."
Liddy arranged the botched burglary at the Watergate office
building that led to President Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation.
His testimony in the defamation case here marks the first time in
28 years he has testified about details of the break-in.
Liddy said he had instructed the burglars to bug the offices of Democratic National Committee Chairman Larry O'Brien. However, the FBI later found the tap on the phone of DNC official Spencer
Oliver, who had an office on the other side of the building.
Liddy said he put two-and-two together after being shown the DNC
floor plan by Len Colodny, an author doing research for a 1991
book, "Silent Coup", which linked Dean to a call-girl ring inside
the DNC.
Dean has called claims that he masterminded the break-in "baloney" and said there is no evidence of a call-girl ring at the DNC.
The floor plan showed Oliver's office faced a hotel across the street where an eavesdropper was monitoring phone calls. The
wiretap could only transmit to a receiver in the line of sight,
meaning O'Brien's office could not have been the true target, Liddy
said.
The eavesdropper, Alfred Baldwin, has said in videotaped testimony that some conversations were sexually explicit, involving a member of Congress or a senator.
After seeing the map, Liddy stopped believing that the break-in was
an attempt to gather political intelligence for the 1972 campaign.
Liddy has said the burglars were seeking photos of Dean's fiancee in a package of call-girl photos that were used to set up liaisons for DNC visitors in nearby apartments. Liddy said the photos were kept in the desk of Oliver's secretary, Ida "Maxie" Wells.
Wells is suing Liddy in US District Court for defamation. She is seeking $5.1 million in damages from the 70-year-old radio talk show host.
Liddy said he was a White House aide earning $19 000 per year when he was recruited by Dean to work on Nixon's re-election
committee. Dean told him an "all-out offensive and defensive
political operation" to be funded with a $1 million budget was
needed for the 1972 election, Liddy said.
The order to break-in to the DNC came from Nixon's deputy campaign director, Jeb Magruder, and was not part of Liddy's original
espionage plan against the Democrats.
"I couldn't figure out for the life of me why they wanted to go in there," Liddy said. "The whole thing was stupid."
It was only later he realised the true motive.
"This was a John Dean op," Liddy testified Monday.
Liddy blamed himself for the bungled burglary on 17 June 1972, saying his "big mistake" was telling his men to tape the lock on
the entry to the Watergate for a second time. A guard noticed the
taped lock and called police.
Liddy, sitting in a room in the Watergate hotel, heard over his walkie-talkie the warnings from a lookout that other people had
entered the building with flashlights.
Finally, Liddy said he heard someone say, "They got us."
After the burglars were caught in the DNC, Liddy said he went home,
woke his wife and told her, "Some of our people got caught tonight,
I'm probably going to jail," and went to sleep.
The next day, Liddy said he went to his office and started getting rid of any evidence of the burglary.
"I was shredding stuff left and right," Liddy said.
Liddy refused to implicate his bosses at his Watergate trial,
saying "my father didn't raise a rat and a snitch."
He served more than four years in federal prison, longer than any of the other Watergate conspirators.
Liddy will be cross-examined on Tuesday by Wells' attorneys.
- SAPA
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