G. Gordon Liddy, convicted Watergate conspirator, dies at 90

G. Gordon Liddy, the political operative who supervised the Watergate burglary, which brought down President Richard Nixon, died Tuesday, his family said. He was 90.

Liddy's family said in a statement that he died Tuesday morning at his daughter's home in Mount Vernon, Virginia. It did not give a cause of death. His son, James, said that the cause was not related to Covid-19, and that he had been dealing with Parkinson's disease.

Liddy was one of the organizers of the 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the office building with the name that would forever be linked to one of the biggest political scandals in American history...

Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in 1973 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Years later, he declared, "I'd do it again for my president."...

In an interview with WHYY "Fresh Air" in 1980 after the publication of his autobiography, Liddy described unusual ways of overcoming fears as a child, including rats.

He went to the waterfront to confront the rats, but they would swim away. When his sister's cat killed a rat, he decided to eat it. "And so I cooked and consumed part of the rat. And thereafter, I had no fear of rats," Liddy said. more

“If the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”

from: Why Nixon and Watergate Still Matter: An Interview with James Reston, Jr.

"With the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Watergate break-in coming up this Sunday, one of the hottest tickets on Broadway is Richard M. Nixon. Played by Frank Langella (who just won a Tony Award for his performance), Nixon cunningly spars with Michael Sheen’s David Frost in a live re-creation of the famed television interviews that the British TV personality held with the ex-President in 1977.

The interviews were a landmark in the history of both American politics and television, and they attracted some 50 million viewers. The play, Frost/Nixon (which next year will be a motion picture from Ron Howard), was developed from James Reston, Jr.’s The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews (Harmony, 208 pages, $22), just out this month.

From his home near Washington, D.C., James Reston answered questions about his involvement with the interviews and how they came about..." (more) (Why is this man really laughing?)

Watergate II in America

AT&T building in downtown San Francisco

 Lawyers for civil liberties groups asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to revive two groups of lawsuits claiming the government has monitored the communications of millions of Americans without warrants since 9/11.

The cases involve the federal government's widely expanded efforts to track down terrorists following the attack a decade ago - efforts that included, at minimum, the interception of international communications that could include members of al-Qaida or other extremist groups.

The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and other critics allege that the surveillance was much broader than that. They cite among other things a declaration from a longtime AT&T worker that the company had allowed the National Security Agency to build a room in one of the company's buildings and route copies of customers' communications there. (more)

History

Secret NSA Room 641A - Note ladder and open ceiling tile. Oops.

1/21/10 - A federal judge has dismissed Jewel v. NSA, a case from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of AT&T customers challenging the National Security Agency's mass surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls and emails. (more) 

7/17/09 - The NSA wiretapping story nobody wanted

7/9/09 -  Wiring Up The Big Brother Machine...And Fighting It by Mark Klein and James Bamford

8/15/07 - Spectators lined up outside the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco starting at noon to guarantee a seat at a much-anticipated legal showdown over the government’s secret wiretapping program. 

The hearing involves two cases: one aimed at AT&T for allegedly helping the government with a widespread datamining program allegedly involving domestic and international phone calls and internet use; the other a direct challenge to the government’s admitted warrantless wiretapping of overseas phone calls. (more)

Today in Eavesdropping History

On Oct. 20, 1973, in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre, President Nixon abolished the office of special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, accepted the resignation of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and fired Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus. (more)

Eavesdropping and Wiretapping History

In July 1956, the Pennsylvania Bar Association Endowment (PBAE) commissioned a comprehensive study of "wiretapping practices, laws, devices, and techniques" in the United States. At the time, Pennsylvania was one of several jurisdictions in the country without a statute regulating eavesdropping. Members of the PBAE's Board believed that a nationwide fact-finding mission had the potential to help state lawmakers establish effective policies for police agencies and private citizens. The man appointed to direct the study was Samuel Dash, a prominent Philadelphia prosecutor whose stint as the city's District Attorney had given him a first-hand look at eavesdropping abuses on both sides of the law. Two decades later, while serving as Chief Counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee, Dash would see many of those abuses come full circle...

The result of Dash's efforts was The Eavesdroppers, a 483-page report co-authored with Knowlton and Schwartz.  Rutgers University Press published it as a standalone volume in 1959.   The book uncovered a wide range of privacy infringements on the part of state authorities and private citizens, a much bigger story than the PBAE had anticipated. more (long, in-depth and very interesting) 

Four Textbook Business Espionage Case Histories

This past year, the FBI has observed a stark increase (53%!) in the amount of corporate espionage cases within the United States... the FBI has pointed out that a major concern in corporate espionage today are “insider threats” – essentially, employees who are knowledgeable of confidential matters are being recruited by competitor companies, and foreign governments in exchange for large amounts of money at much higher rates than ever before. 

Walter Liew vs. DuPont – “titanium dioxide”
In July 2014, Walter Liew, a chemical engineer from California, pleaded guilty to selling DuPont’s super secret pigment formula that makes cars, paper, and a long list of other everyday items whiter to China.

Starwood vs. Hilton
In 2009, Starwood Hotels accused Hilton Hotels of recruiting executives out from under them and stealing confidential materials... Starwood alleged that the ex-employees had stolen more than 10,000 documents and delivered them to Hilton – the worst part being that Starwood didn’t even notice that the documents were missing until after the indictment.

Microsoft vs. Oracle
In June 1999, Oracle hired a detective agency called Investigative Group International (IGI) to spy on Microsoft – it was headed by a former Watergate investigator, if that says anything... IGI, following Oracle’s orders, sifted through Microsoft’s trash (a practice also known as Dumpster Diving)...

The following May, the same happened. This time, IGI focused its investigations on the Association for Competitive Technology, a trade group; IGI arranged for a random woman to bribe ACT’s cleaning crew with $1,200 in exchange for bringing any office trash to an office nearby – of course, the office was a front for IGI.

Steven Louis Davis vs. Gillette
In 1997, Steven Louis Davis, an engineer helping Gillette develop its new shaving system, was caught faxing and emailing technical drawings to four of Gillette’s competitors...

Sadly, these economic espionage cases aren’t shocking to most corporate executives; it’s not uncommon for rivalry companies to dumpster dive, hack, bribe, and hire away key employees. In a rush to push out new products, major corporations will do just about anything to defame their competitors. And, although a few of these cases stem from the 1990s, their spirit still holds today – as the FBI has noted that corporate espionage is no where near slowing down.  more

Watergate-style Scandal Rocks Bulgaria Ahead of Election

Bulgaria's National Security and Technical Operations agencies eavesdropped on opposition politicians in the run-up to last month's parliamentary elections, caretaker Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov said on Friday.

Why it matters: Rashkov was echoing echoing claims from a leading opposition politician, who said 32 politicians from three parties had been wiretapped. All three parties are opponents of the long-term ruling party, GERB, and former prime minister Boyko Borissov, who dominated Bulgarian politics for the past decade. more

Greece Wiretap and Spyware

It has been dubbed the Greek Watergate. What began as a surveillance of a little-known journalist in Greece has evolved into an array of revelations circling around the Greek government.

The story emerged last spring, when Thanasis Koukakis found out his phone had been infected with spyware that can extract data from a device. He also discovered he had been tracked by Greece's EYP National Intelligence Service via more traditional phone-tapping.

It then emerged that an MEP had also had his phone tapped before he became leader of Greece's third-biggest party. more

Today in Spy History

On Aug. 9, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal. (more)

Eavesdropping History - NEW Nixon Bugs

One morning in early March 1971, Army counterintelligence agent Dave Mann was going through the overnight files when his eyes landed on something unexpected: a report that a routine, nighttime sweep for bugs along the Pentagon’s power-packed E-Ring had found unexplained – and unencrypted — signals emanating from offices in the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Someone, it seemed, was eavesdropping on the top brass.

Mann was no stranger to bugs. It was a busy time for eavesdroppers and bug-finders, starting with the constant Spy vs. Spy games with Russian spies. But the Nixon years, he and everyone else would soon discover, had extended such clandestine ops into new territory: bugging not just the Democrats, but people within its own ranks. Eventually, most of the Watergate-era eavesdropping schemes were revealed to the public, including the bombshell that Nixon was bugging himself. But the bugs Dave Mann discovered in the E-Ring in March 1971 — and another batch like it — have remained buried all these years. Until now. (more)

Campaign Headquarters Bugged - FBI Investigating

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused opponents Tuesday of bugging his headquarters and asked for an FBI investigation after a recording from an internal campaign meeting surfaced in a magazine report.

The 12-minute audiotape released by Mother Jones magazine reveals McConnell and his campaign staff at a Feb. 2 meeting lampooning actress Ashley Judd — then a potential Senate candidate — and comparing her to “a haystack of needles” because of her potential political liabilities. Judd has since decided not to run.



“We’ve always said the left will stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Nixonian tactics to bug campaign headquarters is above and beyond,” campaign manager Jesse Benton said in a statement. (more)

UPDATE: "It is our understanding that the tape was not the product of a Watergate-style bugging operation. We cannot comment beyond that." – David Corn, Editor, Mother Jones (more)

Note: More than one person is heard speaking on the tapes (above is just an excerpt). Based on this, (and room echoes) the FBI will be able to figure out the location of the microphone. Hope everyone remembers where they were sitting.

The White House Plumbers, or The Buttcrack Buggers

This five-part limited series imagines the behind-the-scenes story of how Nixon’s political saboteurs, E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), accidentally toppled the presidency they were zealously trying to protect… and their families along with it. 

Chronicling actions on the ground, this satirical drama begins in 1971 when the White House hires Hunt and Liddy, former CIA and FBI, respectively, to investigate the Pentagon Papers leak. After failing upward, the unlikely pair lands on the Committee to Re-Elect the President, plotting several unbelievable covert ops – including bugging the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex. Proving that fact is sometimes stranger than fiction, White House Plumbers sheds light on the lesser-known series of events that led to one of the greatest political scandals in American history.

From the producers of Succession and Veep...White House Plumbers comes to HBO Max on May 1, 2023. more

A Watergate in Landlocked Macedonia

Macedonia - The Court of Appeal in Skopje judged that journalists involved in the “Big Ear” case have been tapped, Macedonian Vecer newspaper writes. The Court of Appeal decided that the journalists receive MKD 250,000 compensation ($589.85)...

...and, ascertained that the Ministry of Interior and the Telecom disposed of equipment to eavesdrop and tap. (more) (background)

Bug Found in Ceiling of Jail's Chief of Operations

WV - A bugging device uncovered in an air duct in the office of the Regional Jail Authority's chief of operations has become the target of an FBI investigation, a key legislator disclosed Friday.

The first inkling of the bizarre episode came when Delegate Dave Perry, D-Fayette, as co-chairman of a legislative interims committee, quizzed acting Regional Jail Authority Director Joe DeLong if he was aware of any inquiry - internal or external - involving his agency. DeLong is a Hancock County native.
 

...the device allegedly turned up in John Lopez' office in Charleston...

Perry said he learned that Lopez found the device July 12 after spying some residue from a ceiling tile in the chair of his office.

"It was up overhead, and it had both audio and visual, in an air duct," Perry said...

"Almost like Watergate," Perry added, characterizing the alleged bugging incident, but again emphasized his committee, when meeting Monday, will not pursue it. (more)

Eavesdropping History - Nixon Resigns

On Aug. 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon announced he would resign following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal.

Ireland's Watergate Reveals Bug Sweeps (TSCM) are Common Business Practice

Ireland - The Department of Finance and the National Treasury Management Agency carry out regular sweeps to ensure they are not subject to any bugging or surveillance.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan confirmed the steps were taken due to the commercial sensitivity of issues being discussed within the department... Mr Noonan said he was “aware of the importance of maintaining security given the commercially sensitive meetings held in the department and the sensitive information held by the department”...

A spokesman for the NTMA said it also carries out sweeps.

“Given the sensitivity of the business activities of the NTMA and its various linked business units, including Nama, the agency carries out regular, comprehensive security checks, including sweeps for any evidence of bugging. ” (more)

"All right, who said, 'Turkey'?"

When we last left Turkey...
• A possible Turkish Watergate scandal.
• “AK Party is eavesdropping” claims the opposition.
• Turkish opposition claims security forces bugged its headquarters.

Now, the rest of the story...
• CHP’s bugging allegations turn into bitter comedy.
When the Vakit daily published details of a private conversation between Sav and a former governor last week, Sav claimed his party's headquarters had been bugged. The CHP backed the allegations, reasoning that there was no other way the daily could have obtained such detailed information about the conversation. The CHP argued that a group close to the government within the police force was gathering intelligence for the ruling party.

In response to the accusations, Vakit said its reporter had called Sav on his cell phone for a statement on the day of the meeting and that Sav simply forgot to end the call on his cell when he received his guest, leaving the phone connected for nearly an hour. Records of the call from Turk Telekom and Sav’s cell phone company, Turkcell, seemed to verify this story, as they both showed a 44-minute connection between a phone at Vakit and Sav’s cell phone...

The secularist media, which had initially supported Sav, started calling for his resignation after it turned out that the Vakit scandal was caused by what they described as “his inability to use a cell phone properly.” (more)

Tapes Released - Eavesdropping on Henry Kissinger's Telephone Conversations

CIA director William Colby’s openness about more odious U.S. intelligence practices did not go over well with Henry Kissinger.

Speaking on the phone with McGeorge Bundy, the National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, Kissinger referred to Colby as a “psychopath.”

[A film by the son of CIA spymaster William Colby has divided the Colby clan]

The two men were chatting about congressional investigations into the CIA activities post-Watergate and worried about leaks and misinformation.

“On top of it you have the pysopath(sic)/running the CIA. You accuse him of a traffic violation and he confesses murder,” Kissinger said in the June 1975 telephone conversation. Colby, Loop fans will recall, was replaced soon after as director of CIA by George H.W. Bush.

That conversation is part of 900 final Kissinger phone transcripts from the Gerald Ford administration released Wednesday by the National Security Archive, which sued the State Department in March to have them released. For history buffs the tapes are precious gold... more

Turkish Watergate - First Audio Eavesdropping Tapes - Now Video

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government has been ensnared by a series of anonymously leaked audio tapes of purported corruption, said his administration may face a new threat from covertly recorded video recordings.

“In these incidents, there is not just wiretapping, there is also filming,” Erdogan said in Ankara yesterday, according to state-run Anatolia news agency. “It’s even been stretched to the extreme of filming extramarital affairs, invading a family’s privacy and totally ignoring moral values.”

Speaking to local reporters after the release of audio tapes that the opposition said placed Erdogan at the center of a bribery scheme, the premier lashed out at the tactics. (more)

Poland's Eavesdropping Scandal Shuts Down Parliament

The testimony by Poland's Former Minister of Interior about Polish Government use of special services organizations to spy on political opponents has stopped proceedings of the Polish Parliament. And the stoppage may end up being long term. Parliamentary Speaker Ludwig Dorn said if the opposition continues to demand breaks the current session could "go on for months".

Yesterday, during the reading of the secret testimony of Former Minister of Interior Janusz Kaczmarek, Former Minister of Education Roman Giertych exploded when he learned that conversations between him and Former Deputy Prime Minister Andrzej Lepper were recorded and transcripts of their conversations given to Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Making accusations of a "Polish Watergate", Giertych demanded a delay in Parliamentary proceedings until next Tuesday.

The delay stops all work of the Parliament. (more)