The View From the Outback

In short, one might conclude that all knowledge, wisdom, and wit are confined to those who inhabit New York City, Washington DC, or Hollywood.

I am now a senior citizen, in my 7th decade. My experience was gained in many cities in the U.S. and in about 30 foreign countries. That experience has included the U.S. Marines, law school, the ATF, the CIA, Fortune 500 executive, writer, public speaker, educator, editor, and publisher - for openers. Some insights come from talking with ham-radio operators in every major country and such idyllic places as the Cook Islands. For over 20 years, I have written articles off and on for various magazines and newspapers. I've had an enormous number of letters published in major national publications. The Outback is the rural area in Northeast Texas where I have lived for the past 15 years. Since most visits to my pages come from searches, I am no longer trying to keep on a regular schedule for updating the Outback.

Thursday, June 23, 2005 - and following

Click on a Topic to go directly to that topic.

• Thoughts While Staring at the Ceiling Fan
• "All the President's Men" Revisited

Thoughts While Staring at the Ceiling Fan

July 7, 2005: I wrote and posted the following paragraph about Armageddon on the afternoon of July 6. That evening, on the "Tonight" show, Roseanne Barr said to Jay Leno in effect that she felt like with the world so messed up, Armageddon might be right around the corner. My posting predated Roseanne's remarks on the "Tonight" show by several hours, and it was simply an amazing coincidence. I am sure she does not read the Outback, and I surely do not need her to come up with ideas."

July 6, 2005: The French are upset because England will host the 2012 Olympics. The British are upset because the French President said that the British could not be trusted because they had bad food - that their only contribution was Mad Cow. The French are also upset because Lance Armstrong is again leading in the Tour de France bike race. Everybody is upset with the United States (most particularly Geo. W. Bush) because we invaded Iraq on "false pretenses." Even though the President of the U.S. has not even hinted at whom he might nominate for the Supreme Court vacancy, both Liberals and Conservatives are upset and are running ads. Some ads warn of dire consequences to the world if the "wrong type" of judge is proposed to fill the seat. Never in my lifetime have there been so many people or groups pissed off about one thing or another. I miss the Cold War when most people were too worried about being blown to Hell, that they did not have much time for petty quibbling. Keep screwing around and God may decide that a world-wide nuclear Armageddon may be the only way to level the playing field and start over. Instead of Adam and Eve, it will be Tiffany and Mohammed.

July 6, 2005: We had Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Martin Sheen and others running their mouths about politics, the environment, legislating, or whatever. Now, we have a raving, completely irrational maniac, Tom Cruise, acting like a retard about his "nearly teen-age" girl friend, attacking psychiatry and promoting Scientology. Do people never hold these folks accountable for their actions by not seeing their movies or buying their CDs? Apparently not, if the large grosses for "War of the Worlds" is any indication. I take a different approach. I hold these idiots responsible for their words and actions. I will never watch a movie or TV show again in which Tom Cruise appears. He's a complete idiot. And his precious Scientology reminds me of the Branch Davidians in Waco - populated by a bunch of irrational people. Why is it that Hollywood types are drawn to Scientology, Kabalah, and other fringe movements? Because they are terribly insecure and in large part - morons. They are constantly trying to find meaning in their lives, amidst all their splendor. I do owe Tom Cruise a debt. His outlandish behavior has caused me to lose complete interest in the entertainment industry. When I do my daily search of the Web for news, I now skip all entertainment news. That goes for entertainment news on TV, too.

July 6, 2005: New York City has taken two more hits to its gargantuan pride. The 2012 Olympics will be held in London. A consultant in Switzerland reported in a wide-ranging survey that the Financial Times (of London) was ranked number one as the most respected and admired newspaper. The New York Times fell to SIXTH place. My favorite, the Wall Street Journal, was ranked second.

July 5, 2005: Writing in the Washington Post for July 5, 2005, David Brown said in part: "Neither low-dose aspirin nor vitamin E supplements prevent cancer in women, and vitamin E also does little or nothing to prevent heart disease in them, according to results of a large and authoritative study released today. The findings from the 40,000-person Women's Health Study add to the growing evidence that vitamin E pills have no health benefit, but run counter to the rising tide in favor of wider use of aspirin to prevent disease."

David Brown is incompetent. To say that there is growing evidence that Vit E pills have no health benefit, is a misguided judgement by an extremely uninformed journalist. In fact, the study did show that healthy women over the age of 65 in the vitamin E group experienced a 34% reduction in heart attacks and a 49% reduction in cardiovascular deaths. I reported on the results of the Women's Health Study in the Outback for June 2, 2005. In that Outback, I noted that the Women's Health Study was written about in the March 31, 2005 edition of the "New England Journal of Medicine." Mr. David Brown's comments about Vitamin E also ignores, as did the Harvard Heart Letter for June 2005, the many, many other beneficial effects that Vitamin E has shown in literally thousands of trials. To single out an apparent lack of effect of Vitamin E with regard to Cancer and Heart Disease in younger women as an indication of "the growing evidence that vitamin E has no health benefit," is simply asinine. Incidentally, although the same study did show that Aspirin did not help prevent heart attacks in women, it did lower their risk for stroke. With men, Aspirin has been shown conclusively to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. This anomaly between the sexes with regard to prevention of heart attacks by taking Aspirin has yet to be explained.

July 1, 2005: New Yorkers would like us to believe that New York City is the Greatest City in the World and that New Yorkers are the Smartest People in the World. Well, not exactly. Since it was first proposed, I have followed and sometimes documented in the Outback, the progress of the "Freedom Tower" which is to be built on the site of the old World Trade Center towers. There was a plan, then a better plan with two architects working together (who rarely, if ever spoke to each other), and on and on this circus progressed. Finally, we had the inspiring unveiling of the model of the Freedom Tower, which, with its spire, would soar to 1776 feet. Gov. Pataki laid the several-ton cornerstone. Now, as they say, everything was "set in stone." Well, not exactly. The building has been resigned and its site moved back further from the roadway - for security reasons. Even the New York Times said that the new building "evokes a gigantic glass paperweight with a toothpick stuck on top." Maybe this time, Gov. Pataki can be "on a business trip" when it is time to move the gigantic cornerstone to its new location. Anyway, don't rush to move the cornerstone. We may not have seen the last revision. As I have said many times before, this whole thing is a phallic symbol for NYC. Mine is bigger than yours.

Granted, Republicans often take the lead on many issues, including religious speech, but they are the majority party - and not some Jesus Freaks as so many in the media try to portray them. At least they are standing up for religious freedom. All Senators, Democratic and Republican, begin each senate sesssion with a prayer. Nobody seems to be complaining that is an "establishing of religion" by the government. Who will be the first to bring a lawsuit against the government to get rid of "In God We Trust" on our paper money? Watch the Supreme Court squrim on that one.

In addition, there was bipartisan support for legislation that would cut off cities from federal funding who used the right of "eminent domain" against private property for private use. Football and baseball stadiums came up often in the debate, for example. The Supreme Court's decision on the taking of land by eminent domain for "private use," will go down is history as one of its most misguided decisions. Simply dumb, if know anything about the history of eminent domain and of private-property rights in the United States.

The Supreme Court's two decisions on displaying the 10 Commandments also left many legal scholars shaking their heads in disbelief. In the Outback for Oct. 4, 2004, I briefly discussed the issue. First, I quoted the relevant phrases from the U.S. Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;..." Later, I said: Logic, and even a layman's reading of the Constitution should make it clear that having the Ten Commandments displayed on government property is not remotely connected to the "establishment of religion."

In two separate cases, the Supremes said that it was okay to have the 10 Commandments on a monument-type display on the grounds at the Texas state Capitol. But, it was not okay to have a plaque of the 10 Commandments hung in two courthouses in Kentucky. As one law professor said it, "The Court has lost its compass and has for years." In other words, they can't find their butt with both hands. How is the public supposed to have faith in the process when the Court defies the clear intent of the Constitution and says it is okay to take private lands for private use and that its okay to have the 10 Commandments in the yard, but not on the wall of state property? Gracious. The 10 Commandment decisions will also generate some legislation in the Congress to clarify matters. Put it up for a vote on the Internet or on American Idol. We could get just as reasoned a result as we got from the Supreme Court in the two 10 Commandment cases and the private property case.

June 26, 2005: The "Harvard Heart Letter" for July 2005 has an article about new and potential tests for heart disease, but concludes that there is "promise but no payoff." In the article, they state: "Cholesterol levels offer a hint at what's going on inside the arteries. They aren't that precise, though." All this time, the millions of people taking statins were told that high cholesterol was one of the main things that was going to kill them. Now, it's only a hint? The "Heart Advisor" from the prestigious Cleveland Clinic (July 2005), has an article entitled "The Myth of Immunity to Heart Attack." They point out that even if you keep your cholesterol level down, your blood pressure under control, quit smoking, have your weight around normal, and you have good genes, it doesn't mean you won't develop cardiovascular disease or will not have a heart attack. There are "more than 100 independent risk factors" for cardiovascular disease, they note. Please, don't tell us about the other 94+! Most of us can't cope with the ones we've got and know about.

Apparently the Texas legislature got tired of Texas being the brunt of all the "maximum number of executions" comments and even jokes on late night. A new law provides for a sentence of life without parole. The law does not apply to those already sentenced to death. Except that Gov. Perry commuted the sentences of 28 death row inmates to life in prison. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that they could not be executed because they committed their crimes as juveniles. One would assume that death-sentence convictions in Texas will now drop precipitously, in favor of life without parole.

Former CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg has an interesting title for his forthcoming book: "The 100 People Who are Screwing Up America." Al Franken is #37. Without knowing who is on the list, I would vote to move Al Franken higher up on the list of screwups. You may remember Mr. Goldberg's book "BIAS", (How the Media Distort the News) in which he outlined the genesis of the liberal media bias, including that of his own former employer, CBS. Good book, if you haven't read it.

A TV ad for Bayer Aspirin says in part: "No other brand prevents more heart attacks than Bayer." If this is true, it has to be because Bayer is the best-selling brand. And if this is true, it no doubt is because so many Americans have been brainwashed by advertising and brand-name awareness to think that Bayer, or any other "name brand," is better than the generic aspirin sold by discount stores, grocery stores, and drug stores under their own "house brand" label. As I pointed out in the Outback for March 15, 2003:

Most of the generics in major retail outlets conform to the USP standard, which ensures that the ingredients and the safety of the manufacturing process are essentially the same. A bottle of 50 Bayer Aspirin (325mg) at a local Wal-Mart costs $3.77. A bottle of 500 of a generic 325mg aspirin costs $3.47! If your calculator is broken, the Bayer costs a little more than 10 times as much as the generic. A bottle of 100 of the generic 325mg tablets costs 96 cents. At SAM's Club, with Member's Mark brand, a bottle of 1000-325mg coated Aspirin costs $4.87. Yes, that is 1000 for $4.87.

In light of the many massive breaches of security of credit-card data and other privacy data, VISA is using new techniques to scan transactions for potential fraud in real-time. They already had a "VISA verification" program for online, where you registered with personal info hints and a password. Then, when you try to use your VISA card online, at least where I have tried, you are challenged to enter your verification password.

Now, MBNA MasterCard has "Shop Safe." Once you know how much your online purchase will be, you log on to your MBNA account and ask it to generate a "one-time card number," which can be good from 1-12 months. I tried it and it was a bit cumbersome. I have two screens and two browsers. I got to my Checkout screen with my online purchase, and when I saw my total, I went to the other screen and browser, where I had already logged on to MBNA, clicked on Shop Safe and agonizingly slowly on a dialup, a facsimile of a credit-card with a one-time number appeared, complete with the code from the back. I authorized up to $200 for the $179 purchase (don't forget shipping). Sadly, I had to open my safe and get the 800 number on the back of my MBNA card, which was also requested by the online vendor. I have made a note of the 800 number for future use. I plugged in the one-time card number, the security number from the back, and the 800 number. That particular vendor also asks if you want to keep your number "on file." NO! Every online vendor site should give you an option to expunge your card number once the transaction is complete. It appears that the transaction went through, according to the vendor's return e-mail. (Since I wrote this, the merchandise arrived.) You can set up the one-time card number for scheduled payments (cable TV, etc), for up to 12 months.There is a small MBNA download program that is supposed to help automate the Shop-Safe sequence, but with all the restrictions I have on my browsers and firewall, I could not start the download. Maybe later, when I have some time.

POSSIBLE SECURITY ALERT! There is one disquieting aspect about how I learned of MBNA's Shop Safe. I got an e-mail, purporting to be from MBNA, which announced the Shop Safe service and provided a link to www.mbnanetaccess.com where you could sign up. My e-mail program lets me hover over the link and see what its actual URL is. The ACTUAL link shown was a long URL that did not have any mention of MBNA in it! Whoa! In the first place, if this was a legitimate e-mail from MBNA they should NEVER have provided a clickable link. They should have told the recipient to "log on to your MBNA account in your normal way and click on Shop Safe for more information or to sign up for this service." I have done a screen capture of what I believe is a phony URL contained in the "alleged" e-mail from MBNA. I am sending a copy of the e-mail, the goofy-looking actual URL for the link, and a very strong letter to the head of online security at MBNA. Nobody should ever click on a link contained in an e-mail that looks like it came from your bank or credit-card company. Close the e-mail, and run a virus check on your e-mail inbox folder. You can usually right-click on a folder in your file manager and there will be a choice to run your anti-virus just on that folder (and its subfolders). Then, log on to your bank or credit-card site in the normal way, that is - through an encrypted link (you will see https:// and a locked padlock on the lower part of your screen).

July 1, 2005: I sent a copy of the MBNA e-mail, the screen capture of the apparently "goofy" URL link in the e-mail, and a two-page letter (lecture) to MBNA's regional office in Dallas. Not in response to the letter, but in response to my earlier call to MBNA, I got a return call from a very sweet lady who talked to me for 10 minutes about what I thought was wrong with their procedure. I told her again that I thought it might have been a Phising e-mail. I said to her, "Bank America would never, ever, send an e-mail with a link to their secure online-banking logon site." What a shock to read in the WSJ that Bank of America is buying MBNA (which is not a bank as reported by Brian Williams on NBC). MBNA is a credit-card company of considerable size. Trying to find out who is in charge of online security and fraud detection at MBNA is one of the dark secrets of the universe. If I don't get an answer from MBNA about my letter within two weeks, I will send a copy to the president of MBNA, whose name was in the press release. I will give him one chance to answer me. If I don't get an answer, I will ask for a new credit-card number. Then it will all be moot until Bank America completes the deal. At that time, I will suggest to my contacts at online-banking-security at Bank of America that they need to take a hard look at some of the practices of their recently acquired MBNA. Bank of America likes to hear from its customers about potential security problems. I once wrote them a letter about an online problem, and the guy in charge in Charlotte called me, and said that he had read my letter at a meeting. He gave me his personal e-mail address and said to keep in touch. MBNA has yet to tell me even in which of its branch offices the online boss is located.

In an earlier Outback, I noted that government-mandated free credit reports were phasing in, June 1, 2005 for Texas and the South. I printed the .PDF form, filled in a minimum of info, slipped it in an envelope and sent it off. Amazingly, I got my report in about 10 days! It still listed one credit card that I had cancelled years ago. They included a sheet for you to make corrections or additions and send them back to the credit bureau. You can order all three credit reports in a 12-month period. I ordered just Equifax this time, and will space out the other two over the next 8-11 months.(See: www.annualcreditreport.com) You can download the form there. I do not recommend calling the 800 number or doing the free request online, as noted in the Outback for April 9, 2005 (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbak4.htm). A friend sent her form in about the same time I did, and she too already has her report. Will wonders never cease?

"All the President's Men" Revisited

As a former Federal criminal investigator and later a CIA operations officer in the field, I marveled at the cleverness and tenacity of W & B in working up their stories for the Washington Post. Normally, they introduced themselves as reporters for the WP, and only once or twice resorted to using a subterfuge to gain an interview.

The way they worked through a maze of leads to find live bodies who were actually willing to talk to them, on or off the record, was simply amazing. I felt like I was reading the greatest book of detective fiction ever written, but it was all real. In my novel, "Serpent on the Hill," (out of print), there was a scene between a CIA agent and a newspaper reporter in which the CIA agent noted that they were both in the same business - digging out the facts. The main difference was that they had different clients, one public and one private.

In the previous Outback, I said that I had misgivings about the authenticity of Woodward's assertions about signalling Deep Throat with a flag in a flower pot, or getting meeting times from DT in a copy of the New York Times left in the lobby of Woodward's apartment building. Nothing in the book changed my mind on that score. We are lead to believe by Woodward's most recent accounts that the flower pot and the Times signals were his only means of contact with DT.

In fact, Woodward tells of several times that he called DT on the phone and talked about leads, some times when he called him on the phone with a pre-arranged code for a meeting. Perhaps more than once, BW called DT from a payphone, waited 10 seconds without speaking, then hung up. DT then called the payphone. One at least one occasion, BW called DT at home and discussed leads. Once DT called BW at the Post and asked for another number to call him on. BW gave DT a number at another desk in the Post newsroom, where DT called shortly. Hardly a clandestine communication, since President Nixon was "out to get the Post," and it was possible that the Post's phones were tapped. One time BW and DT met face to face in a tavern in an out-of-the-way location in the D.C. area.

After a "flower-pot signal," DT missed the meeting. He later apologized to BW saying that he hadn't had a chance to check the balcony that day. This leaves the impression that DT checked the balcony most every day. This defies logic, unless it was on his route home and it was during daylight hours. But, Mark Felt lived in Virginia and initially Woodward lived at 17th and P, N.W., which is North of the FBI building. You would most likely not go several miles out of your way each day to run by 17th and P, either during work hours, or on your way home to Virginia, which was in the opposite direction. At this point, Felt was not a street agent and spent most of his time at FBI HQ.

During his time of being in contact with DT, Woodward moved twice, from the original apartment where the flag in the pot was shown on a 6th-floor balcony. One apartment was so noisy that he quickly moved to another, after signalling to DT with a yellow trash basket turned upside down on the fire escape.

At his third apartment, it was back to the flag in the flower pot on the balcony. Repeatedly, Woodward talks about how he would set the flower-pot signal for a meeting that he expected for that evening. Once again, are we to believe that the number two man at the FBI had time, or the inclination, to drive or walk by Woodward's apartment every day looking for flag in a pot or a yellow trash basket? And how did the copies of the Times get marked by DT? I am still not buying any of this flower-pot, NY Times signal stuff. Unless Deep Throat had accomplices.

I was stuck by the momentous stories that were published based on some rather strange sourcing, like from people who would be asked to object if the reporters said anything that was not true, and simple misunderstandings. The Boys were preparing to print a story that H.R. Halderman was one of five people in charge of the money in the safe that was disbursed for political espionage and dirty tricks against the Democrats during the campaign. An editor wanted one more source.

Bernstein knew a lawyer in Justice who might add confirmation. He called and asked him straight out. The man refused to comment. Then, CB said to the guy that he would count to 10. If there was any reason for the story to be held back, the lawyer should hang up before Carl reached 10. The lawyer did not hang up and the Post went with the story. That story, being quite premature, nearly sunk Woodward and Bernstein and the Post. Later, the lawyer said he misunderstood the "count to 10" message and that he was intending to warn CB and BW away from publishing the story.

It was astonishing to be reminded of really dicey stuff like talking to members of a Watergate grand jury. Through a clever ruse, Woodward got the names and info on the Watergate grand jurors. They are sworn to secrecy, but there was apparently no law against talking to them, if they wanted to volunteer something.

The Boys struck out with the few jurors they contacted, but one told the U.S. prosecuting attorney that he had been contacted by a reporter from the Post. Judge Sirica, the trial judge was mad as hell, but in open court he only spoke to the impropriety of such "adventures" and did not name either Woodward or Bernstein (who were in the courtroom at the time). They dodged another bullet.

Carl Bernstein certainly was fearless. He called former Atty. Gen. John Mitchell at about 11:30 p.m. and told him that the Post was running a story the next day that in effect said "you controlled secret funds at the committee (CRP) while you were attorney general." Mitchell asked Carl to read him the story, and when Carl got to the third paragraph, Mitchell exploded. "All that crap, you're putting it in the paper? It's all been denied. Katie Graham's (chairman of the Post) gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer it that's published...." Shortly, Mitchell said to call his law office in the morning and hung up.

More than one FBI agent told BW and CB that some of their stories were nearly verbatim from FBI interview files - a Form 302. Perhaps the Boys should have taken a course in plagiarism and learned how to impart information in an altered, but correct form, so as to better disguise their sources. And for those who were wildly guessing who DT was, the search should have been more focused on someone high up at the FBI.

Overall, the Boys got most things right, but they were treading on very thin ice a lot of the time. It took real courage, or possibly hubris, for the various editors to sign off on some of the stories. I actually winced at some of the stuff that got approved based on some "far out" sourcing. Only Ben Bradlee at the Post (and Woodward and Bernstein) knew Deep Throat's identity, but of course, DT was only one of hundreds of sources used by the reporters.

For example, in one story the Boys accused three men of involvement in reading wiretap memos. The assertions turned out to be false and severely impacted the lives of the three men.

The Boys wrote the following in the book: "They (we) had assumed too much.... They (we) had heard what we wanted to hear." This was a hard admission to make, but the facts as we review them bear out this analysis.

In the book, we are reminded several times that stories were then written on typewriters and next were set in type for printing presses. Many who read this paragraph may never have used a typewriter. I wrote several small books, a novel, and many articles on a typewriter. If I had to do that today, I would be restricting my writing to handwritten post cards while on vacation. To be able today to write at home, send the copy via e-mail or the Internet and then have it dumped right into the composing machines ready to print is an enormous luxury that only old timers can fully appreciate.

Since I was involved in technical operations both in the U.S. Treasury and the CIA, I have a special interest in the "Plumbers" and their expertise or lack of it. (See "My Clandestine Entry Into Watergate" www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx//odyssey.html and other references in my writing to "tradecraft.")

It must have been very exhilarating for the Boys when they pieced together parts of the puzzle that connected the Plumbers to the White House, and so on. The one screw up by E. Howard Hunt that makes me laugh outloud was the "clandestine phone" in his office in the basement of the EOB (Executive Office Bldg.) when he was on the White House payroll.

The phone was ordered by John Ehrlichman and was put in the name of Kathleen Chenow, of Alexandria, Virginia. The bills were sent to her home address and were ultimately paid by someone in Ehrlichman's office. Bernstein finally located Ms. Chenow in Milwaukee. She said she had been the secretary for the Plumbers and named Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy, David Young, and Egil (Bud) Krough. She said that Mr. Hunt would often talk with Bernard Barker in Miami, often in Spanish. Bernard Barker was recruited by Hunt in the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and was one of the burglars arrested inside the DNC offices in the Watergate.

Later, a friend of Hunt said that "at least he could have used a pay phone." So much for the "master spy." The phone supervisor in charge of the White House account said that in 25 years experience, there had never been a similar phone installed and billed to a private person.

At a luncheon meeting with an old friend of E. Howard Hunt's, Bernstein discovered that his sophisticated friend did not hold Hunt in very high regard. Speaking of the Plumbers technical prowess or lack thereof, the Hunt friend said: "Now we know what Howard's wiretapping squad was really like. Just rank amateur. Well, he told me that he had developed a team of some really heavy people who could conduct electronic eavesdropping - said they could install a sweep-proof bug that was voice activated and could be picked up a hundred yards away. You know, the Watergate bug was a like a crystal set, powered with flashlight batteries - heavy team, my ass." (My sentiments, exactly.)

FYI: The Listening Post (LP) for the Watergate bugs was across the street in the Howard Johnson Motor Hotel, in a rented room overlooking the sixth floor of the Watergate offices. Alfred C. Baldwin had monitored the Watergate bugs from this room. And it was in this room that E. Howard Hunt appeared at about 2:30 a.m. to watch his "high-powered entry team" being lead away in handcuffs.

In the book, the Boys mention a camera store in the Miami area where the Watergate burglars bought camera supplies and had some film processed. In my notes from my original Watergate research, as I recall there was an indication that the team had film from inside the DNC Watergate offices processed at this Miami shop. Since most of the film would no doubt have been of documents they copied, this was another evidence of the lack of professionalism by the men recruited by E. Howard Hunt. In the group I worked with in CIA, each person had the capability to pick the lock, plant the bugs, take the photographs, and develop the photographs - just for openers. As Hunt's friend said of his team - "heavy team, my ass." Dumb asses was more like it.

No matter what you age is, or how much you think you remember of Watergate, you should read this book. The plot, as Deep Throat told Woodward, went far beyond the Watergate break-in and involved wiretaps of reporters and government officials, all manner of dirty tricks to disrupt the Democratic meetings and rallies, attempts to discredit Democratic candidates and much more. Richard M. Nixon, for all his accomplishments, was an evil and venal man who subverted the office of the Presidency and abused the power of the FBI, IRS, and CIA to get at his "enemies." Watergate was after all, just a "third-rate burglary" - in the grand scheme of Nixon's "dirty tricks."

It was the totality of the subversion of our democratic system that produced 40 indictments or convictions of government officials. Four of those caught inside Watergate, Virgilio Gonzalez, Euginio Martinez, Bernard L. Barker, and Frank Sturgis plead guilty. E. Howard Hunt plead guilty. G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord (the fifth burglar) were found guilty by a jury. H.R. Halderman, former Atty. Gen. John Mitchell, White House legal counsel John Dean, and Charles Colson were all convicted and jailed.

President Gerald R. Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, which is still being debated, but on balance was the right thing to do. We, the country, needed to get Watergate and Nixon behind us and move on.

As you can see, all these year later, it is still not completely behind us. It is important that each generation know what kind of abuse of power can be conducted - even with the full knowledge, and perhaps guidance, of the President of the United States. A free and vigilant press, who are not beholden to anyone in power, is important.

I close with some comments from a speech made by Charles W. Colson in Maine. He was Special Counsel to the President during the revelations by the Washington Post and others about the administration. Charles W. Colson, who was known as President Nixon's hatchet man, was convicted and went to jail. He became a born-again Christian, some say before he went to jail. Upon his release, he became involved in prison ministry outreach programs.

"If Bradlee (Editor, Washington Post), left the Georgetown cocktail circuit ... he might discover out here the real America. And he might learn that all knowledge and all superior wisdom just doesn't emanate exclusively from that small little clique in Georgetown, and that the rest of the country isn't just sitting out here waiting to be told what they are supposed to think." Charles W. Colson from a speech in Maine.

Now, read the the first two paragraphs of the heading of this Outback.

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