Nixon's long-secret Watergate testimony coming out -- despite Obama's wishes.

[Octafish]

Nixon testified. Obama wanted to keep it sealed.



Personally, I don't think secret government works.

Nixon's long-secret Watergate testimony coming out

Nov 10, 6:39 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Richard Nixon's grand jury testimony about the Watergate scandal that destroyed his presidency is finally coming to light.

Four months after a judge ordered the June 1975 records unsealed, the government's Nixon Presidential Library was making them available online and at the California facility Thursday. Historians dared hope that the testimony would form Nixon's most truthful and thorough account of the circumstances that led to his extraordinary resignation 10 months earlier under threat of impeachment.

"This is Nixon unplugged," said historian Stanley Kutler, a principal figure in the lawsuit that pried open the records. Still, he said, "I have no illusions. Richard Nixon knew how to dodge questions with the best of them. I am sure that he danced, skipped, around a number of things."

Nixon was interviewed near his California home for 11 hours over two days, when a pardon granted by his successor, Gerald Ford, protected him from prosecution for any past crimes. Despite that shield, he risked consequences for perjury if he lied under oath.

It was the first time an ex-president had testified before a grand jury and it is rare for any grand jury testimony to be made public. Historians won public access to the transcript over the objections of the Obama administration, which argued in part that too many officials from that era are still alive for secret testimony involving them to be made public.

The library is also releasing thousands of pages of other Watergate-era documents, several oral histories from that time and 45 minutes of recordings made by Nixon with a dictating machine.

The recordings include his dictated recollections of an odd episode late one night in May 1970 when Nixon impulsively had the Secret Service take him to the Lincoln Memorial so he could meet anti-war protesters there. He lingered with the astonished crowd and, according to accounts of that time, asked the protesters to "keep it peaceful. Have a good time in Washington, and don't go away bitter."

CONTINUED...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NIXONS_WATERGATE_TESTIMONY?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-11-10-03-15-28

Here's the chilling part: Secret Government is not history. And the current Administration also has little desire in sharing its workings with We the People.

Nixon secret Watergate testimony unsealed

Politico

EXCERPT...

One of the topics covered during the grand jury investigation was the infamous 18 1/2 minute gap in a tape recording between the president and his chief of staff three days after the break-in at Democratic Party offices at the Watergate. Although he had been granted a pardon by his successor, President Ford, Nixon was still liable for perjury if he lied during the testimony.

The Nixon Presidential Library said it will make the records accessible online.

Grand jury testimonies generally remain sealed and private. While the Obama administration argued that too many people mentioned in the testimony were still alive, the secret testimony was ordered to be released after a judge determined that its historical value trumped any privacy concerns.

CONTINUED:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68050.html#ixzz1dJbIn0YV

To preserve democracy in its republican form, The United States of America codified transparancy in government in writing: It's called the Constitution.

[Donnachaidh]

1. It's galling to see the President who RAN on *making things transparent* pull such BS

THAT promise was downright Orwellian!

[Scuba]

8. Another in a long string of heartbreaking actions. n/t

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. K&R

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. I read about that a week or so ago and

it really chaffed my ass on the administration's stance since I come from those times and remember them like yesterday and remember 'the Imperial Presidency '


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Presidency

[coalition_unwilling]

4. That Grand Jury apparently was meeting to hear testimony in

June of 1975 (some 9 months after Nixon's resignation). Ford pardoned Nixon of all crimes in September of 1974. So does anyone reading this know what (or whom) the Grand Jury at that point was investigating?

I've read Kutler's "The Wars of Watergate" but don't recall reading anything about a Watergate jury convened in 1975.

Neither of the linked stories provides any level of detail about this Grand Jury's targets of investigation.

[KoKo]

5. K&R....No more Imperial Presidencies/Kings/.....Let the Secrets Out!

[Swede]

6. Evil Obama

evil evil evil

[newspeak]

10. anyone remember Nixon mentioning

"the boys from Texas?" And, I think he alludes to the JFK assassination. Discussing with some friends a while ago, it was discussed whether Nixon was set up, maybe by "the boys from Texas. Oh well, I hope it is an interesting read.:popcorn:

[eShirl]

7. according to a Press Release from the Nixon Library, it'll be available at 12PM eastern

http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/newsandevents/press/2011/Nov_opening.php

National Archives to Release President Nixon Grand Jury Records on November 10
Nixon Presidential Historical Materials to be Opened by the Nixon Library

WHAT: Two separate releases of historical records from the Presidency of Richard M. Nixon.

The National Archives in College Park, MD, will open 26 files from its Records of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force (WSPF) collection including transcripts of President Nixon’s grand jury testimony of June 23-24, 1975, pursuant to the July 29, 2011, order by Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. In response to a petition filed in the case In Re Petition of Stanley Kutler, et al., Chief Judge Lamberth, ordered that the transcript of Mr. Nixon’s testimony and the “Associated Materials” to that testimony be released to the public following the review of these documents for any information that must be redacted as required by law. There are a few redactions made for the privacy of living persons. In addition, there are several portions of the testimony that were deemed to be properly classified for national security. These portions, as well as parts of the accompanying materials, have been referred for declassification. When the National Archives receives a reply to these referrals, the transcript and accompanying materials will be updated.

The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, one of 13 Presidential libraries operated by the National Archives, will open textual materials and sound recordings from its Nixon Presidential Historical Materials, including: The segments of five transcripts of White House taped conversations from 1971 and 1973, which are part of the materials associated with President Richard M. Nixon's June 23-24, 1975 grand jury testimony. The Library will open approximately 3,000 pages of formerly classified national security materials, including National Security Council materials and Henry A. Kissinger (HAK) telephone conversation transcripts.

The Library plans to open an additional 45,000 pages from the collection of Ken Cole, the President’s chief domestic policy aide in 1973-74. The Library will also release approximately 45 minutes of presidential dictabelt sound recordings from 1970, including the President’s dictated recollections of his historic early morning visit to the Lincoln Memorial on May 9, 1970. Finally, the Library will open additional video oral histories, including those of Judge Laurence Silberman, former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY), and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld.

WHEN: Thursday, November 10, 2011, 12 p.m. EST/9 a.m. PST

WHERE: Online: Files from the National Archives’ WSPF collection including the transcript of President Nixon's grand jury testimony and associated materials, will be available at http://www.archives.gov/research/investigations/watergate/nixon-grand-jury/.

Nixon Presidential Historical Materials released by the Nixon Presidential Library will be available at http://www.nixonlibrary.gov.

In person: Files from the National Archives’ WSPF collection will be available at the textual research room of the National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland.

Nixon Presidential Historical Materials released by the Library will be available at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, 18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard, Yorba Linda, California.

-SNIP-

[Octafish]

12. Thank you, eShirl!

I'm dialing in now...

[Octafish]

14. Nixon hesitant to testify because it could bring up secret conversations about assassination!

By the bald Moon of Elvis!

From the PDF pp. 10-11 of Nixon's testimony

Now in making this appearance, however, I should
12 . point out that I am taking into consideration a very profound
13 belief, that I have expressed publicly on many occasions, in
14 the vital necessity for the confidentiality of presidential
15 communications. It seems to me today that when \oJe pick up
16 the papers, and particularly in recent weeks, and read of
17 former presidents, President Kennedy, for example, President
18 Johnson, even President Eisenhower, being accused of approving
1!1 or participating in discussions in which there was a pproval
20 of assassination of other people is very much not in the
21 national interest, and probably it is, of course, not true.
22 Nevertheless it makes the point very strongly that I am going
23 to make right now, and that is that in the Office of the
24
25
HOOVER REPORTING CO. INC.
320 Massachusetts Avenu~, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20002
(2021546-Qi66
Presidency of the United States, the nation ·.which is, not by
choice, but by the destiny of history, the most powerful in

1
the free world and the only guarantee of peace and freedom
2 in the world, it is necessary for the president to have no-
3
holds-barred conversations with his advisers . It is necessar
4 for his advisers to believe that they can give him their un-
5 varnished opinions without regard and without fear of the
6 possibility that those opinions are going to be spread in the
7 public print. It is necessary for them to feel, in other
8 words, that they are talking to the President and that they
9 are not going to the press and that is the reason why con-
10 fidentiality, which I know, not perhaps you gentlemen, but
11 some of the members of your staff, and certainly some of the
12 . members of the House and Senate, and most of the members of
13 the press think is not important. That is why it is importan
M and, in my opinion, absolutely vital. That is the reason why
15 I have resisted in the courts, unsuccessfully up to this
Hi point, attempts to impinge upon the privileged status of such
17 conversations.

CONTINUED...

Hypocritical GOP S.O.P. is to blame the Democrats for what they themselves do. In the case of killing Castro -- it was Eisenhower and Nixon's CIA that met with the Mafia -- not Kennedy's. After Kennedy was murdered, they did all they could to link Cuba and the USSR to Oswald.

At work trying to do five things at once....Aargh!

[cui bono]

9. So Obama didn't want it release because people mentioned are still alive?

So is he afraid they will get embarrassed or something? wtf?

Who is going to support his attempts on this? I dare someone to do it.

[kestrel91316]

11. My only question is: WHO is he protecting, and WHY??

[Zorra]

13. WTF?

"too many people mentioned in the testimony were still alive"

And the point is? What will happen to these people if the testimony is released?

Oh, of course. The People will find out the truth.

Can't have that, can we now?

Run along now be good little boys and girls.