BREAKING: Watergate break-in conspirator Bernard Barker worked for the Mafia, author says

Watergate break-in conspirator Bernard Barker worked for the Mafia, author says



--On the anniversary of Watergate, Legacy of Secrecy author Lamar Waldron passes along further information not shared with the public during previous investigations: Bernard Barker, one of the men who broke in at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972, was employed by the Mafia.



The main (or second) break-in at the Watergate, discovered by a security guard, started the rolling scandal that catapulted the Washington Post to national political prominence and led to the resignation of Richard Nixon. It did not lead to an opening up of some the previous crimes connected to it, the assassinations of the 1960s.



Bernard Barker, one of the men convicted for taking part in the break-in, died on June 5. Waldron and co-author Thom Hartmann are now free to release their further blockbuster item that Bernard Barker was working for the Mafia.



Emailing in response to questions, Waldron says, “Now that Bernard Barker is dead, Thom and I are free to reveal what we’ve known since 1992, when we were told by an aide to Bobby Kennedy: Bernard Barker was working for the Mafia--specifically godfather Santo Trafficante--at the time of the Watergate break-in, during 1963 when Barker worked on the most sensitive parts of the JFK-Almeida coup plan (as E. Howard Hunt’s aide), and in 1961 when Barker worked on the Bay of Pigs with Hunt.”



Trafficante was known as the ‘godfather’ or mafia boss of Tampa, Florida. Waldron and Hartmann name Trafficante along with other major organized crime figures--primarily New Orleans’ Carlos Marcello—as figuring in the plots that led to the murder of John F. Kennedy. Previous attempts on Kennedy’s life had taken place twice in 1963, before Nov. 22, one in Chicago and one in Tampa. The two previous attempts, involving some of the same personnel involved in the November assassination planning, were not reported at the time. 'Frank Sturgis,' another member of the group breaking into the Watergate--actual name Frank Fiorini--also worked for Trafficante.



Waldron adds, “The CIA admits Barker was a CIA agent for them from 1960 to 1965.” Barker’s agency code-name was AMCLATTER-1. “Barker began his work for the Mafia earlier, when he was in Cuba, before the Revolution.” Waldron says that further details about Barker’s involvement will come out in fall. The Watergate break-in is now known to have involved men who had ties with criminal elements in the Cuban exile community, organized crime, and the CIA.



But much of the information contributing to what we know now did not surface during investigations of the assassination, despite its being billed in the underworld as the “crime of the century.” Barker’s working for the Mafia, Waldron says, and the suppression of that tie for investigators, pertains to the Seventies interrelationships between Congress, the CIA, and the Ford administration (Bush Sr., Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld) previously written about: “Barker’s work on the [Cuba] coup plan was completely withheld from the Watergate Committee, as was his work for the Mafia.”



The plotting against Cuba, as previously written, included some highly ill-advised collusion between CIA and the Mafia that led to the tragic consequences for a young president.



Waldron says that when Richard Helms, formerly a CIA director, testified to Congress, “he let it slip that Barker had been fired from the CIA because of his ties to organized crime. But Helms (and some other CIA officials who’d worked with him) realized that Barker’s Mafia ties had been withheld from the Watergate Committee, so Helms soon issued a retraction, saying he’d been mistaken.”



Now, Waldron says, “more of Barker’s CIA file has been revealed (though much remains among the one-million-plus CIA files related to JFK’s murder that are still withheld), including the CIA files withheld from three Congressional investigations which show that Barker had troubling organized crime ties just before he was fired from the CIA. In other words, Helms’s initial testimony had been correct.”



The withholding of information continued into subsequent investigations. According to Waldron, the Church Committee hearings—which included testimony by “Trafficante’s pal, Johnny Rosselli”—were also stymied, although less so than the original Warren Commission had been.



“But of course,” Waldron says, “under Ford/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush, Sr., the CIA still withheld the files about Barker, his Mafia ties, and the JFK-Almeida coup plan from Congress. And the murders of Rosselli and Sam Giancana and Hoffa (all linked to Barker’s boss, Trafficante) helped to insure that that info didn’t come out in the next Congressional investigation (the HSCA) [House select committee on the assassinations].”



Thom Hartmann plans to talk about some of this material on his radio show, linked above.

[link to www.margieburns.com]



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