Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Bernard L. Barker
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Bernard L. Barker
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Bernard L. Barker United States Senate Caucus Room, Washington DC
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Bernard L. Barker
Senator ERVIN. Your phone area code in Miami is 202? Mr. BARKER. I think it is 302 or 305. I think it is 305, sir. Senator ERVIN. Did you make five calls to the phone 202 area code, 333-0362, to the Committee To Re-Elect the President's offices in April and May and June 1972? Mr. BARKER. To the best of my recollection I think, I couldn t say definitively, but I think yes - those are, to the best of my recollection - those are phones that were included in that.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Bernard L. Barker
Senator ERVIN. Now every time that you arranged anything with your commanding officer, Mr. Hunt stayed at a distance, so if anybody was caught in the break-in he would not be one of them? Mr. BARKER. I didn't understand that question. Senator ERVIN. Mr. Hunt arranged for the break-ins and then when the time came for breaking in he decided that discretion was the better part of valor and he sent somebody else into danger and stayed away himself. Mr. BARKER. Senator Ervin, I have the highest concept, personal concept of Mr. Hunt and Mr. Liddy, sir. I say this with all respect to you and the respect I owe my superior. Senator ERVIN. But he stayed at a distance, didn't he, every time? When you broke into the Watergate every time and when you broke into the psychiatrist's office Mr. Hunt arranged for the breaking in but he never endangered himself, he never placed himself in a position where e would be arrested at the break-in, isn't that so? Mr. BARKER. Yes, I guess in a way that is correct. Senator ERVIN. I ve always heard that discretion is the better part of valor. Any other questions?
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Bernard L. Barker
Senator ERVIN. You say that Mr. Hunt had not told you to keep silent. Had Mr. Hunt told you to keep silent would you have kept silent and not told us about it? Mr. BARKER. Had Mr. Hunt told me to keep silent? Senator ERVIN. Yes, sir. Mr. BARKER. In what sir? Senator ERVIN. If he had told you to keep silent would you have kept silent and not told us that he had told you to keep silent? [Laughter.] Mr. BARKER. That is a very confusing statement, sir. [Laughter.] Senator ERVIN. Any further questions, if not, the witness is excused. Thank you, Mr. Barker, for your testimony. He is excused.
Watergate Hearings: Senate Select Committee Hearings on Presidential Campaign Activities, May 24, 1973 - Testimony of Bernard L. Barker
Senator ERVIN. Did you have something further you want to say? Mr. BARKER. Yes, sir. I think it is only fair before I leave here to say that in a certain way the things that I have said do not represent me as a person. I am part of a team of men of whom I am very proud to have been associated with. Mainly I am speaking of my three associates from Miami. I think I have given a general description of Mr. Martinez. It is only fair now to state that Mr. Frank Sturgis, who by birth was Frank Fiorini, is a devoted anti-communist fighter, who was - who has fought against dictatorship, not only of the left but of the right. That he was the first person to turn against Castro after helping him with his revolution. That he has made innumerable raids over Cuba. That he had been captured in a Honduras Government-by the Honduras Government trying to infiltrate Cuba. That Mr. Gonzales was a member of the OA, Organizaeion Authentica which - with an extensive background in the underground in Cuba. That all of these men are devoted family men who feel very deeply in a cause, and that I am not here as a person, but as a part of a team. That it would be unfair, in my concept, that these men were considered in anything but in the true light of the things that they believe in. That we all outside of reprimands by in some cases of Mr. Fiorini for having acted in these matters, our greatest previous crime before the Watergate were just simple traffic violations. That we are not criminal elements. That the word as a newspaper recently said, we are the world's best known burglars, the word burglar , we ll have to live with. That we resent, very emotionally - the word, that we were hired. There was no need to buy our silence. We are not for sale. And that this must be said because this represents our feelings. By this I don't mean that we are perfect, that we are not full of all sorts of defects as persons, that we consider ourselves superior beings to anyone. We are just plain people that very deeply believed that Cuba has a right to be independent. Thank you. Senator ERVIN. The witness is excused, subject to be recalled later by the committee in case the committee sees fit to do so. Thank you very much Mr Barker.