Bernard Barker was telling people in Miami that “something is going to happen at the time of the conventions.” He was then planning demonstrations in approval of Nixon’s bombing of Haiphong Harbor.
Barker and a secret team of seven men went to Miami to hire provocateurs for a New York demonstration in May. Four of this team were arrested at the Watergate Hotel. Three men were in Miami at the time, and one left the country because, according to the New York Times, he was “headed for trouble.”
Money to pay for street scenes and fights with police and radicals came from the same money man, Bernard Barker, who served as the conduit of funds for the Bay of Pigs invasion. This time Barker was handing out crisp, consecutive CIA $100 bills that came to Miami’s Republican National Bank, from a secret source in Mexico, via a secret source in Chile. ITT.
James McCord, Chief of Security for the Committee to Re-elect Richard Nixon, and Chief of Security for the republican National Committee, was paid for the Watergate job with the same funds that hired street altercations.
Bernard Barker’s wife said that her husband had not been active with the Cuban community for five years. She was surprised he was arrested working with that group again.
That observation fits in with the “Squad 19” plan which was arranged for San Diego. When the convention was moved to Miami, a whole new group of street people would have to set the milieu for confrontations. Some persons could be imported. Local varieties would be better.
One man in Miami was offered $700 “CIA money” to demonstrate on the streets in August for the republican Convention.
Bernard Barker handed out $30,000 to the Watergate boys for hotel expenses and elaborate equipment: $10,000 went to Washington provocations where a few people were supposedly shot.
Frank Sturgis was planning demonstrations for the republican Convention. Even the law enforcement people in Miami thought that was strange. According to the Washington Post:
“Law enforcement officials predicted the Cuban exiles would demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention to express opposition to any proposals for better relations with the Castro regime. But they were confused and found no solid explanation of why Sturgis and Martinez were seeking rooms for the republican convention, rooms for which the party has no need.”
Two private Catholic colleges received a call from Sturgis asking for “lodging in August for Young Republicans.” He was working with the head of the College Republicans, a kid named Karl Rove. Sturgis left with them his phone number at Bernard Barker’s real estate office. Sturgis also called Barry College, said he was an “organizer” and wanted rooms for 200 places.
Where were these Young Republicans coming from? Douglas Caddy, attorney for the men arrested, was co-founder of Young Americans for Freedom.
Eugenio Martinez, real estate partner of Barker, was making his own reservations to bring in Young Republicans — about 3,000 of them — for convention time. Depending upon the background, training, beliefs of a para-military, religious, violently anti-communist element, there is no way of telling if Martinez, Barker and Sturgis were planning to import trouble.
If they hired provocateurs for the Washington demonstrations in May, who were they making these Miami reservations for in August? Virgilio Gonzales and Martinez were closely associated with the well-trained military veterans of the Bay of Pigs. Following their defeat in 1961, Cuban exiles moved to Fort Jackson, South Carolina in 1963.
This group of guerrilla warriors, armed with modern warfare hardware, were trained and have been held together with a singular purpose in mind since 1963. Their job is always to fight left-wing troublemakers.
Angel Ferrer was not arrested, but he was named as being one of the men who stayed with the group at the Watergate Hotel. Ferrer trained at Fort Jackson with Ex-Combatientes, the veterans of the Bay of Pigs. He was active with the exile Cuban community in Miami and had Washington contacts. Ferrer was supposed to have offered direct action to combat left-wing causes in the U.S.
Arrested with James McCord were political extremists, violently anticommunist intelligence agents. They were all planning convention demonstrations. Each of these men would make McCord’s job more difficult in Miami unless they were working as a team for another purpose.
James McCord, Chief of Security for the Republican Convention in Miami, was not only arrested with members of a secret team well financed to hire provocateurs. But, as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve, and with 19 years of CIA employment behind him, McCord sat with a special 16-man unit concerned with plans and preparedness, which is part of the executive office of the President. This Unit’s purpose was concerned with radicals and contingency plans for the radicals.
Both Captain R. Franz, Navy Reserves, and James Landis, retired Army colonel, spoke of McCord’s work with this Unit, which included control of the news media and U.S. mail.
Louis Tackwood said that the number he had to call, as part of the “Squad 19” plans, was named “White” — which is the alias Howard Hunt used as White House consultant to Richard Nixon.
McCord’s walkie-talkies at the Watergate were similar to the radio frequencies of Howard Hunt’s walkie-talkies in the White House.
All the elements necessary for “Squad 19” were assembled. Five men, skilled in cloak-and-dagger intelligence operations, all with CIA experience, veterans of the Bay of Pigs together, heavily and secretly financed, connected to military troops waiting for “direct combat” against radicals and left-wing, were dining together and living at the Watergate Hotel at the time they were all arrested in one bag.