White House Plumbers

The White House Plumbers or simply The Plumbers is the popular name given to the covert Nixon White House Special Investigations Unit established July 24, 1971. Its job was to stop the leaking of confidential information (hence the "Plumbers" title) to the media during the Nixon administration. Its members branched into more nefarious projects working for the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP, or the more derogatory CREEP) including the Watergate break-ins.

Members

The Plumbers came to include several Watergate figures. E. Howard Hunt was recommended by Colson and G. Gordon Liddy was recommended by Krogh. Liddy coined his own sensitivity indicator for the group in the form of "ODESSA" for "Organization Directed to Eliminate the Subversion of the Secrets of the Administration".{{fn|4}} The name reflects Liddy's admiration for German-style intelligence operations as ODESSA was also the name of a Nazi fugitive network.

Related Topics:
E. Howard Hunt - G. Gordon Liddy - Sensitivity indicator - German - ODESSA - Nazi

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another member of the group was its liaison to the CIA, John Paisley. In recent years Paisley's involvement has led to speculation the CIA had a far greater hand in the operations of the Plumbers than originally thought at the time. What is known is Paisley was assigned to the CIA's Office of Security (OS), of which Hunt was once a member. An August 9, 1971, David Young memo indicates he met with Paisley and OS Director Howard Osborn in which Paisley provided a list of objectives for the Special Investigations Unit {{fn|5}}-- a clear indication the CIA had a heavy role in identifying objectives and providing assistance to the Plumbers.

Related Topics:
CIA - John Paisley - Office of Security (OS) - August 9 - Howard Osborn

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~