Bernard Barker
{{Short description|Central Intelligence Agency officer (1917–2009)}}
{{For|the British philatelist|Bernard Leslie Barker}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bernard Barker
| image = Frank Sturgis and Bernard Barker, 1960 and 1972.jpg
| caption = Frank Sturgis and Bernard Barker (r), 1960 (top) and 1972
| birth_name = Bernard Leon Barker
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1917|3|17}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|6|5|1917|3|17}}
| death_place = Miami, Florida, US
| occupation = military, agent
| nationality = Cuban/American
| URL =
}}
{{Watergate|People}}
Bernard Leon Barker (March 17, 1917 – June 5, 2009) was a Watergate burglar and undercover operative in CIA-directed plots to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Early life
Barker was born in Havana, to a Russian American father of Jewish descent{{cite news |last=Carlson |first=Michael |date=June 7, 2009 |title=Bernard Barker |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/08/bernard-barker-obituary |work=The Guardian |access-date=June 1, 2017}} and a Cuban mother. Therefore, Barker was a dual citizen of Cuba and the United States.{{cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-bernard-barker6-2009jun06,0,6871098.story |title=Bernard Barker dies at 92; Watergate burglar was a CIA operative |date=June 6, 2009 |access-date=2009-09-08 |work=Los Angeles Times}} At the age of 16, Barker joined the ABC, a revolutionary group opposed to then president Gerardo Machado y Morales. It was during this period that he acquired the nickname "Macho". Worried by these developments, Barker's father sent him to live in the United States. In 1935 Barker became an American citizen, but he returned to Cuba in order to study at the University of Havana.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}
World War II
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, triggering US entry into World War II, Barker joined the United States Army Air Forces, where he became a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress crewman and a Second lieutenant bombardier. On his thirteenth combat mission, he was shot down on a bombing raid to Braunschweig, Germany, February 10, 1944. The Germans held him as a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft I in Barth. The Red Army liberated the camp on May 2, 1945.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}
Undercover agent
After the war, Barker returned to Cuba and joined the secret police under Fulgencio Batista.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/08/bernard-barker-obituary |title=Obituary: Bernard Barker |date=8 June 2009 |work=The Guardian |access-date=2010-04-10 | location=London | first=Michael | last=Carlson}} He was later recruited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and worked for them as an undercover agent. He also did work for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} He joined the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8086738.stm |title=Watergate burglar dies in Florida |access-date=2009-09-08 |date=6 June 2009 |publisher=BBC}}
Joins White House plumbers
In September 1971, his former CIA superior, E. Howard Hunt, recruited him for the "Plumbers", the Nixon White House's "Special Investigations Unit". He was recruited by Hunt to find background information on Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg was under watch for leaking the "Pentagon Papers", a series of articles featured in The New York Times in 1971 detailing U.S. government secrets concerning the Vietnam War's history. Along with Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, Barker broke into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist, Dr. Lewis J. Fielding, in Los Angeles. The mission's purpose was to find discrediting information on Ellsberg. The mission was completed, but largely unsuccessful in finding any damaging information about Ellsberg.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}
In 1972, Barker was one of the five burglars paid by the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP), Nixon's re-election campaign fundraising committee, for a break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, and subsequently was convicted in the Watergate scandal. The others were Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez and James McCord. Along with the other Watergate burglars, G. Gordon Liddy, and E. Howard Hunt, Barker was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, wiretapping, planting electronic surveillance equipment, and theft of documents. Hunt claimed that Barker gave testimony, corroborating his assertion to the Senate Watergate Committee, that the reason they broke in was they were told by Liddy to search for evidence of clandestine financial contributions being received from foreign powers, such as Cuba.
Barker also worked with CRP to get money which went into the Nixon campaign coffers off the books; it was via his bank account that $25,000 from Archer Daniels Midland Chief Executive Dwayne Andreas was obtained by CRP in violation of campaign finance laws.
{{cite news
|title=Bugged Embassy in Moscow Gets Chance for a New Life
|first=Thomas L. |last=Friedman |author-link=Thomas L. Friedman
|access-date=2009-09-08 |date= January 27, 1989 |work=The New York Times |location=New York, New York
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/27/world/bugged-embassy-in-moscow-gets-chance-for-a-new-life.html
}}
{{cite news
|title=Richard E. Gerstein, Dead at 68; Prosecuted Key Watergate Figure
|first=Steven Lee |last=Myers |author-link=Steven Lee Myers
|access-date=2009-09-08 |date=April 27, 1992 |work=The New York Times |location=New York, New York
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/27/us/richard-e-gerstein-dead-at-68-prosecuted-key-watergate-figure.html
}}
On March 7, 1974, Barker, along with Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, Liddy, Martinez, and Felipe de Diego, was indicted for the Ellsberg burglary.{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19740307&id=Bf0qAAAAIBAJ&sjid=c9oFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6800,1496716&hl=en |title = Beaver County Times - Google News Archive Search}} Barker was released pending appeal after serving one year of a two-and-a-half to six-year sentence.
Later life and death
After Barker's release from prison, he worked as a building inspector for the city of Miami, Florida, earning $18,512 per year. He chose early retirement in 1982 rather than fight proceedings seeking his dismissal for loafing on the job.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/28/nyregion/notes-on-people-bernard-barker-to-retire-from-miami-job-early.html|title=NOTES ON PEOPLE - Bernard Barker to Retire From Miami Job Early - NYTimes.com|newspaper=The New York Times |date=28 January 1982|last1=Krebs |first1=Albin |last2=Thomas |first2=Robert McG. Jr }}
President Jimmy Carter denied him a pardon.
{{cite news
|title=Ehrlichman Seeks a Pardon for Watergate Crimes
|access-date=2009-09-08 |date=August 15, 1987 |work=The New York Times |location=New York, New York
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/15/us/ehrlichman-seeks-a-pardon-for-watergate-crimes.html
|agency=AP
|quote=Two of the burglars of the Democratic headquarters, Bernard L. Barker and Frank Sturgis, were denied pardons by President Carter.}}
Barker died of lung cancer in his Miami home on June 5, 2009, aged 92. His fourth wife, Dora Maria Barker, survived him.
Barker was portrayed in All the President's Men, the 1976 film retelling the events of the Watergate scandal, by Henry Calvert.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|Biography}}
- [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/5470205/Bernard-Barker.html Bernard Barker] – Daily Telegraph obituary
- {{findagrave|37986335}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Bernard}}
Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II
Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Category:Deaths from lung cancer in Florida
Category:Cuban emigrants to the United States
Category:Military personnel from Florida
Category:United States Army Air Forces officers
Category:University of Havana alumni
Category:People convicted in the Watergate scandal
Category:American prisoners of war in World War II
Category:World War II prisoners of war held by Germany
Category:American anti-communists